We really are not very good at getting our affairs in order, we will think about it briefly and then shove to the back of our minds. We all know that it is important and that we should, but it often takes something to happen before we do anything about it, whether that is we have become ill ourselves, or something happens to a loved one or a close friend, and often it can then be too late.
Lady Lucan, The Dowager Countess of Lucan, was found dead at her home in Westminster last September, having had no contact with her children for many years, Lady Lucan has left the whole of her Estate to a homeless charity.
The 'Care Cap' that had previously been introduced into the Care Act 2014 by the Government which was then put on hold and planned to come into play in 2020 has been abandoned.
According to the Office for National Statistics, there is a steady rise in the number of deaths occurring during the winter months, with the majority of these being women and the elderly.
Thought I would do a light heart-ed post for a change, Wills and Lasting Power of Attorney can be very deep and thought provoking, sometimes people even avoiding thinking about getting their affairs sorted purely as they refuse to think about the worst happening.
So here are some interesting facts and nonsense and simply unbelievable things to do with Wills throughout history:
If you have children below the age of 18 years, then there are some very good reasons why you should make a Will.
any people with young children seem to think that it is not necessary to make a Will. 'We are Young ourselves' 'we don't own property' 'we have nothing'. To make your wishes known, if you have young children, then you should have a Will in place, stating who you you would want to care for and bring up your children should something happen to you.
We are now in an era when anyone can come along and set themselves up as a Will Writer and no one blinks an eye, some even using a business name that suggests that they are a Legal Firm when they are not. Over the last few years I have come across several businesses that lead you to believe that they are a Legal Firm or a firm of Solicitors and there is not a Solicitor in sight. Then on top of that you have companies advertising cheap Wills and not disclosing that there are possible other charges up front, they wait until they are sat in your home and then give you the hard sell on all the extras, so what you thought was going to be a £40 Will ends up being closer to £1,000.
When we talk about a vulnerable person, we often associate this with the elderly, however this is not always the case, people can be classed as being vulnerable at all different ages, it is not just about age, it can be about abilities and emotions.
In the Will Writing & Estate Planning industry, every adult has a right to be able to make a Will or put in place a Lasting Power of Attorney. People often think that because a person may have some learning difficulties that they are not capable of putting a Will in place, until it is proven that a person does not have the capacity to do something, then you need to assume that they do have the capacity.
Who has gone to visit their loved one in a Care Home? The answer is most of us have, either as a relative or a close friend, and how many times do you go in, and you see several people sat in the communal lounge, most often asleep, there is no activities, or very little activities, or the residents sat in their rooms, again often asleep. This is no fault of the care homes in general, they are busy people, have a lot of people to look after, and limited funds.
Well a Northampton Man is looking at changing all that!
With space running out for Burials what other options do we now have? In many parts of London you can no longer opt to be buried, and those parts of London that are still offering burials, they are making the graves deeper so that you are buried on top of someone else. Eco-Burials Grounds are filling up, one local to ourselves near Olney is now full. So what are the other options? Cremation, or a new method coming to the UK soon, Eco-Cremation.