Wills & Power of Attorney
Who needs to make a professional Will?
Planning your estate and making a professional Will is one of the most important things you will ever do.
But making sure that you have a Will is not enough; it has to be the right type – one that is professionally drafted to take into account your wishes, and your personal and financial circumstances.
This is where Kintail can help.
We provide a professional Will writing service that can allow you to:
- Appoint suitable guardians for your young children rather than leaving the choice to the Courts.
- Make specific legacies to family or friends or gifts to favourite charities.
- Set up maintenance trusts for children to protect their inheritance until an age chosen by you.
- Ensure your children’s (or other beneficiaries) inheritance, should your surviving partner re-marry.
- Safeguard your share of the property from being sold to pay for the survivor’s future care fees, so protecting assets to leave to your family.
- Minimise the Inheritance Tax liability on your estate, so giving more to your chosen beneficiaries, rather than to the Taxman.
Wills, Trusts and Tax Planning are not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
Updating an Existing Will
Once you have a Will, it is strongly recommended that you review it every 5 years, or even earlier if you have a significant life event e.g. marriage, divorce, separation or the birth of children/grandchildren. Your wishes may or may not have changed, but the value of your assets and the law may have. It is very important to ensure that your Will does exactly what you want it to do; that it protects your assets and investments, and that it keeps up with any relevant advantages within the law of estate planning.
Powers of Attorney (Scotland)
In Scotland, there are three types of Power of Attorney:
- Continuing Power of Attorney (CPA)
A continuing power of attorney is used to give another person, called your 'attorney', the power to act on your behalf in respect of your financial affairs. It can continue even if you become incapable of making decisions about your own affairs. - Welfare Power of Attorney (WPA)
This Power of Attorney enables your attorney(s) to make decisions about your health and welfare after you become incapable. These powers can include deciding where you will live and personal issues, such as medical treatment and personal care. Your attorney(s) can’t intervene while you have capacity to make the decision for yourself. - Combined Power of Attorney,
Combined powers of attorney include both welfare and financial powers and this is the best option. The financial powers can be effective immediately. They will remain in place even if the granter later becomes incapable of managing their own affairs. The welfare powers can be used only when the granter is incapable of managing their own welfare.
Regulation
Kintail deliver a face-to-face will-writing and Power of Attorney proposition through director Ken Macrae, a Member Affiliate of The Society of Trust & Executry Practitioners (STEP) and an Associate of APS Legal.
STEP is the global professional association for practitioners who specialise in family inheritance and succession planning. Members are subject to an extensive Code of Professional Conduct, requiring them at all times to act with integrity and in a manner that inspires the confidence, respect and trust of their clients and of the wider community.
APS Legal and Associates are one of the UK's leading independent legal
services providers and part of Fintel.
APS Legal & Associates is part of a wider group of companies and one of the most
recognised and trusted brands in the professional Will writing and estate planning
profession.
As one of the largest and most influential members of the Institute of
Professional Will Writers (IPW), and with over 500 qualified Legal Consultants (Associates) and members of staff across the country, their approach in a traditionally fragmented industry has allowed them to build a strong brand name with rapidly increasing recognition.
On behalf of APS Legal & Associates Ltd,
Head office: Worksop Turbine Innovation Centre, Shireoaks Triangle Business Park, Coach Close, Worksop, Nottinghamshire, S81 8AP
APS Legal & Associates is a member of the Institute of Professional Willwriters
APS Legal & Associates complies with the Trading Standards Institute Approved IPW Code of Practice