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The  Wills & Probate Consumer Research Report 2018 , undertaken by IRN Research  and Orchard Reports, recently found that six out of ten people who use the services of Will-writers do not know that their work is unregulated. Whilst using the...

Business Property Relief (BPR) reduces the value of a business or its assets for the purposes of calculating Inheritance Tax (IHT). You may be able to claim BPR at a rate of either 50 or 100% on certain business assets of an estate. However, according...

A Lasting Power of Attorney (“LPA”) is a legal document that lets you appoint one or more people as your attorneys to help you make decisions or to make decisions on your behalf. It is a very powerful and wide-reaching document. There are two...

The Public Guardian recently brought several test cases which highlight the importance of correctly drafting a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA). An LPA is a legal document that lets you as the donor appoint people to be your attorneys to help you make...

There are several steps you need to follow if you are administering the estate of someone who has died whilst holding foreign assets which are not dealt with by a Will in that country. You will usually need to provide the following documents to the...

On the 5th November 2018, Justice Minister Lucy Frazer MP announced an increase in probate fees from April 2019. A grant of probate is a court order obtained by the executors which provides the authority to deal with the estate of someone who has died....

In the recent case of Gelber v Sunderland Foundation and others [2018] EWHC 2344 (Ch), [2018] All ER (D) 31 (Sep), the High Court granted new powers to trustees under the Trustee Act 1925 (the “Act”). Where the trust document does not give...

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (the Ombudsman) has asked South Gloucestershire Council (the Council) to apologise to a couple after deciding they intentionally deprived themselves of capital to reduce care fees. If you require care, your...

A recent report by Co-Op Legal Services shows that charitable gifts included in Wills have increased by 30% in the past year. The report indicates that just 6% of the UK population bequest money to charities in their Wills, but this equated to legacies of...

Statistics recently provided by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) indicate that life expectancy in the UK has stopped improving for the first time since figures were first recorded in 1982. Since this time, life expectancy has increased by...