Estate Planning

A Will is a ‘Basic Expression of wishes’, a good starting point in Estate Planning, if you like, on how you would like to distribute your estate upon death and to whom? An ‘Estate’ refers to assets, money, property, personal possessions etc, and upon death an executor of your choice, will administer your estate, taking care of your wishes, calculating at the time of death, an up-to-date value of all assets and liabilities, which will produce a ‘Net Value’, or ‘Residuary Estate Value’.

And it is from this value that the main beneficiaries you have chosen will receive the inheritance that you have left them in your Will, but if they pre-decease you, a list of default beneficiaries, named in the Will, is good practice.

Without a Will, all that you have worked so hard to achieve in life may not get into the hands of the beneficiaries you would like to inherit, after your death, even if you have made arrangements or agreements beforehand, because these carry no weight in Law.

If you are unmarried, but have a partner, they will get nothing!

Also, dying without a Will, DYING INTESTATE, can have serious guardianship issues for children, if they become orphaned, because if you are unmarried, your children immediately go into Social Care, while Social Services assess the suitability of others to become guardians and of course, this is a very lengthy process.

So having no Will will cause a lot of upset, stress, rifts between family members, partners and friends and for those close family members left behind, knowing what to do next can prove complicated, time consuming and costly, as a ‘Grant of Letters of Administration’, not a ‘Grant of Probate’, will need to be obtained from HM Courts and Tribunals, so your estate can be administered.

And it is for this reason alone, that everybody from the age of eighteen should have a Will, regardless of whether they have anything or not. A professionally drafted Will from Black Jaguar Financial Services, working in association with Pro Wills and Estate Planners Ltd is not expensive.

Do-It-Yourself Will-Writing Kits are certainly cheap, but they leave your wishes open to matters of ‘Legal Validity’, misinterpretation, legal stumbling blocks and disputes. One of our professionally drafted Wills will take around two weeks to complete, but the first step is to take your instruction, so that we have all the precise details at hand, such as the specific aim of the Will, Names, Dates of Birth, Addresses, Executors, Trustees, Beneficiaries etc and then we can prepare a draft of the Will, which will be emailed to you for you to check through. Once you are satisfied that all details are correct, we move on to stage two, where you will receive the original Will document, by recorded delivery or a personal visit. The final part is the signing and witnessing of the Will, where full guidance will be given to you by Black Jaguar Financial Services.

A Funeral Plan is the ideal accompaniment to a Will.

Why? Two reasons:

1. Average Funeral prices, currently at around £2,500 are rising every year and are set to be in the region of £7,000 in the next few years. Take out a guaranteed Funeral Plan now, with Black Jaguar Financial Services and the price you pay is fixed, guaranteed and will never change.
2. Your bereaved family have enough to deal with, without them having to worry about organising your funeral, and finding the money to pay for it, so remove them of that burden and pre-pay your Funeral Plan today.

Funeral Plan Features

• Easy Online Application
• Choice of Funeral Director
• All Funeral Directors Fees Paid
• £1000 Contribution towards Doctors Fees and Other Disbursements
• Collection of the Deceased
• Choice of Coffin
• 24 Hour Chapel of Rest Viewings
• Church Service with Celebrant or Minister
• Music
• Choose your own Type of Funeral Service
• Hearse or Alternative Mode of Transport
• Limousines
• Cremation Only Plans
• Payment by Monthly Instalments

Martin Lewis, the TV Money Man, believes this to be one of the most important areas of Legal Security, that all of us should take care of, because it refers to ‘Mental Capacity’ and the impact it will have on you and your family, if you lose ‘Mental Capacity’ and become ‘Mentally Incapacitated’, unable to look after your own affairs.

Becoming ‘Mentally Incapacitated’ can be short-term or long-term, depending on the severity of your condition. Dementia, Chronic Depression, Stroke, Accident with Brain Damage, Covid-19, Coma are a few examples of where this could happen and if it does happen and you do not have Lasting Power of Attorney, Protecting your Property and Financial Affairs and Health and Welfare, then severe restrictions on these two areas will be imposed on you, by The Office of Public Guardian, for your own protection, because having lost ‘Capacity’, you are extremely vulnerable.

And it only takes two GP Doctors to decide that you do not have ‘Mental Capacity’. It will then take around twelve months and a £1500 upfront payment, for the OPG to process your case, and for your affairs to be administered by them, so the restrictions listed below can be lifted.

In terms of Property and Financial Affairs, the day to day running of your own affairs, including all your monies, are immediately frozen, even joint bank accounts, so the flow of money stops, which means your payment and credit commitments cannot be met, compromising your credit status and creating undue anxiety and stress upon your family.

And as for property, where you may have been planning transactional or capital raising actions, this area is also frozen, which can have a serious financial impact on you and the family, once again.

With regard to your Health and Welfare, your family and loved ones will have no say in your care or treatment, including life sustaining treatment, medication and decisions on resuscitation.

Do you remember the ‘Old Lady’, who was disgracefully arrested by the Police, in the UK, for trying to leave the Nursing Home, with her Daughter, during Covid-19? Had the ‘Old Lady’, had Lasting Power of Attorney for Health and Welfare, with her Daughter named as ‘Attorney’, that dreadful incident would never have happened!

Two lasting Power of Attorney documents need to be drawn up in your name and registered with the Office of Public Guardian.

1. Property and Financial Affairs
2. Health and Welfare

The key here is to select Attorneys who you can trust implicitly. After all, they will be looking after all your affairs while you are Mentally Incapacitated and not the Office of Public Guardian.

Black Jaguar Financial Services, working in association with, Pro Wills and Estate Planners Ltd, are happy to process your LPA business, from start to finish and it will take around two weeks for us to prepare all official, OPG documentation, ready for signatures. The first step is to take your instruction, so that we have all the precise details at hand, such as the Names, Dates of Birth, Addresses, Attorneys etc and then we can prepare a draft of the LPA, which will be emailed to you for you to check through. Once satisfied that all details are correct, we move on to stage two, where we jointly go through the documentation for signatures and witnessing.

Once complete, stage three is sending all documentation direct to the Office of Public Guardian, by recorded delivery, where they will process your application, which costs £82 registration fee for each Lasting Power of Attorney, payable to the OPG. The process can take between six to eight weeks for you to receive your LPA Registration.