Where there's a will

Skipton B SOC are doing wills for £114 I understand. They take all the details and a solicitor does the actual will.

A will is a must we did a DIY one but DH is very good at legal stuff and he took a lot of free advice. There are often special offers from local solicitors.

If you do decide to DIY, then make sure you specify each person by their full name and relationship to you, and their current address (which may change, but does give a further positive identification of them - and your executor may not be aware of where to find them)

Think ahead to the possibility that they may pre-decease you, and what you would want to happen to their share - should it go back into the general funds or go to a specific other person or charity, or be shared by their children either by name or as "their heirs and legatees"?

We updated ours recently with a solicitor and then used it as a template for DS's. As both were uncomplicated I cannot see that it would have been worth paying again.

morethan2. Sorry, a will is not something you don't really need. It is something you do really need. It is not just what happens after you both die but after one of you dies. When a spouse dies the whole estate does not automatically always go to the surviving spouse/civil partner. It will usually but.......

While you are at it, have you granted anyone Powers of Attorney? These could be considered even more important than wills. If one of you or the survivor becomes incapable of acting on their own behalf, who will act for them? Make decisions about their care, manage your finances? If you want to decide that then do it now. Their may be someone you do not want handling your finances and care.

I have twice had to deal with the estates of people who have died intestate but the hassle of that was nothing to the problems I had when I had to arrange Powers of Attorney for people who refused to make them when they could and were now incapable of so doing, or of trying to manage their affairs when they were incapable of managing them themselves and no Power of Attorney had yet been granted by the Court of Protection.

Anyone who really cares for children and wants life to be as easy as possible for them at the distressing time when they die or can no longer manage their affairs should make both a will and grant Powers of Attorney to someone approriate.

After making our wills, DH and I felt such a huge sense of relief that everything was tied up as we wished it to be. We have both seen awful family rifts as a result of wills not being clear or updated. As for those who die intestate, they leave such a hassle behind as an inheritance.

We have a family complication which needed a solicitor to keep things tightly protected so that is the route we took.

Now I think we should get on with the POA. Our problem is who to choose. Older 3 children in England and DD here is not keen on forms and organising financial affairs (has already been consulted). Anyone got a suggestion as to who would be good to use? Solicitor?

Solicitor will charge an arm and a leg (if not two arms, two legs and most of the torso) to manage a POA.

A POA is a very personal thing. There are two kinds now and one for Health and Welfare, which should definitely be held by someone who knows you well enough to know what foods you do not like for example (if you go into a care home) and one for financial affairs. Here is a link to a helpful government site explaining it all. www.gov.uk/power-of-attorney/overview.

Use a solicitor to set the POAs up. You could make a solicitor and a DC your Financial POA, with your DC making the decisions with advice from the solicitor. Running a POA is actually not a lot different from running your normal bank account.

When I looked after an uncle, I would do any bits of shopping he needed; clothing, toiletries, books, CDs etc. I just took £50 - £100 out of his account, kept in a separate purse, bought from this purse, what he needed and kept the receipts in a file.

It is a bit of a palaver to have to go to a solicitor every time one of your parents wants a bar of chocolate or wants a particular brand of underwear or nightwear.

Thanks for that advice MOnica. We really must get this sorted. Could a spouse be given POA or is that a given?

Anybody can be given the POA and that includes spouses. People usually give POAs to several people with a clause stating that they can act severally or together.

I would recommend this because a DF and her DH had a POA for her mother, worded so that they had to act together, both sign all cheques/documents etc. Her DH died suddenly and the POA was void and months and money, at a time when she could have done without it, had to be spent setting up a new POA with her as the only attorney.