Season’s Greetings and a New Year’s Resolution from Roche Legal

The end of the year is a natural time for us to reflect on the things we’ve achieved, the goals we’ve ticked off, and the people and places we’ve seen. For some of us, 2023 might have represented big progress in terms of our careers, our family life or our hobbies. For others, it may have been a quieter year, or even one that didn’t go as we expected at all.

Whether your 2023 has been a happy one, a difficult one or a mix of the two, we’d like to send you our very best wishes for the festive season and the New Year ahead.

Of course, part of the process of reflecting on the year that has just past is thinking about the one to come. By the time January comes around, you may well have a few New Year’s resolutions in mind.

As private client solicitors, we’d like to suggest a resolution to add to your list: making sure all your legal paperwork is in order. We know this job is often low on people’s priority lists, but it really is a vital task.

We’d love to speak to you about recording your wishes for the future. This may not sound fun, but taking the time to do this would enable you to move into 2024 with the peace of mind of being prepared for whatever might be ahead.

This is an important task whether you’ve never made legal documents such as a Will and/or a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) before, or whether you’ve previously made some that might need updating.

If you’ve never made a Will or LPA 

If you’ve never thought about making a Will or an LPA before, there really is no time like the present. None of us know for sure what might be ahead, but making a Will or an LPA just in case could make all the difference to your loved ones if they were ever needed.

A Will is a vital document that makes clear what you would wish to happen to your assets in the event of your death. This document can be used to ensure your children, partner and other loved ones would be provided for.

It’s particularly important to make a Will if:

• You would want to bequeath your assets to an unmarried partner.
• You have a blended family.
• You have a high value or complex estate.

However, even if you believe your affairs would be relatively straightforward, leaving a valid Will could make things much easier for your loved ones at an incredibly difficult time.

A Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) could help to protect you and your family if you were left unable to make decisions for yourself. This might be due to a permanent disability such as dementia or brain damage, or it could be due to a temporary impairment such as a coma.

In these situations, an LPA can be used to nominate an individual or group of people you would wish to be able to act on your behalf. Your solicitor will help you to make clear in your LPA what kind of decisions you would like these individuals to have the authority to make, and what your wishes might be in those situations.

If you’ve made a Will or LPA in the past

If you’ve made these documents in the past, we recommend scheduling an appointment to review them. Not only is it important to make sure that what is recorded in these important documents still reflects your wishes, it’s also wise to ensure they are kept in line with any changes in both your personal life and the law.

Your solicitor will be able to advise on whether there may be any issues with the validity of your existing documents, or even if there are any additional inheritance planning suggestions you may wish to take into account.

How to get started

Making an appointment to discuss a new Will or LPA, or to review existing ones, really couldn’t be easier. If you’ve never worked with us before, we invite you to schedule a complimentary fifteen minute call with us to find out how we could help you. You can find out more and sign up to book your discovery call here.

You might also want to take a look at our quick and simple inheritance tax calculator to get an idea of how much tax may come due on your estate as things currently stand.

How Roche Legal can help

We are reassuring experts who can help you with a wide range of legal matters. Please get in touch if you need legal support with:

• Trusts and Estate Planning
• Wills
• Probate and Estate Administration
• Contested Probate and Will Disputes
• Powers of Attorney
• Court of Protection matters
• Presumption of Death Applications
• Missing Persons Guardianship Applications