Have You Had Your “Legal Health” Checked?

We all see the signs on the motorway asking us if we have had our car health checked, and we may be “encouraged” either by employers or family to have our medical health checked. But have you had your “legal health” checked?

We all know the importance of a Will. Not only indicating to our family and the wider world what we wish to happen to our assets once we have passed away, but almost as importantly allowing us to appoint those people with whom we have faith and confidence as our Executors to inventory our estate, gather it in and distribute it as we wish under the terms of our Will. We may smugly sit back and tell ourselves that we dealt with that years ago. However, perhaps it would be prudent to have the content of our Will checked, and we would suggest particularly so if it is more than five years old.

Co-Habitants
One category of people whom we are keen to encourage to make Wills are those who are co-habiting and not married or in a civil partnership with the partner with whom they live. Again, whilst statute provides for this situation, should your partner die without a Will, you then have to petition the Court within six months of the date of death to ask the Court to determine how much of your partner’s assets you should receive. In doing so, the Court will take in to consideration the size and nature of your deceased partner’s estate, any benefit that will be received by you from elsewhere (eg life insurance policies, death in service benefit, pensions) and what other claims there are against your partner’s estate, such as whether there is a spouse or civil partner elsewhere, and your children, who would also have rights under intestacy. Since these provisions only apply where the deceased died without a Will, we would encourage co-habitants to make a Will so that it is clear whether they wish their co-habitee to benefit from their estate, and to what extent, or whether they do not wish their co-habitant to benefit at all!

Powers of Attorney
The other matter that we are keen to see people embrace, and in particularly recommend to anyone over the age of 50, is to make a Power of Attorney. While the absence of a Will is covered by legislation dealing with intestacy, the absence of a Power of Attorney does not have such a straight forward solution. The only option is to go to Court to seek appointment of a Guardian and unfortunately, the procedure may be prolonged, during which period the family is left in limbo as regards decisions as to where the adult who requires assistance should live. Access may also be denied to their accounts and investments. The procedure of seeking the appointment of a Guardian is also much more expensive than the preparation of a Power of Attorney, although legal aid may be available. Provided the party granting the Power of Attorney is capax, the procedure can be relatively swift

So given that making a Power of Attorney may arguably be more important than a Will, perhaps when you next receive an invitation to a 50th Birthday, perhaps instead of the nice bottle of wine or flowers, you could offer to contribute to the cost of a Power of Attorney. I am sure that won’t wreck your friendship!