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As you might expect, MFG offer a wide range of legal services, covering business, employment and commercial matters; rural affairs; property issues; family breakdown; wills, Lasting Powers of Attorney and estate planning and administration; trusts and tax.
The older members of our community often have particular interests and needs that may range across typical (and normally separate) legal disciplines such as “conveyancing”, “family” and “probate”. Our specialist Services for the Over 50s Team seeks to work across these traditional boundaries to provide our “elderly” clients with an all-round understanding of the issues affecting them and ways to address these. Some of these areas are outlined below:
Estate planning, trusts and tax
Issues affecting the older client making a Will are often different from those affecting the younger person, and where there is any possibility of dispute amongst the beneficiaries (or those left out) professional advice from a practitioner with experience in such matters should be sought.
We can offer estate planning advice on a wide range of issues including advice on inheritance tax, farming and business aspects, providing for a vulnerable beneficiary, excluding members of the family, passing assets to a beneficiary at risk of divorce (or re-marriage), balancing needs of different beneficiaries (eg. providing for a spouse on one hand and children on the other). We can advise, set up and administer trusts where appropriate.
Personal tax for the retired can be a complex area, even before you get to the point of filing a tax return! For example what benefits are taxable, should your bank interest be taxed at source, where do you stand with lump sum payments, what do you do if you have paid too much tax? Our dedicated tax specialists can guide you through this maze of regulations, as well as provide personal taxation advice and help to prepare your tax returns.
Planning for care needs & Protecting assets from long term care costs
Moving into care or arranging care at home is a daunting change to your lifestyle and a worrying time for resident and family alike. It is important to understand the assessment process, the financial implications and the agreement you make with the care home or provider and we can help there.
How your care should be funded – by you, the local authority, the NHS or a mixture - is a minefield, which we can help you navigate, and we can guide you through the whole process of assessing your needs and financial obligations, as well as appealing decisions where appropriate.
Many elderly people wish to be able to fund their retirement and long term care should it become necessary. Others wish to protect their savings and house for the children should infirmity mean they need long term care in the future. Planning ahead is key, although we can also advise on strategies to protect your assets if you (or an elderly relative) unexpectedly need care.
Decision-making
Many people would like some help with managing their finances and making decisions as they get older. Illness or accident can rob anyone of their ability to manage their own finances and other decisions. By appointing Attorneys while you are in good mental health, you can make this a relatively straightforward matter. You can also set out what your wishes would be for life-sustaining treatment should you be unable to make these decisions yourself in the future.
Where a person you know has lost the ability to manage, and no attorney has been appointed, decision-making becomes more of a problem. We can help with the process of having someone appointed to help.
The Court of Protection has authority to intervene and make orders on a wide variety of issues where a person has lost capacity to make decisions – including matters relating to investments, gifts, making a new will, where there is evidence of financial or other abuse, accommodation or whether medical treatment should be authorised or stopped.
Lasting powers of attorney
Living wills
Helping after a death
Whether or not the person who has died left a valid Will, dealing with the finances of someone who has died (often called “probate”) can be a strain for many, and our experts can ease the worry by taking on the administrative burden of sorting out the paperwork. Where the person has died without a valid Will, we can help identify who the beneficiaries are under the Intestacy Rules to ensure that the estate is dealt with correctly.
Probate & administration of estates
Deeds of Variation
Where the beneficiaries under a Will (or those who benefit under the Intestacy Rules where there is no valid Will) would prefer assets to pass in a different way, we can advise on Deeds of Variation to ensure that this happens in the most tax-efficient way.
Probate disputes
Where there is a dispute over the administration of an estate, our experienced probate litigation lawyers can help to resolve the issue. Claims may be that the person who has died has not made adequate financial provision for someone who expected to receive an inheritance, or that the Will was not valid through fraud, undue influence or lack of capacity or understanding.
Of course, the best way to deal with a dispute is to try to stop it arising in the first place – by using an experienced wills lawyer, and letting them know all the relevant information, you can ensure that you leave a valid Will which deals with matters of potential dispute.
Business succession
Parents may wonder how best to go about bringing a younger member of the family into the family business – the change to the business dynamics may concern some while the risk of an “in-law” interfering or a divorce forcing a sale of the business may worry others. Advice on taxation, business structure, succession and estate planning, asset protection and wills can all be brought to bear to help you in your decision-making. Forward planning for selling or retiring from a business is likely to pay dividends in maximising its value and minimising tax.
Rights for a family member to take over a pre-1984 agricultural tenancy on the retirement or death of the current tenant can easily be lost if the strict timetable is not adhered to or the criteria not met. As is so often the case, some prior planning may be key to making the most of these valuable rights.
Succession planning
Inheritance tax & estate planning
Family breakdown concerns
Divorce for the elderly has become more common especially as Divorce itself has become more socially acceptable and does not have the same stigma attached to it. More and more elderly couples are choosing not to remain in long unhappy marriages and are more likely to consider divorce today than in the their parents or grandparents day.
Divorce is a daunting experience not least because it involves a number of changes at a time in your life when change is most difficult to adapt to.
There are certain issues that arise for the older divorcing couple, such as the need for wills to be amended as soon as possible to reflect the change in circumstances and the need to deal with matters expeditiously in event that one party to the marriage dies before decree absolute and before financial proceedings have been concluded.
For the wealthy older client, a remarriage may pose particular threats and we can advise on protecting your wealth in the event that it doesn’t work out.
Perhaps you have concerns about the stability of your adult child’s relationship and wish to protect any monies advanced to them so that in the event of their relationship breaking up any monies advanced will revert to you.
Helping a child onto the property ladder
With house prices still high, many young adults need help to buy a home, and parents often wish to help. As well as assisting with the purchase process, we can also advise on how to protect your contribution as either a gift or an investment and the tax implications.
We can also assist in such matters as Declarations of Trust, and Promissory Notes if required, although our professional practice rules provide that we are not able to act for both parties in private mortgages.
Unlocking capital or income from your house
The most valuable asset most older people possess, we can guide you through the process of raising a lump sum or future income against the value of your home: equity release schemes have much improved but it is important that you understand the options and the legal implications.
Consumer contracts & complaints
If you need long term care, whether residential or in your own home, you may find that you have to enter into a contract for those services. Whenever you buy a product or services, you enter into an agreement. We can advise you on such contracts before you commit yourself, or advise on agreements when something has gone wrong.
Discrimination in the workplace
Older people do now have some protection from discrimination on applying for work, in connection with unfair dismissal and redundancy and in the tricky area of the age when you might be expected to retire. Our specialist employment lawyers can advise you of your rights and help in any claim you may have.
Financial health check
Although we are not regulated to offer financial advice, we have built up strong working relationships with financial advisers and accountants who we believe can offer you sound advice on a variety of issues – from retirement, investment and inheritance tax advice through equity release and planning to pay for long term care to exit strategies from a business. We believe that the best way of approaching planning for the future is for the different advisers to work together so that you get the whole picture – not just pieces of the puzzle!
Solicitors for the Elderly is a national organisation of legal practitioners concerned with improving the availability and delivery of specialist legal advice to older and vulnerable people and their families. Fiona Barnes, Partner at our Telford office, is a member of SFE and also a committee member and Treasurer of the Shropshire Regional Group of the SFE.
If you would like to talk to us about any of our services, please contact us.
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