If you would like to attend a virtual appointment, we are happy to arrange a meeting via Zoom. Please let a member of our team know at the time of booking an appointment. Please note that we are required to see all our clients face-to-face at some stage during the will-writing process.
A Lasting Power of Attorney is a legal document that lets you (the ‘donor’) appoint one or more people (known as ‘attorneys’) to help you make decisions on your behalf should you become mentally incapable of managing your affairs. A Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) consists of two forms:
This deals with your financial affairs e.g. paying bills or selling your house. Without this document, someone will need to be appointed as your deputy under the Office of the Public Guardian. This is a long complicated and expensive procedure. A Property and Affairs Lasting Power of Attorney avoids these complications.
This deals with issues such as decisions over life sustaining treatment, complaints about your care, what activities you should participate in, arranging routine medical appointments and your day-to-day needs for example your diet and dress as well as assessments for and provision of community care services including where you should live and who you should live with.
We are able to advise regarding the Lasting Powers of Attorney and clarify any queries that you may have. We will then prepare the relevant documentation and send you a draft through the post. Once you are happy with the document you can then either come back to our offices to sign it or we can send it to you in the post.
For further information or to send an enquiry, please see our full LPA page here.
When someone loses the ability to manage their financial affairs, perhaps through injury or age-related illness, and has no lasting power of attorney in place, an application to the Court of Protection is required. Through the Court of Protection, an appointed person can obtain a deputyship order permitting them to manage the affairs of the person who lacks capacity.
Deputyship applicants tend to be close family members but can also be close friends. Under some circumstances, the local authority, or a professional deputy (normally a specialist solicitor or accountant), can take responsibility for the deputyship order.
Our specialist Court of Protection solicitors can guide you through the process. You will find them professional yet sympathetic to your individual circumstances.
We can provide a notice of acting, confirming to the court that we are acting for you in the Court of Protection proceedings. We have strong experience representing clients in a range of challenging Court of Protection cases. Our solicitors understand that these legal processes can be unnerving and are proud to offer sensitive and practical legal support, every step of the way.
For further information or to send an enquiry, please see our full deputyship page here.
When someone dies, assets owned solely by the deceased are frozen and the only way these assets can be dealt with is to obtain a grant of probate (in the case of a will) or a grant of letters of administration (where a will has not been prepared and the estate falls under intestacy rules).
See our Intestacy Flowchart for how the intestacy rules could affect you and your family.
We have an experienced team who can assist you with every aspect of the probate process, reducing the administrative burden and advising sensitively on key decisions which need to be made when managing an estate. We are aware that administering an estate comes at a time of grief and high emotion, and that most people do not know the processes and legal requirements involved.
To help you understand the probate process, we have set out the typical processes in the administration of an estate here.
Our lawyers have many years of experience assisting clients in creating trusts tailored to their needs. This service includes the drafting of required documents such as trust deeds and declarations of trust. Our trust management lawyers spare no detail when it comes to specifying the terms and conditions of your trust, working diligently to identify the various beneficiaries, and clearly outlining the trustee’s responsibilities.
Our trust management lawyers are also well-versed in managing the everyday operations of trusts, including handling investments, paying liabilities, collecting income, and making sure that the trust remains compliant with legal and tax requirements. Alongside the everyday responsibilities of trust management, we also have expertise in handling trust disputes, removing trustees, and varying the terms of a trust. We have years of experience dealing with trust disputes, working diligently to keep things outside of the court system. However, should court prove unavoidable, we are more than happy to provide you with excellent and robust representation in court.
For further information or to send an enquiry, please see our full trusts page here.
