Published on: 8th March 2021

Do you have a child aged between 25 and 45?

We have changed the names and some of the circumstances in this article to preserve the anonymity of our clients and their family.

Mr & Mrs Smith become valued clients in 2008. They gave instructions for us to create mirror Wills with a Life Interest in Property Trust as well as Lasting Powers of Attorney. Mr Smith died in 2015 and the trust was formalised which protected half of the family home from care fees assessment. In 2016 Mrs Smith needed to go into care and in the four years that she was in care the total cost of care was over £300,000. All the assets owned by Mrs Smith were used to pay for her care but the half of the house that was placed into trust when Mr Smith passed away was preserved for the two children being John and Mary.

During the time that Mrs Smith was in care John & Mary contacted us a number of times with queries regarding the Lasting Powers of Attorney created by Mrs Smith. John and Mary were so grateful that their parents had given us instructions to create the Lasting Powers of Attorney since they (John and Mary) found them invaluable. Both John and Mary said that they would be in touch with us to create Wills with a Property Protection Trust and Lasting Powers of Attorney in due course.

Mary did contact us in 2019. She had a partner Richard and they had a three year old child together. Mary advised us that the relationship with Richard had become strained because Richard was having an affair. We recommended that Mary obtain relationship guidance and that she gave us instructions to create a Will with a Property Protection Trust and Lasting Powers of Attorney. We checked the ownership of her family home and ascertained that Mary and Richard owned the family home “jointly”. This meant that when the first died the survivor would instantly own the whole property whatever was written in the Will of the one who had died. We recommended that Mary discussed with Richard about owning the property as “tenants in common”. Owning a property as “tenants in common” means that you can control where your half of the family home goes on your death. In fact if Richard did not agree to become “tenants in common” with Mary we could still have arranged for the house to be owned that way. When Mrs Smith passed away in 2020 John and Mary were the executors of the Estate and asked us to assist them. We got to know John and Mary well and each said that once the Estate of their mother was finalised they would each contact us regarding their respective Estate plans. During our “Zoom” meetings it became clear that the relationship between Mary & Richard had deteriorated further to the point where Richard had moved to live with his girlfriend. John and his wife were helping Mary with child care and becoming very close to Mary’s child who was now five years old.

According to the Office of National Statistics 13755 people aged between 25 and 45 died in 2020 in England & Wales.

Mary, aged just over 40, starting suffering from Covid symptoms in January 2021 and died within a week. Mary had not made a Will. John & Mary are due to inherit the 50% of the family home that Mr Smith placed in trust when he passed away. The share that Mary was due to inherit will go to her child. It will go into a statutory trust until the child is 18. Because Mary died without a Will personal representatives will need to be appointed by the Court. In these circumstances it would be usual for the court to appoint the surviving parent being Richard as personal representative and trustee. Richard will need to appoint a second trustee and has already told John that he will appoint his girlfriend and not John. So Richard and his girlfriend will be controlling the fund due to go to Mary’s child at the age of 18. John is already concerned about what the trust fund will be used for. Furthermore, Richard has told John that he, John, and his wife can no longer see Mary’s child. Richard instantly owned the house the moment that Mary died. He has made it known that he will be selling the house as soon as possible so that he and his girlfriend can “enjoy the money”.

If only Mary had given us instructions to create a Will appointing executors and trustees to include John then, at least, John would have been able to ensure that the trust fund was truly kept for Mary’s child. Furthermore, if Mary had instructed us to change the ownership of the house from “joint tenants” to “tenants in common” then at least 50% of the home would go to her child in due course and not to Richard and his girlfriend.

If you have homeowning children aged between 25 and 45 and they have children (your grandchildren) please forward this article to them and suggest they contact us. If you are a client on 08 March 2021 and your child becomes a fully paid client in 2021 then in addition to the usual £50 Marks & Spencer voucher that we send you for referring a new client to us we will offer your child a 10% discount against our standard tariff.

On average one person aged between 25 and 45 living in England and Wales will have died in the last 38 minutes. In these uncertain times good quality Estate Planning is even more important than normal.   

If you have any questions or issues with Estate Planning or Estate Administration, call our experienced Client Services Team on 01732 868190 or contact us using our website by clicking here.

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Our Covid-19 policy is now that if you wish to give instructions or require general information about our Wills, Lasting Powers of Attorney or Trusts then we will carry out a telephone or Zoom appointment. However, if you wish to give instructions to one of our Consultants and you feel that you can only do this at a Face to Face meeting we are offering, at our Consultant’s discretion, a limited number of Face to Face appointments in most of the areas we normally cover (subject to Government advice). To see the areas we normally cover please click here. To arrange an appointment please telephone 01732 868190 or click here.

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