Executor or Power of Attorney Living Abroad

brianh

This answer to this question is probably obvious but hopefully any answers will underline what I think I should do.

My wife and I wrote out our mirror wills (DIY but I believe it is sound) many years ago. The wills were simple with our children inheriting equally on the death of the second of us. We made one of our children then living nearby the executor (they appear/ed to have the correct characteristics for the job). The "executor" now lives in Australia but we have been relaxed about that for will purposes.
Now as we near 70 we are thinking about PofA (although we are both appear in good health)and although we have one child living nearby, we are not convinced of their abilities to handle things.
Since the original will, we have moved into IHT territory.
So it seems we need to review our thinking.

Am I right in thinking that a PofA needs to live in the UK for practical reasons though we could leave the will Executor as is as they can manage affairs still perhaps with the help of family and a professional here.

Any opinions welcome as I find the subject incredibly difficult to navigate through.

HB58

I have LPA for my mother and have just started to take over her affairs on a more formal basis.

I had to go to the bank with proof of identity to arrange for a bank card that I could use (legitimately).

I would imagine that things would be very complicated (and possibly expensive if needing trips back to UK to do things) if the attorney were in a different country!

Yorkshireman99

brianh wrote: »

This answer to this question is probably obvious but hopefully any answers will underline what I think I should do.

My wife and I wrote out our mirror wills (DIY but I believe it is sound) many years ago. The wills were simple with our children inheriting equally on the death of the second of us. We made one of our children then living nearby the executor (they appear/ed to have the correct characteristics for the job). The "executor" now lives in Australia but we have been relaxed about that for will purposes.
Now as we near 70 we are thinking about PofA (although we are both appear in good health)and although we have one child living nearby, we are not convinced of their abilities to handle things.
Since the original will, we have moved into IHT territory.
So it seems we need to review our thinking.

Am I right in thinking that a PofA needs to live in the UK for practical reasons though we could leave the will Executor as is as they can manage affairs still perhaps with the help of family and a professional here.

Any opinions welcome as I find the subject incredibly difficult to navigate through.

If the wills were done some years ago they need urgent reviewing. In any case DIY wills are potentially disastrous. The first thing is to get new wills produced by a solicitor so that your current circumstances can be taken into account. Do not use a will writer or an online service. LPOAs need to be done. You can fill them in online and save yourself a bundle. Having UK resident executors and attornies is crucial for purely practical reasons regardless of the legal position.

Keep_pedalling

For practical purposes you attorney(s) need to be UK based.

You should really start looking at some inheritance planning if your estate is over £1M (which will be the combined nil rate band, once the main residence allowence has fully kicked in).

brianh

I "posted a response" earlier but perhaps I forgot to press the post button. I'll try to recall what I said.

Thanks for the replies which have helped to chrystalise my thoughts.
I will go about getting a new solicitor will produced with the idea that both children would be named as joint executors(they get on well fortunately).

The LPoA still gives me a problem but might take a small gamble on our health and leave it for a couple of years and hope family matters change to make the choice easier.

I'm not keen on complicated and fee driven IHT planning and actually my only gripe on IHT is that the rate is far too high (I wonder where the government would get more tax if rate was say 20-25%).
So at moment my IHT planning will mostly consist of spending and giving away (mostly to children). I may look at Bare Trusts for grandchildren.

This is not set in stone and may change as more advice/thoughts are received (family, solicitor, forum, research).

Yorkshireman99

brianh wrote: »

I "posted a response" earlier but perhaps I forgot to press the post button. I'll try to recall what I said.

Thanks for the replies which have helped to chrystalise my thoughts.
I will go about getting a new solicitor will produced with the idea that both children would be named as joint executors(they get on well fortunately).

The LPoA still gives me a problem but might take a small gamble on our health and leave it for a couple of years and hope family matters change to make the choice easier.

I'm not keen on complicated and fee driven IHT planning and actually my only gripe on IHT is that the rate is far too high (I wonder where the government would get more tax if rate was say 20-25%).
So at moment my IHT planning will mostly consist of spending and giving away (mostly to children). I may look at Bare Trusts for grandchildren.

This is not set in stone and may change as more advice/thoughts are received (family, solicitor, forum, research).

Don't be too cynical about getting some advice on IHT planning. Remember that some gifts can attract IHT. A few hundred pounds spent with a Step qualified solicitor can save far more in potential IHT. In particular trusts are a minefield for the unwary.

troubleinparadise

A word of caution re LPA - you may be in good health at present, and only think you might need it in the extreme case of dementia, and why should that happen to you?

A friend's husband in his early 50s, running his own business, fit, healthy non-smoking, barely drinking etc had a catastrophic stroke, leaving him unable to speak, or write, or work any longer.

There was no POA in place, and so Deputyship was applied for, taking 4 months.

In the meantime, she couldn't deal with his bank finances, credit cards, his business (with employees etc), the car, household bills, the mortgage.. And the list went on.

The stress on her was enormous, along with her worries about her husband.

So please don't leave your LPA too long - none of us know what is round the corner....

Keep_pedalling

I would not delay the LPA, things like strokes or accidents can leave anyone incapacitated without warning. Being an attorney is not that difficult, but dealing with an incapacitated parent's finances when you don't have an attorney in place can be an absolute nightmare and can get very expensive.

My attitude to IHT is much like yours, we have simply gifted some of our surplus assets to family and charities, but we have also put insurance in place to pay out if we die early to cover tax on gifts under 7 years old.

Our estate will still have IHT to pay unless we both have to spend a good few years in a care home in which case the care home fees will be off set by a reduction in IHT.

brianh

troubleinparadise wrote: »

A word of caution re LPA - you may be in good health at present, and only think you might need it in the extreme case of dementia, and why should that happen to you?

A friend's husband in his early 50s, running his own business, fit, healthy non-smoking, barely drinking etc had a catastrophic stroke, leaving him unable to speak, or write, or work any longer.

There was no POA in place, and so Deputyship was applied for, taking 4 months.


In the meantime, she couldn't deal with his bank finances, credit cards, his business (with employees etc), the car, household bills, the mortgage.. And the list went on.

The stress on her was enormous, along with her worries about her husband.

So please don't leave your LPA too long - none of us know what is round the corner....

I understand the issues though our situation is not as bad as your example as the division of our non-joint finances are fairly equally split. However, I'm now considering, after the advice here, setting up a less than ideal LPoA which will provide security at least in the short term though may be needed to be superceded at a later date.

Not one who finds sharing these types of issues online easy but the process is definitely helping me.