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Buying a house? Before you purchase your new home sweet home, there are a number of important decisions to make. Here’s what you need to know before you sign on the dotted line.

Ownership of your home

One of the things people often forget when they’re buying a home, is how you’ll own the legal title to the property. When two or more people purchase a property, there are two main ways in which they can own the property, either:

The choice is hugely important during your ownership of the property and has a number of potential consequences. So before deciding, you should consider which is the most appropriate route for you.

Protecting your property

If you hold the property as joint tenants, you’ll have an equal interest in the property. Tenants in common, on the other hand, can choose to put a declaration of Trust in place to set out the different interests in a property. This might include protecting initial deposit monies or intended differing mortgage contributions. This declaration of Trust will determine how the proceeds of the sale are split in the event the property is sold. It can also be used to identify the parties share in the event that one of the owners loses capacity or passes away.

Making a Will

A Trust deed, or declaration of Trust, will mark out the proportions that each person owns. However, it doesn’t indicate where each person’s share of the property will go if either owner was to pass away. It’s essential to think about what would happen if one of the legal owners dies, so it’s important to make a Will to cover such an occurrence. Putting a Will in place makes sure your wishes will be carried out in this event.

For further advice and assistance please contact our Private Client Team on 01604 828282 / 01908 660966 or email info@franklins-sols.co.uk

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When choosing a solicitor to advise on your future planning, it’s important that the solicitor you choose has extensive knowledge, qualifications and experience. STEP is a worldwide professional association comprising of lawyers, accountants, financial advisors and other practitioners that assist families planning their future. Full STEP members, known as “TEPs” are internationally recognised as experts.

What do STEP members do and what is a TEP?

STEP members are specialists in inheritance and succession planning and draft Wills, Trusts, administer estates, act as Trustees and advise families on a range of private client services.

“TEP” stands for “Trust and Estate Practitioner” and is the designation given to full STEP members. In order to become a TEP, practitioners must have a combination of specialist qualifications and experience.

Why is STEP important?

Inheritance tax, succession planning and Trusts is a vast area of law. In order to provide holistic advice, specialist knowledge is therefore required to understand how one action might impact on a client’s other circumstances.  Using a member of STEP ensures that the Solicitor will possess this knowledge.

We want to be able to give the best possible service to our clients and this is one of the main driving factors behind STEP. All STEP members are subject to an extensive Code of Professional Conduct  and STEP’s Will Code, requiring members at all times to act with integrity and in a manner that encourages the confidence, respect and Trust of clients and also the wider community.

STEP represents the most experienced and senior practitioners in the field of Trusts and estates. They are highly qualified individuals and are required to keep up to date with the latest legal, technical and regulatory developments, meaning that clients can be confident in the advice that they are given.

The organisation itself has professional standards which make clear that members must uphold the reputation of both STEP and the field of Trust and estate practice, again ensuring client confidence.

Franklins and STEP

At Franklins we understand the importance of STEP and are fortunate that all our Team are members or working towards membership of the highly prestigious STEP organisation. For more information on why to use a TEP, click here.

For more information on the preparation of Wills and Trusts, contact Helen Taylor, Partner & Head of Private Client and the Team on 01908 660966 / 01604 828282 or email PrivateClient@franklins-sols.co.uk.

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When we think about making a Will, very few of us realise digital assets can be included, let alone consider including them. Much of the law governing Wills dates back to the Wills Act, which was passed in 1837, so it’s understandable. However, it’s worth thinking about including them.

What digital assets you can include in your Will

Digital assets can have significant value. Cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, can be extremely valuable. But equally, it can be easily overlooked and lost if your computer is discarded.

More commonly, online banking facilities, such as PayPal and online shopping accounts, should be considered.

In today’s digital world, it’s likely you have at least one social networking account, such as Facebook or LinkedIn, if not more. Think about what you’d want to happen to these when you pass away. How will your Executors know exactly what online social media accounts you have and how to access them?

It’s also worth thinking about anything digital with sentimental value. Many of us have photos, videos and music stored in the cloud. Access to these is often based on license agreements, so you can access them, but you may not have any rights to these items. With this in mind, you should back-up items so you, and those that survive you, can access them.

What should you do about these assets?

For all of these digital assets, consider including a note in your Will, so your Executors know where to find them and how to access them when they’re administering your estate. For digital assets with financial value, it’s worth discussing them with a solicitor, as it could affect your Inheritance Tax position.

If you’re considering including any digital assets in your Will, our expert Private Client team can give you advice and support. Please get in touch on 01908 660 966 / 01604 828282 or email PrivateClient@franklins-sols.co.uk.

 

Kate Garraway’s heart-breaking story of her husband Derek’s year-long battle with Covid has been made even more complicated by the lack of legal protection she and Derek had in place. Kate was unable to access funds to manage her husband’s care or refinance her mortgage. She didn’t even have the legal right to see his medical notes, owing to data protection. 

Research by SFE, shows that 65% of us think our next-of-kin will make medical and care decisions for us if we are no longer able to. In reality, this isn’t the case unless a Health & Welfare Lasting Power of Attorney is in place. Whilst there has been a rise in the number of enquiries made about Lasting Power of Attorneys (LPAs) during the pandemic, only 22% of people in the UK actually have one. 

What is a LPA?

There are two types of Lasting Power of Attorney;

They are legally binding documents, registered by the Office of the Public Guardian, used to protect your interests by nominating people you Trust to act on your behalf, should you become unable to make important decisions about your own welfare or financial decisions.

What if I lose capacity and I don’t have LPAs in place?

Your loved ones would need to begin a lengthy and costly application to the Court of Protection to apply for Deputyship over your finances. The Court of Protection must be satisfied that the appointed Deputy is in the individual’s best interests. When it comes to health and welfare matters it’s often much more difficult for a Deputy to be appointed. That said, there are certain scenarios where the Court of Protection require cases to be brought before them for a decision to be made.

Deputyship also imposes additional duties on the Deputy in terms of filing accounts and supervision from the Court of Protection.

How to avoid an application for Deputyship

To avoid this difficult kind of legal situation it’s important to utilise the expertise of a specialist lawyer to assist in putting in place Lasting Powers of Attorney and support those making these crucial, complex and difficult decisions. According to Which? 22,000 LPAs are rejected every year so it’s essential that you get your legal documents right.  

At Franklins, our expert Private Client team provide clear, practical advice in future planning. For further information Lasting Powers of Attorney, contact the team on 01908 660966 / 01604 828282 or email PrivateClient@franklins-sols.co.uk.

We are delighted that, following our Private Client Team’s participation in Free Wills Month March 2020, our fantastic Team have raised in the region of £57,000 in future income for the Free Wills Month charities and a total of £9,692,797 raised overall.

Free Wills Month brings together a group of charities to offer individuals and couples over the age of 55 the opportunity to have simple Wills written or updated free of charge by using participating firms of solicitors of selected locations across England, Scotland and Wales.

Helen Taylor TEP, Head of Private Client at Franklins Solicitors LLP said “We are extremely pleased to hear that the Free Wills March 2020 campaign was a huge success, despite challenges with the first phase of the pandemic at the end of March. Free Wills Month is a scheme that we support each year and we are proud to be able to support a variety of charities and causes.” 

The next Free Wills campaign begins on March 1st 2021. For more information and to sign up, visit the Free Wills Month website by clicking here.

Our expert Private Client Team have over 60 years’ experience and specialise in all areas of Private Client. For further information on our Private Client Services, contact our expert team on 01908 660966 / 01604 828282 or email PrivateClient@franklins-sols.co.uk.

Tell us about Alzheimer’s Society and what your role is.

Alzheimer’s Society is the UK’s leading dementia charity. We campaign for change, fund research to find a cure and support people living with dementia today. Dementia is the UK’s biggest killer – someone develops it every three minutes and there are currently 850,000 people living with the condition in the UK.

My role is within the Legacies Team, we work to promote the importance of gifts in Wills to the charity. These incredibly special and personal gifts fund over a quarter of our work so they are absolutely vital for us to continue to help people affected by dementia.

What challenges have Alzheimer’s Society faced during the COVID-19 pandemic and what challenges have your supporters faced as a result? How have you overcome these challenges?

Living with dementia at any time brings challenges and the COVID-19 pandemic is making daily life much harder for many people living with dementia, their carers and their families. People with dementia have been the worst hit, accounting for more than a quarter of deaths, and many have been isolated from their communities and the networks they usually rely on. And of course many people are deeply concerned for their loved ones who may be particularly vulnerable to the virus itself, especially within care homes, with 70% of care home residents having dementia.

As a charity we have had to make changes to a number of our face to face services that support people affected by dementia in local communities. Our teams have worked hard to find innovative ways to reach those people most in need despite lockdown and social distancing  – conducting virtual sessions including our virtual “Singing for the brain” sing along, online meetings and delivering our Dementia Connect support service over the phone. Our frontline staff have made over 100,000 welfare calls to those in desperate need of support and we’ve also compiled the most up to date information on our website to give clear advice to those affected by dementia.

In terms of fundraising – many events such the London Marathon have been cancelled or postponed, which has affected our ability to raise money in the short term, however teams have also found new ways to raise these vital funds. For example, instead of hosting walks, our flagship Memory Walks will look a little different – we are asking people to complete their own walk wherever and whenever they choose in memory or celebration of a loved one. Cupcake Day has also become a virtual event that people can take part in at a time to suit them. We have also launched an emergency appeal which is helping to fund our vital support services.

In Legacies specifically, legacy gifts have become even more important than usual in these difficult times. As they are a stable stream of income to the charity and account for over a quarter of our income. They have been vital in allowing us to continue to support some of the most vulnerable in our society. But of course the Legacies team have also had to adapt to working virtually, as have our solicitor partners who have been finding innovative ways to support people in writing their Wills.

What difficulties do you foresee now we are coming out of lockdown and what support could help?

For people affected by dementia, the challenges of the pandemic are far from over. Of course none of us know exactly what will happen, but people with dementia are likely to continue to be seriously affected both by the direct and indirect effects of this pandemic. At the time of writing this, it’s also still unclear when face to face services will be able to resume safely for both our staff and service users.  However as a charity we are determined to raise awareness of the continued needs of people living with dementia in this pandemic – including holding the government to account on their decisions.

What message would you pass on to others?

Now more than ever is the time to support those causes most close to your heart – and we want to ensure Alzheimer’s Society can continue its vital work both in the short and long term. So whether it’s donating to our emergency appeal, taking on a virtual fundraising challenge, signing up to be a volunteer, or considering leaving a gift in your Will – people living with dementia need your help right now.

Jenny Platten, Legacy Marketing & Development Manager at Alzheimer’s Society | T: 07541 764855 | E: Jenny.Platten@alzheimers.org.uk

Tell us about Care Advice Centre and what you do.

Care Advice Centre is a friendly, approachable team of independent social workers with vast experience of working within Adult Social Care. This gives our assessors a good understanding of the care and support system which can be complex and difficult to navigate. Some of our services include completing Mental Capacity Assessments, Benefits Advice, Needs assessments in line with the Care Act 2014, to mention a few. More of the services we provide can be seen on our website.

What challenges have you / your clients faced during the COVID-19 pandemic?

As social work is involved with helping people live better lives, this is usually carried out in discussion with the person and pre-COVID this has always been in their specific living environment. During this pandemic it has not always been possible to visit people in their own homes or in care homes therefore a need to be creative with arranging assessments has been the new way of working.

Remote working has been a valued method of carrying out assessments. The virtual assessments have not always been appropriate for some people due to different reasons and therefore this has meant work needed to be postponed until such a time that access to the different environments can be gained.

Some of the care homes or family representatives have not always been able to facilitate virtual meetings, however for those that have been completed virtually this has been a useful tool.

How have you helped your clients overcome these challenges?

One of the biggest aids during this time has been the ability to have virtual meetings with those that are able. Some care home have been able to facilitate this with appointments arranged days in advance.

For some people it has been possible to meet in their back yard or socially distanced within the home environment.

What difficulties do you foresee now we are coming out of lockdown and what support could you offer?

Initially there might be a reluctance by people to meet in their homes and care homes might still be wary of having visitors in their care environments.

Support could be provided to people by reassuring them that as a professionals we consider other people’s health as well as our own and will continue to follow government guidelines.

What have been your highs and lows during the last 3 months?

The highs have been the willingness of some people trying to facilitate meetings even when they have not worked out as anticipated.

People appear to have been more tolerant during this time as they realise that everyone is in the same position.

There has been good joint working with professionals and family members.

There has also been a lot of phone advice with people calling back and requesting further support from Care Advice Centre.

There have been a lot of people realising they need to plan for the future and a surge in the number of people making contact for these different services.

Tell us about MacIntyre and what your role is.

My name is Lorraine Devereux and I am Corporate and Events Fundraiser for MacIntyre, a national charity that provides care, support and education for more than 1,200 children, young people and adults with a learning disability and/or autism.

What challenges have MacIntyre faced during the COVID-19 pandemic and what challenges have your supporters faced as a result?

There have been many challenges for MacIntyre over the last 3 months and we continue to face them.  Many people we support have been in lockdown and shielded and continue to be at the present time, missing regular contact with friends and family and adjusting to a total change of life overnight.  For the majority of the adults we support daily routine offers stability, a sense of feeling safe and happy so the impact on lives has been huge.

For those supported through our day services and outreach, learners have missed regular sessions and routine and we have worked hard to try to support them and their families remotely. 

At MacIntyre School, children who are supported term time have also not seen friends and family, for those children who went home before lockdown, we have continued to provide support to them and their families.

Technology for all of these services and the people we support has proved invaluable – sadly not all services have enough of that technology available, so fundraising has been working hard to secure additional funding and equipment to keep people connected with friends and loved ones.

On top of all of this, operational struggles in sourcing hand sanitiser, PPE and ensuring our staff stay safe and well has been truly challenging and we are not yet the other side of this.

How have you overcome these challenges?

Our Senior Management team have held weekly meetings to ensure a co-ordinated response to the changing situation.  For the Fundraising team, our immediate response was to support the organisation in sourcing vital equipment which at that time was in short supply. From hand sanitiser from a local distillery to masks from a local school whilst at the same time, looking at the impact on fundraising and what we could do, moving cancelled events online and exploring new ways for people to stay connected with us and fundraise.  Support from our local communities and local businesses has never been more needed.

What difficulties do you foresee now we are coming out of lockdown and what support could help?

As lockdown gradually lifts, the emphasis shifts slightly to helping people we support with feeling confident about resuming day to day life, when many have not been out for months.  We are working with people we support on social distancing and what that means when out and continuing to adapt how we offer the best support we can alongside government guidelines.

Support from community, business and local authorities remains critical for us as we enter the next phase – fundraising remains a challenge, events are unlikely to resume in the way that we know them for some time so we continue to look at all we do and be creative in what we can do to engage our communities and their support.  

What message would you pass on to others?

Firstly our thanks to all those who have supported us over the last few months – from coming along to our virtual quizzes to Moving with Macintyre during May, to donating iPads and tablets and also Community Foundations and COVID response organisations who have supported and granted us with funds to buy technology etc. that we needed to keep people feeling connected.

A huge thanks also goes to those people who joined us on a temporary basis by working for MacIntyre when their own situation changed.

We hope that people will continue to support all that we are doing at MacIntyre and people can do this in so many ways – from supporting and fundraising for us as a business or as an individual, joining us at one of our online events, buying something we need from our Amazon Wish List, to sharing our stories and posts on social media, it all helps.

Lorraine Devereux, Corporate and Events Fundraiser at MacIntyre | T: 01908 230100 | E: lorraine.devereux@macintyrecharity.org

Tell us about Cynthia Spencer Hospice and what your role is.

Cynthia Spencer is a hospice for the care of adults suffering from a life-limiting illness and provides inpatient and community care and a wellbeing service. I am the Fundraising Manager for the charity that raises money to fund and expand the hospice’s services.

What challenges have the hospice faced during the COVID-19 pandemic and what challenges have your supporters faced as a result?

Our main challenge has been how we generate income when many events throughout the year, both those generated by our charity, nationally run challenges and activities taking place in the community, have been cancelled and our shops have been closed.

How have you overcome these challenges?

Where we are able, we have adapted our events so they can take place virtually and we have encouraged our supporters to raise money virtually at home, by giving them suggestions of fundraising activities or we have asked them to pledge support at a time when they are able.

What difficulties do you foresee now we are coming out of lockdown and what support could help?

Our main difficulty will be keeping our volunteers, customers and supporters safe while we begin to interact with them again to encourage fundraising.

What message would you pass on to others?

When you work as a team, communicate well and consider the needs and priorities of your stakeholders you can overcome the most challenging circumstances.

John Helm, Fundraising Manager at Cynthia Spencer Hospice| T: 01604 973342 | E: john@cynthiaspencer.co.uk

Tell us about your business and what you do.

Cave & Sons is a wealth management firm offering services that range from stockbroking to discretionary investment management, inter-generational planning and independent financial advice. We manage money on behalf of private individuals, companies, pensions, Trusts and charities.

What challenges have you/your clients faced during the COVID-19 pandemic?

As a business, apart from the virus-induced stock market volatility (which has certainly kept us busy), not being able to hold face-to-face meetings with clients has been the most significant challenge we have faced.

For clients, those that have been invested in the stock market for many years understand that (occasionally extreme) volatility is to be expected, whereas for those relatively new to investing, the recent market crash (which saw the FTSE100 fall 35% peak-to-trough) has been a rather uncomfortable experience.

How have you helped your clients overcome these challenges?

We have ensured client communications are frequent and relevant. During times such as these, clients are understandably unsettled and often speaking to them to explain what we are doing on their behalf and why we are doing it provides them with a degree of comfort. It’s also been important to remain on the front foot, making efforts where possible to contact clients first, whether it be via telephone call, email, or video call for those more accepting of technology!

What difficulties do you foresee now we are coming out of lockdown and what support could you offer?

It will take months, maybe years, to understand the full impact of closing down the economy for over a quarter of a year. A sharp rise in unemployment does, however, look inevitable. For those unlucky enough to lose their jobs but coming to end of their career, who were possibly considering retirement anyway, our team of financial planners can discuss and explore whether their current retirement provisions are sufficient to support their lifestyles and, if not, how this could be made possible. For those that were considering establishing an investment portfolio, but have perhaps been unsettled by recent developments, we can provide re-assurance and structure an appropriate plan.

What have been your highs and lows during the last 3 months?

The last three months have been the most challenging of my career, managing client portfolios through the extreme market volatility has been difficult, and at times felt like there has been no place to hide! Without my colleagues, though, it would’ve been far tougher. I now appreciate, more than ever before, being part of a hardworking and collaborative team, where experience, expertise and good humour are all required in equal measure and have been essential to navigating the current crisis.

Ed Caswell, Chartered FCSI & Associate Director at Cave & Sons | T: 01604 621421 | E: ecaswell@caves.co.uk