Estate Planning

Creative Consultant offers a comprehensive Estate Planning service, with all work completed through a Society of Will Writer member. We can provide everything from a  simple basic Will, to more comprehensive planning, such as; Property Trusts & Lasting Power of Attorney. We aim to provide a low cost, personalised service.

See below for a detailed summary of the most common services we provide.

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Attitudes to widows and widowers entering into relationships with new partners have softened significantly in recent years, but there is still a concern that assets ultimately remain in the original family.

Whether by accident, or perhaps less innocent motives, it is very easy for a set of circumstances to develop where property and other assets that a parent had always envisaged ultimately passing to their children end up in the hands of their husband or wife’s new model!

A Bloodline Protection Trust Will enables the surviving partner to continue to enjoy the family property and other assets, but also ensures that when both parties have died they are passed to the children or grandchildren.

A simple Will is certainly better than none at all, but it does have one major shortcoming.

If a widow or widower is already in a residential care home – or subsequently requires such care in the future –any property that they own on their owns will be taken into account when their ability to fund their own care is assessed.

This can mean that all but their last £14,250 is taken to pay for care – including the value of their home.

By arranging Property Protection Trust Wills, a couple can ensure that the surviving party never owns the family home in isolation and it is owned in such a way that the Local Authority must disregard its value in their assessment.  As a result, although some other assets may still be lost to pay for care homes, at least the family home will ultimately pass to the children and/or grandchildren.

If you are unfortunate enough to lose your mental capacity – either as a result of illness, injury or simply the effects of old age – and have not taken steps to protect yourself you may be surprised to learn that nobody has an automatic authority to make decisions on your behalf.

By arranging Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPAs) whilst you still have capacity, you can nominate one or more individuals to manage your affairs should you later be unable to do so yourself.

You can place restrictions on your Attorney(s) or give them guidance, and the registration process includes safeguards to protect you against their misuse.
LPAs come in two forms – one for your property and financial affairs and one for your health and welfare.

It probably won’t surprise you to learn that Creative Wealth would always recommend that a client’s affairs are arranged correctly before their death.

There are, however, some circumstances when it becomes apparent after someone dies that their Will doesn’t distribute their assets in the way most appropriate to the family’s needs.

Where all the beneficiaries affected in the Will agree to a change the Will can effectively be re-written to distribute the estate in a different way.

This may be in different proportions to the existing beneficiaries or even to beneficiaries that were not included in the original Will.

The document required to vary a Will is known as a Deed of Variation.

Jointly held property passes to the surviving owner(s) on the death of one of the joint owners automatically –regardless of the terms of any Will.

As a result, for some aspects of estate planning to be effective it is essential that joint ownership of certain assets is severed.

This does not affect the beneficial ownership of the asset, or the parties’ individual responsibilities towards it, and is achieved through executing a document known as a Deed of Severance.

Your Creative Wealth consultant will be pleased to advise when a Deed of Severance is required and to produce the document for you.

As a population of home owners, more and more individuals are breaching the Inheritance Tax (IHT) thresholds leaving future generations exposed because the estate becomes liable for tax.

Trusts are a well established and useful tool in estate planning as a Trust allows someone to make a gift of assets, without completely losing control of those assets, by placing them in Trust. This enables you to potentially reduce the value of your estate upon which tax becomes payable without making an outright gift whilst you are still alive.

We can give advice on a number of different types of Trusts depending on the client’s objectives. For example, a Family Trust or Will Trust can give extra flexibility in IHT planning as this type of Trust can be used to provide a lifetime income for your spouse with the assets passing to your beneficiaries.

Paying for your funeral in advance isn’t just a thoughtful thing to do for your family, it is also a financially sound decision.

In recent years the cost of funerals has increased at a much faster rate than savings ear-marked for that purpose in a typical building society account and this trend looks likely to continue in the future.

Plans can be paid for with a single lump sum, monthly instalments (1-5 years) or by fixed monthly payments.

A couple may purchase a separate plan each or one plan that can be used when the first person dies.  This may be extremely helpful where they have limited liquid assets and only want to make provision for the first funeral with their children ultimately meeting the cost of the second from their inheritance.

We will be delighted to provide more information and assist you in completing an application for your plan.