Wealth Protection FAQs

A Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) is a legal document that lets you (the ‘donor’) appoint one or more people (known as ‘Attorneys’) to help you make decisions or to make decisions on your behalf.

This gives you more control over what happens to you if, for example, you have an accident or an illness and can’t make decisions at the time they need to be made (you ‘lack mental capacity’).

A Lasting Power of Attorney is a completely separate legal document to your Will – although many people put them in place at the same time as getting their Will written as part of wanting to plan for the future.

There are two types of Lasting Power of Attorney available:

A Property and Financial Affairs Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) which allows you to name Attorneys to deal with all your property and financial assets in England and Wales. The Lasting Power of Attorney document can be restricted so it can only be used if you were to lose mental capacity, or it can be used more widely, such as if you suffer from illness, have mobility issues, or if you spend time outside the UK.

A Health and Welfare Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) which allows you to name Attorneys to make decisions about your healthcare, treatments and living arrangements if you lose the ability to make those decisions yourself. Unlike the Property and Financial Affairs LPA, this document will only ever become effective if you lack the mental capacity to make decisions for yourself.

There are two different types of Lasting Power of Attorney:

Property and Financial Affairs Lasting Power of Attorney. This allows your nominated Attorney(s) to take decisions on your behalf relating to money and property. This can include paying your bills but may also give them the power to make bigger decisions such as selling your home.

Health and Welfare Lasting Power of Attorney. This allows your appointed Attorney to make decisions on your behalf relating to your medical treatment and social and nursing care.

The two LPAs exist independently of each other and you can choose to make one or both. In addition, you do not need to appoint the same Attorneys for both LPAs, although most people do.

Once you have a Lasting Power of Attorney in place you can have peace of mind that there is someone you trust (someone you have chosen) to look after your affairs if you became unable to do so yourself during your lifetime. This may occur, for example, due to illness, disability, old age or an accident.

Many people aren’t aware that their spouse, partner, children or next of kin have no automatic legal right to manage their affairs without an LPA in place and this can leave the next of kin unable to make the necessary decisions or access assets, manage investments or sell property, when this action is needed.

You can only make an LPA when you have mental capacity. If you lose capacity then, in order for someone to obtain legal authority over your affairs, that person would need to apply to the Court of Protection and the Court will decide on the person to be appointed to manage your affairs. The person chosen is appointed your ‘Deputy’. This is a very different type of appointment which is significantly more involved and costly than being appointed Attorney under an LPA. The Deputy will need to submit a yearly account to the Court and there are yearly court fees to pay as well as an insurance bond. The Court of Protection process currently takes around six months, during which time no one can use your funds to pay for things you may need.

When you make an LPA you can appoint more than one person as your Attorney. If you have more than one Attorney, then you can specify whether they should act together or independently and there are pros and cons to both options. You can also appoint replacement Attorneys who can step in if your main Attorney becomes unable to act for any reason.

A trust company can also be appointed as an Attorney. Although this type of appointment will incur some costs, having a trust company as an Attorney is very beneficial in certain circumstances as it provides a professional and independent approach whilst ensuring a person is never left without a capable Attorney in place.

Your LPA can impose restrictions on your Attorneys or simply give them guidance that will not be legally binding.

All LPAs need to be signed by a Certificate Provider who is an independent person confirming that you understand the document you are making and that no one has put pressure on you.

The document needs to be registered with the Office of the Public Guardian before it can be used and people choose to do this at different times, depending on how the document may be needed. The registration fee is £82 per document.

If you wish to have peace of mind that a particular person will have the legal authority to look after your affairs and you want to make matters easier for them and the process less expensive, then you should strongly consider making a Lasting Power of Attorney.

A Lasting Power of Attorney enables you to choose who you wish to have the responsibility for managing your affairs if you become incapable of doing so yourself. In addition, within the body of the LPA you can provide guidance on how you want your affairs to be managed if you were to become incapable of managing them yourself.

It is appropriate for a person of any age to consider making an LPA. Illness or accidents can strike at any time and render you incapable of managing your own affairs. Should the unexpected happen, it is a wise precaution to have the legal mechanisms in place in order for people to step in and make decisions on your behalf should you be unable to do so.

It becomes especially important to consider making a Lasting Power of Attorney as you get older. Although advances in medicine mean that people are generally living longer, doctors cannot always prevent declines in a person’s physical or mental state as we age. Having an LPA in place means that people you trust can begin to manage your affairs in accordance with your wishes if you become unable to make those decisions for yourself.

There is no age limit or restriction in setting up a Home Protection Trust.  However, they are usually better suited to those over 60 and in their last or last but one home.

Yes, whilst the property is legally owned by the trust, you are the beneficiary of the trust for life.  You have a guaranteed right of residence and under no circumstances can the trustees evict you from the property during your lifetime.

You also retain the power to direct the trustees to sell your current property and purchase a new property of your choosing. In the event you purchase a more expensive property then advice should be sought.

You can use the trust to provide an opportunity to formally recognise the contribution, love, care and/or sacrifice which a family member or other person has made for you without the risks involved with an outright gift.

You can have the pleasure of seeing arrangements put in place to pass your property to your children or other beneficiaries during your lifetime.

You can have peace of mind in knowing that your assets can be preserved and passed on to your chosen beneficiaries after your death. The beneficiaries and terms of your trust can be directed and approved by you and the trust will already be set up before you die.

You can ensure that your property can be sold or transferred without the need to obtain a Grant of Representation or without the need to have the lengthy wait for a Grant of Representation to be issued. The Trustees can sign all the paperwork to make the transaction smooth and straightforward.

You can avoid problems and disputes relating to the distribution of assets on death. Claims against estates are on the rise so taking your property out of your estate can help avoid your property being caught up in any future litigation after your death.

You can feel reassured that any paperwork relating to property ownership will be dealt with by your trustees.  This is hugely beneficial if your mental capacity becomes compromised.

You can ensure that you are able to remain in your property for long as you wish. If you wish to relocate or downsize your property then you can.  You are not restricted in any way.

If your property is sold or if you no longer live there, you are entitled to any income produced from any proceeds of sale or any rental income.

Your property will not personally belong to your trustees and it does not form part of their estates. You can be assured that the property will not be available to their creditors or any other claimants they may have against their estates in the future.

Yes, a Home Protection Trust is applicable to both married couples and single owners.

There are a number of potential risks of gifting a property including:

•   Bankruptcy or financial issues faced by your children, putting your property at risk
•   Divorce or dissolution of civil partnership – In the event of a relationship breakdown, your property may become a consideration in the division of assets.
•   Your child pre-deceases you. In the event that your child pre-deceases you, the property may pass to another beneficiary and not in line with your wishes
•   Finance/Sale of Property. The property will be the asset of your children, enabling them to sell or raise finance against your home.
•   Whilst ‘gifting’ a property opens you up to each of these issues plus a number of other potential problems, a Home Protection Trust prevents such issues.

There are a number of ways to save time and money during probate by using a Deed of Variation. Some beneficiaries will use this to redirect their inheritance directly to their children, so that the inheritance skips a generation and is only liable for Inheritance Tax once.

A Deed of Variation can also be used to change the way the estate is divided and potentially save Inheritance Tax in that way. This might include donating a certain proportion to charity, for example.

The effect of a Deed of Variation is such that the original beneficiary can redirect the legacy or entitlement to a third party without any tax consequences for the original beneficiary.

This allows the terms of the Deed of Variation to be written back into the Will (or alter the Intestacy rules) for Inheritance Tax & Capital Gains tax purposes as though the new gift had been made by the deceased.

There are a number of reasons one might wish to make a variation, for example, to make provision for someone who was excluded from the Will, to take account of differences in the financial position of beneficiaries, or to simply pass assets on to the next generation. Of course there may also be fiscal reasons for considering a variation. Although death itself is a certainty its timing is far less so and, if a number of years (and Budgets!) have passed since a Will was put in place, it is entirely possible that the Will may be far less tax efficient at death than it was when originally done.

The variation must be in writing and, although HM Revenue and Customs suggest a letter would suffice, a formal deed is usually prepared. There are many strict conditions to be met for a Deed of Variation to be valid. Some examples are:

•   the variation must be made within two years of the death
•   it must clearly identify the part of the estate being varied, and who is to benefit from the variation
•   it must be signed by all the beneficiaries who ‘lose out’ by the variation
•   it must include a statement, in a prescribed form, that the beneficiaries intend the variation to be effective for IHT and/or Capital Gains Tax (CGT) purposes
•   it is effective from date of death and IHT is worked out taking account of the variation. For CGT purposes, the beneficiaries are treated as acquiring assets at their date of death value and not their current value

The retrospective treatment, from death, of a variation is an obvious advantage and an effective form of estate planning. However, a variation also affords a beneficiary a degree of control if, say, family circumstances have materially changed since the Will was made and they wish redirect all, or part, of their entitlement in an estate to benefit another or, perhaps, a charity or a trust.

Deeds of Variation do, of course, have their place, but it is important always to be mindful of changes not only in your family circumstances, but also in current tax laws, both of which may trigger the need for you to review your Will.

Inheritance tax (IHT) is a tax paid on the estate of a person who has died. The estate includes all assets like property, money, investments and possessions.

In the UK, the threshold for paying inheritance tax is £325,000. However, if your estate is worth more than this, you will need to pay tax at the rate of 40% on the excess amount. If you are worried about leaving a large IHT bill for your loved ones, Price Slater Gawne can help you to decide which inheritance tax planning strategies are right for your individual circumstances.

Inheritance tax starts when the value of the estate left by the deceased person exceeds the threshold, which is currently set at £325,000. This means that if the estate is worth less than this amount, there will be no IHT to pay. However, if the value of the estate is above the threshold, IHT will be due at a rate of 40% on the amount that exceeds the threshold. For example, if the estate is worth £500,000, IHT would be payable on £175,000, which is the amount above the threshold. There are certain exemptions and reliefs that may be available to reduce IHT liability, which is why it’s important to discuss your circumstances with professionals.

If you are worried about leaving a large IHT bill for your loved ones, there are various inheritance tax planning strategies that you can use. These include:

1. Make a Will: Making a will is the first step in inheritance tax planning. If you don’t have a will, your estate will be distributed according to the intestacy laws, which may not be in line with your wishes. Find out more about Complex Wills here.
2. Make gifts: You can make gifts of up to £3,000 per year without incurring IHT. You can also make smaller gifts up to £250 to as many people as you like. Gifts made more than seven years before your death are exempt from IHT.
3. Use trusts: A trust is a legal arrangement where you transfer assets to a trustee who manages them for the benefit of the beneficiaries. Trusts can be used to reduce IHT by taking assets out of your estate. Lifetime trusts, also known as property protection trusts or asset protection trusts, are established straight away.
4. Take out life insurance: Life insurance can provide a lump sum that can be used to pay IHT. The policy must be written in trust to be outside your estate for IHT purposes.
5. Use Business Relief: If you own a business or shares in an unlisted company, you may be able to claim Business Relief, which can reduce or even eliminate IHT on those assets.

Probate is a legal process that takes place after someone has died. It involves getting permission from the court to administer the deceased person’s estate, which includes their money, property, and possessions. The purpose of probate is to make sure that the estate is distributed correctly and that any debts and taxes are paid.

When someone dies, their assets are frozen until their will is validated or the court determines how to distribute the assets according to the law. Probate is the process of applying for the legal authority to deal with the estate of the deceased person. This can involve:

• Finding and valuing all the assets of the estate
• Paying any outstanding debts and taxes
• Distributing the remaining assets to the beneficiaries named in the will or, if there is no will, according to the law

Probate is required when a person dies and their estate includes property, savings, shares or other investments and is worth more than £10,000. 

The process of probate can be lengthy and complex, depending on the size and complexity of the estate, and there may be various legal and financial issues to address. The exact length of time will depend on the size and complexity of the estate, but it will generally take about a year.

Whether or not you need to apply for probate depends on the circumstances of the deceased person’s estate. Generally, you will need to apply for probate if the estate includes property, shares or other investments, or savings and is worth more than £10,000. However, there are some exceptions, such as if the assets are jointly owned or held in trust. If the deceased person left a will, the executor in the will is responsible for applying for probate. If there is no will, the next of kin or another family member may need to apply for probate.

If the deceased person left a will, the executor named in the will is responsible for applying for probate. The executor is the person appointed to carry out the wishes of the deceased person as outlined in their will.