Wills and estate planning

ourkidsidmse

Just had a phone appointment and have no idea if the advisor was charging a fair price. We paid £50 for a will writing service and after discussion it was recommended we have some form of protection trusts included to protect our estate and childrens inheritance incase care home fees are needed in the future. We were going to be charged an additional £700 to include this extra trust protection written into the will, does this sound a reasonable charge? We already paid the £50 and was told a 14 day cooling off period started when we paid this fee (just over 14 days ago), so if we don't do the will we will lose the £50. Any advice around the charges would be appreciated, thanks.

tacpot12

Setting up a trust specifically to avoid care home fees probably won't work. You could well be paying £700 for nothing. You also need to consider that morally wrong to expect the state to pay for your care, when you can afford it yourself, just so you can give more money to your children. Add in the fact that if the state is paying, you get put where there is space, not where is best for you, and so this approach probably isn't in your best interests. Funny how these shysters recommend actions that will have no downside for them... 

£50 for the wills is too cheap. It's low for a reason - probably to ensnare you in a £700 money for nothing scam. 

Browntoa

Councils can challenge trusts under "deprivation of assets" rules if it's suspected it's been done to avoid care home fees.

There may be ways to do it but you need to find a proper estate planning expert , not some dodgy "will writing" company using cut and paste paperwork. .

If trusts and estate planning are done wrong you can actually end up exposing the estate to greater tax liabilities

DairyQueen

Let me guess? The will-writers are suggesting themselves as trustees? And as executors?

That is quite possibly the worst 50 quid you have ever spent. Entrusting unqualified people with something as important as this for the sake of a couple of hundred is, frankly, madness.

Get yourself to a solicitor and do the job properly. You have two hopes of avoiding care home fees using some cack-handed trust: no hope and Bob Hope.

ourkidsidmse

DairyQueen said:

Let me guess? The will-writers are suggesting themselves as trustees? And as executors?

That is quite possibly the worst 50 quid you have ever spent. Entrusting unqualified people with something as important as this for the sake of a couple of hundred is, frankly, madness.

Get yourself to a solicitor and do the job properly. You have two hopes of avoiding care home fees using some cack-handed trust: no hope and Bob Hope.

yes they did suggest using them as professional executors, we are in our 40's so it shouldn't look like deprivation of assets. what about this 14 day cooling off period can it really start when we paid and not when we were given the advice?

NottinghamKnight

ourkidsidmse said:

DairyQueen said:

Let me guess? The will-writers are suggesting themselves as trustees? And as executors?

That is quite possibly the worst 50 quid you have ever spent. Entrusting unqualified people with something as important as this for the sake of a couple of hundred is, frankly, madness.

Get yourself to a solicitor and do the job properly. You have two hopes of avoiding care home fees using some cack-handed trust: no hope and Bob Hope.

yes they did suggest using them as professional executors, we are in our 40's so it shouldn't look like deprivation of assets. what about this 14 day cooling off period can it really start when we paid and not when we were given the advice?

This is quite a crazy thing to do. Cancel this probably best to approach a local solicitors to get proper wills drawn up, it may cost a few hundred but your putting your whole financial inheritance at risk by doing this, just google universal wealth preservation trust to read about the potential consequences. 

Silvertabby

DairyQueen said:

Let me guess? The will-writers are suggesting themselves as trustees? And as executors?

That is quite possibly the worst 50 quid you have ever spent. Entrusting unqualified people with something as important as this for the sake of a couple of hundred is, frankly, madness.

Get yourself to a solicitor and do the job properly. You have two hopes of avoiding care home fees using some cack-handed trust: no hope and Bob Hope.

....and Bob Hope is dead.

Tealblue

ourkidsidmse said:

We paid £50 for a will writing service and after discussion it was recommended we have some form of protection trusts included to protect our estate and childrens inheritance incase care home fees are needed in the future. We were going to be charged an additional £700 to include this extra trust protection written into the will, does this sound a reasonable charge? 

There seems to be a gap in the logic somewhere. If this 'protection' is written into your will, it will only come into force when you are dead, so why would you need care home fees then?

LHW99

Also you are in your 40's, so likely to need to review your will / arrangements several times in the future.

Solicitors will arrange simple "Mirror wills" for you / your spouse for maybe a couple of hundred pounds, and if things are really hard, there are periodic charity "free wills" offers, where a local firm do it in exchange for a charitable donation.

Surely if you agreed with them to write the will for £50, then they should write it for that payment, period. Anything beyond is a new request. Better to lose the £50 if not IMO

Mickey666

. . . . ‘It was recommended’ to have some sort of trust.  Fair enough, but as it’s only a recommendation then presumably there is the option not to accept the recommendation.  After all, a will is supposed to encapsulate the desires of the person concerned, not of their advisors. 

I would politely decline their kind offer of setting up a trust for £700 and insist they stick to writing a basic will . . . Assuming that’s what the OP really wants.

Albermarle

Also take into account that the majority of people never end up in a care home and the majority of those that do , often do not stay that long........