Sunshine, Pool or Sea, Books and lots of walking or cycling. Just me and my wife. We don’t need to talk to anyone else or make ‘friends’ we enjoy our own company.

1 weekend a month away in the motorhome, and a decent 2 week summer holiday some where nice (Croatia this year).

I love the forum, and the magazine is essential bathroom reading for me. Have been a subscriber since I don’t know when, my subscriber number is 666 which makes me smile. I have never considered cancelling even though it is two years or so since I last rode an MTB (I ride an audax bike or tandem with my wife these days). I would miss it.

Another big head here 64cm – Currently Giro, but the Specialized S works helmets fit me well to. Not the normal Specialized ones though.

To be legally binding as a Will then the document needs to be attested in accordance with S9 Wills act 1837 –

No will shall be valid unless—
(a)it is in writing, and signed by the testator, or by some other person in his presence and by his direction; and
(b)it appears that the testator intended by his signature to give effect to the will; and
(c)the signature is made or acknowledged by the testator in the presence of two or more witnesses present at the same time; and
(d)each witness either—
(i)attests and signs the will; or
(ii)acknowledges his signature, in the presence of the testator (but not necessarily in the presence of any other witness),

So it sounds like what you have in the 2011 document is a letter of wishes, which whilst not legally binding would have considerable sway in a Court if things ever got that far.

The later Will is the valid one, the first clause in any will is ‘I revoke all previous Wills and Testamentary Dispositions’ or words to that effect. So the older will is automatically revoked by the making of a later Will.

She would be acting fraudulently if she were trying to prove an earlier Will in the knowledge that a later Will exists.

You may need the help of a specialist contentious probate lawyer (above my pay grade) – look here for someone near you https://actaps.com

We get this situation a lot with executors who cannot face the process of dealing with the estate of a loved one.

There are a couple of options that she might agree to if she can’t face the prospect of acting as an executor.

Firstly she could renounce her appointment, this means giving up her duties and leaving the job to you and your brother.

Alternatively she can reserve her power to act meaning that whilst she technically remains an executor of the estate she acknowledges that she is not taking an active part in the administration. This is often a more palatable option and means that she could technically become involved later down the line if she chooses to do so. (This almost never happens).

If you can get her to agree to that then you should be able to progress everything.

As far as selling the car goes, it is a chattel and as such you can dispose of it before probate is granted, unfortunately the V5 will be needed to transfer it as you will be signing it in your capacity of an executor.

Hope that helps. If you need anything more you can message me. Email is in profile.

Nick.

I did a cycle trip through Croatia, Montenegro, Albania and Greece a few years ago. The Kotor area was fabulous. I raved about it so much that me and the good lady are heading back to Dubrovnik and Kotor Bay this September for a proper holiday(her words not mine).

We used the green commute initiative to get an E-bike for my co-director. Really simple to use, no limits and a wide network of shops that they work with.

This was important with the bike she wanted as they are rarer than hen’s teeth. Set up from scratch and riding her new bike within 48 hours.

At 40, I was in a job I hated, that involved driving 50K miles a year and staying away from my Wife and young family at least three (up to five) nights a week. Was unfit, massively overweight and had no interest in doing anything.

Then I got made redundant, no redundancy pay as I had been on a fixed term contract (that ‘would always be renewed’ – until it wasn’t). I had no savings and needed to earn £2k a month to pay the bills and feed the family.

I found a training course that I thought was vaguely interesting in a sector I had never considered spent £995 on a course that I couldn’t afford and started my own business. Fast forward 17 years and I have my own successful business, a range of new qualifications that I could never have dreamed of, employ 15 people and enjoy a cycling holiday at least once a year. I am fitter than most of my peers, still a bit overweight but no longer morbidly obese.

My life began again at 42. Was it easy, no – to this day my wife still asks are we getting paid this month. Was it worthwhile, hell yes. Did I ever think I would get this far – never in a million years.

When I look back at who I was and who I am now, I am basically the same person, the redundancy gave me the imperative to succeed.

If I can do it you can too.

As a footnote, there is huge value in getting help. Over the years I have seen hypnotherapists, counsellors and I currently have a business coach to speak to. It just helps to have someone else in your corner.

My car is called Nemo – Registration is NMO. It is the first car that has ever had a name (I am 58) Only did it because the Volvo App insisted on it, but it is nice to get text messages from Nemo occasionally.

Do some research, therapists specialise in all sorts of different areas. Then speak to a few that you like the sound of. You will find that you build up a rapport with one and feel comfortable with them. They are the one you need to go with as you really need to trust you therapist to get the best out of them.

I am sure that you will get a free initial consultation with most of them.

@IHN – The enduring powers of attorney didn’t need to be registered before they were used. As a consequence they were widely abused and the LPA was bought in to combat that – compulsory registration before use was thought to add an extra layer of security / deterrent.

If you did register them it was only done at the point of loss of capacity as the law at the time said that once registered the attorneys would act and the donor could no longer act for themselves. There was no provision for fluctuating levels of capacity, you either had it or you didn’t. Again this is an area where LPAs are much better with clearly defined tests for capacity.

So they are most likely to be in the vault of the solicitors who wrote them. Technically they could be used, but good luck with getting a bank to understand what they are and how they should be dealt with.

Also the Enduring Power dealt with only financial matters there was no provision for decisions about Health & Welfare. So our current best advice is to just do new Lasting Powers of Attorney and forget about the old enduring ones.

As for registration, if they had ever been registered you would know about it as you would have been dealing with your parents affairs since at least October 2007 when LPAs came into force.

Hope that helps.

I have an old pair of Nike Air Rift – the ones with the camel toe (OOH ERR Missus) they are the most comfortable shoes/ sandals that I have ever owned. Hoping to get one more year out of them as they are not made anymore.

The really unscrupulous ones do it themselves online and then hand it to their parents and tell them to sign it. Parents are often scared to say no.

I have helped put a couple of them in Jail, but sadly most get away with it.

@cougar you misunderstood me apologies if I wasn’t clear. It is the people granting the power of attorney – the Donors – who are as you put it at risk of becoming intellectually feeble (Losing Capacity is the correct term) that we are advising. Their attorneys may or may not be scared of technology. Given that they tend to be younger it is normally the case that they can cope with these things.

We advise Donors as they are the only people who can grant a power of attorney. We will also advise and assist their families and potential attorneys if the Donor grants us permission.

There has recently been a review into the modernisation of Lasting Powers of Attorney and the Office of the Public Guardian have rejected the use of electronic signatures for now on the grounds that they are too open to abuse.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1075417/mlpa-consultation-response.pdf

138 pages of bedtime reading, will get even the worst insomniac to sleep.

@Cougar Only just logged back in. I think you missed my point. Many if not most of the people who make their LPAs with us are elderly and cautious about using technology. What we add for those people is Peace of Mind and certainty that things will be done right.

The point about granting Power of Attorney is correct you can’t take it it must be granted. Legislation springs from the Mental Capacity Act 2005 if you would like to research further. As for others doing the legwork. Yes – in fact you could argue that is what we do (and charge for) – anyone can help and in reality it is often the potential attorneys that assist. But the fact remains that in law a LPA can only be put in place by a donor granting power to one or more attorneys.

For those making points about joint accounts, banks can and do restrict access to a joint account when they find out that one holder has lost capacity.

They will restrict transactions to regular transactions only (Standing Orders and Direct Debits) of course they do have to find out that the account holder has lost capacity, but when they do it creates real problems.

Is there a reason to use a professional – possibly. But then I would say that because it is what I do for a living.

Bear in mind that you cannot put in place a Lasting Power of Attorney for anyone. They have to appoint you as their attorney, so it will be your parents making the application not you. The only time it falls into your hands to make an application is after they have lost capacity and then it would be an application for a Deputyship Order with the Court of Protection.

Never appoint just one attorney, as the document becomes useless if the nominated attorney loses capacity or dies.

Avoid appointing attorneys jointly, making restrictions as these can easily make the documents unworkable. You can’t do internet banking jointly, nor can you make cashpoint withdrawals jointly.

Try and do the LPA Joint and Several without restrictions whenever you can. Always, Always do the Health and Welfare LPA as well as the finance one my personal experience is that this can turn out to be the most useful when the fateful day arrives.

Extortionate fees – some do cost thousands but we charge £300 per person to put both documents in place (plus the government registration fees). For this our clients get a face to face meeting with a qualified advisor who takes them through the process and answers all of their questions in the way a FAQ page on a website cannot. Followed by draft documents to check. Followed by a second meeting in which they are taken through the signing process and we do the certificate provision too. For our, often elderly, often scared of technology, clients it is a popular and well received service that I believe offers reassurance and value for money.

But yes by all means if you feel confident that your parents will get it right, with your help, then do it online. I would rather everyone did that than anyone suffer the stress and costs of applying to the courts for a Deputyship Order.

Hope that helps, and to some extent explains why professionals charge a fee for doing this.

Nick.

We use an Oxford Revolver lock as a compromise. Heavier than the cable option but lighter than the D Lock.

Mcdonalds were always my go to, but I have had to move to Decaf now and they don’t do it. So if you want decaf then the answer is Greggs.

I have an XC60, absolutely love it. Pleasure to drive, it is simply the best car I have ever had. Previous two cars were Jaguar XF and Audi A4 estate it knocks spots off both of them. It is the T8 Plug in hybrid.

Sorry, been away for a couple of days. Some great suggestions there. I am near Peterborough, so we don’t have the luxury of a gallery or a university for graduate art.

I will trawl through everyone’s suggestions and present the wife with a shortlist!

Then she will go through the suggestions and tell me what we are having.

Madness supported by th Go-go’s at the Peterborough Wirrina 1979 it was fantastic as a 16 year old and still would be today.

I think it is entirely reasonable to level the playing field.

If it is too distracting to use a mobile whilst driving, it follows that it is too distracting to use a mobile while riding. If you are desperate to make a call on a ride, pull to the side and stop.

A sensible proposal.

I am an Estate Planner and Probate Lawyer and I also have a home clearance company.

I did one, it made me a better driver. But the whole discussion about retraining and retesting needs to be had.

My mother is 83, passed her test in the 1970’s and hasn’t driven a car for over 20 years, yet she has just renewed her licence again ‘just in case’ all she had to do to get a new licence was to fill in a medical declaration. She has never been done for speeding, or had an accident (mainly because she never drove more that a couple of miles in any case) so has never had any more training since the day she passed.

But if she wanted to, she could get in a car tomorrow and they have changed a lot in the past 20 years, and drive herself anywhere perfectly legally. Surely this can’t be right. The very thought of it is enough to give me nightmares.

Cancer
Dementia
Parkinsons
MS

and any other degenerative illnesses that should have been cured by now.

So with all the usual caveats, I am a Will Writer, not trying to sell you anything but if you need some advice please drop me a direct message.

Other than the house, me and the Ms. don’t really have much in the way of assets.

The sad fact is that we are all worth much more Dead than we are alive, especially if we die young. Life Insurances, Pension Pots etc pay out big lump sums. Depending on your personal situation and the arrangements you have in place already this means that you can quickly run up against inheritance tax issues that are easily avoided with a bit of planning.

The other big issue that has been highlighted already is the need to appoint a guardian for your son. A Will is the only practical way to do this.

Loads of information on my website https://www.will-probate.co.uk/helpful-information/ all split into bitesize video chunks.

Oh and don’t forget Lasting Power of Attorney.

To me, it is not just about the individuals. You look at whole teams that are performing way above the others or exceptionally compared to their previous track record – UAE winning everything Jumbo dominating, Bahrain last year with some eye popping performances. I do sometimes wonder what their secret is. They certainly haven’t shared it with Ineos.

I do watch and hope it is all done clean, but then I believed in Lance and defended him to the last. So I guess I might be a bit naïve.

Even Huw Edwards paused the BBC news at ten for a moment to recognise it. Must have been important.

Nobody has mentioned the L word. Liability, you fix little Johnny’s bike little Johnny then has massive crash. Parents hold you responsible and sue you could be on the Hook for tens of thousands if the injuries are life threatening.

Just Say No

There is a reason businesses have public liability insurance. Doing it for free or for payment in kind is not a defence in court.

People have also mentioned power of attorney. Our current real world experience of registering these documents is that the Office of The Public Guardian are taking 20 weeks to register the documents. This means practically if you started today it would be six months before you could use them, so that is a judgement call you need to make based on the prognosis. There is no current system to expedite an application based on urgent need.

RE A Will –

The intestacy rules (dying without a Will) say that the surviving spouse only gets everything if there are no children, which is not your situation.

In your situation the surviving spouse will be entitled to the first £270K of assets, the personal chattels of the deceased person and half of any assets above £270k. The other half of assets above £270k is shared equally between the surviving children.

This does not include jointly held assets which pass to the surviving joint holder (so joint bank accounts and jointly held property(just ensure that the property is not held a tenants in common as that doesn’t pass to the survivor)). Also excluded are pension payouts, which go to the person that the deceased has nominated or that the pension trustees choose. In most cases this will be the surviving spouse. Some life insurance payouts will also pay to nominated beneficiaries rather than to the estate.

So as you can see the answer to whether the survivor gets everything and whether you need to get a Will in place is very much it depends.

Bottom line a Will takes away any uncertainty and can help with other planning such as protecting assets from future care costs and wicked stepmothers/ fathers.

Hope that helps.
Nick.

They get a shonky TV with Freeview, as a privilege, which they lose at the first sign of any trouble or dissent.

It is not a hotel.

Yes we reported it to the bank and the police. The bank took action and got most of the money back. The police gave us a crime number to give to the bank.

Was a couple of years ago 2017? things may have changed.

Check his downloads, search the drive for video files, have a look in his temporary files, that should give you an idea of what he has been looking at and where. This may help identify the type of scam. I used to have to do this all the time with my father in law (God rest his soul).

His biggest fear was his daughter finding out what he had been looking at. He handed over quite a lot of money to scammers to prevent this. Fortunately Lloyd’s fraud department were very understanding and refunded a good chunk. The police were not interested in the blackmail angle.

So you have inherited the money and are planning to give it away to your son. In England and Wales this would be a potentially exempt transfer from your estate, so if you live 7 years it is outside of your estate for inheritance tax purposes and no tax is payable. If you die within the 7 years then the value will be aggregated back to your estate for the purposes of calculating IHT.

Some (not all) European countries have lifetime gift tax, so if Austria do you might find there is an immediate charge to tax when making the gift to your son. It is worth checking.

If you choose to keep the money in the UK then I would look at a Metro Bank trustee account which you can place the funds in directly and then use that account as a basis to make any investments for growth until your son needs the money. If you have a UK based trust then there are lots of investment opportunities, but you would need to talk to a specialist Financial Advisor about that.

Watched jules Holland on breakfast TV this morning and instantly went to his new album Pianola it was excellent, well worth a listen.

Adam Peaty FTW he has been on Strictly you know.