Financing your funeral in advance – why is this a good idea?

August 19, 2018December 30, 2018Leave a comment

It’s ALWAYS a good idea to arrange a pre-paid Funeral Plan, but in some circumstances it’s a REALLY good idea.

There are many circumstances that make it especially important to have a pre-paid Funeral Plan in place. For example:

• You may have children with specialist needs who would find it very difficult to cope with making your funeral arrangements.
• If you have very few or no living relatives then it will give you the peace of mind of knowing you’ll have the funeral you want. Plus, you avoid burdening your friends with your funeral costs and the second-guessing of your wishes.
• Maybe money is tight and you are concerned about your – or your spouse’s/partner’s – funeral would be paid for when one of you passes away? With both our Dignity and Safe Hands Funeral Plans you can pay for one plan and use it for the funeral of whoever passes away first. You can always take out a second plan later when you can afford it.

How Funeral Plans Can Help
We recently sold a Funeral Plan to a lady in her early forties. She owns a small business locally and is a single mum of a teenage daughter. Her own mum had sadly passed away a few months earlier, and she was very worried about how her young daughter would cope with all the arrangements, as well as the grief, if anything happened to her.

We were able to reassure her that if she arranged a pre-paid Funeral Plan then a single phone call would be the single action needed to arrange the funeral. It means that all her funeral wishes are now documented, and the funeral is paid for in full. She now has peace of mind that everything will be taken care of and her daughter will have one less thing to worry about. Hopefully it will be a very long time before the plan is needed, but that’s the best thing about having a pre-paid Funeral Plan – even if our client lives another 40 years her funeral will still be paid for in full. There’ll be no extra costs for her family, no matter how much the funeral costs will have increased by then.

A Sensitive, Friendly and Professional Approach
A R K specialises in dealing with more challenging situations. Our friendly approach and home visits are timed to suit you. Even if someone is unwell or has specialist needs then we can help them – whether this is with a Funeral Plan, a Will or a Lasting Power of Attorney.

Sometimes, a terminally ill person wants a Funeral Plan. This is obviously a very difficult situation for the person concerned and for their family. Recently, we helped a client who had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. They had been told that they only had a very short time to live. By handling the situation in a sensitive manner and visiting at times when client felt well enough to talk to us, we could get everything arranged and finalised very quickly; so the client and his family had peace of mind and one less thing to worry about.

To give our customers more choice we now offer Dignity Funeral Plans alongside our existing Safe Hands plans. They are similar prices and you can choose from a range of options. Your A R K consultant will help you select the provider and plan that best suits your needs.

We carry out appointments in the privacy of your own home, or by telephone if you prefer. We can then offer you that same peace of mind that our existing clients have.

Please visit our Funeral Plan page for more detailed information or contact us on 01438 746977 or email info@arkpowers.com to discuss your requirements. We you offer our expert advice for free – with absolutely no pressure to buy.

The Business Case for a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA)

May 30, 2018December 30, 2018Leave a comment

All business owners should consider a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) as the final piece of the business protection jigsaw puzzle.

Have you considered what might happen to your business if you:

• lost your mental capacity through illness or injury?
• were stranded abroad because of delay or extreme weather conditions?

Who would take over the running of the business on your behalf to:
• sign contracts?
• pay salaries and suppliers?
• write cheque?
• make the important day-to-day decisions to keep the business going?

Even if your bank account is held jointly with your spouse, it can be frozen until a Deputyship Order is produced by the Court. Business accounts can also be frozen, even where these are held jointly in the names of business partners or directors. How would your business cope with no funds? Many businesses in these circumstances fail.

If you suddenly lose mental capacity and haven’t made a Business LPA, it may become necessary to make an application to the Court of Protection for the appointment of a deputy to act on your behalf. The process can be expensive, and there’s no guarantee that the Court of Protection will choose someone who you would have chosen. It could also take more than six months before a deputy is appointed, during which time your business may be vulnerable and at risk.

The Business LPA and lack of capacity…

Most businesses have a Key Person Insurance Policy and crisis management plans in place, but the issue of lack of capacity is often overlooked. You might think the options are obvious, but there is no automatic legal right to deal with another person’s financial affairs. Don’t assume that a family member or a business colleague will gain the authority to make these decisions on your behalf – this assumption could leave your business exposed to risk.

To protect your interests, and those of your business, you should consider making a Business LPA.

Having a Business LPA in place allows someone that you trust – someone who understands your business – to take over the day-to-day affairs as soon as they are needed. Your attorney might be given the power to pay suppliers and staff, access and manage bank accounts, invest assets, handle tax matters and enter into contracts. Of course, you can limit your attorney’s power, but you need to ensure that the company can continue to operate with any limits in place.

The aim of all business owners is to make their business a success and to provide for their families and their loved ones. You work very hard, commit time and money to your business and have employees and suppliers who are depending on you. You have families who need your financial support and security.

It is natural to hope you will never need a Lasting Power of Attorney but why take the chance?

Business continuity…

A Business LPA should be an essential element of your business continuity plan, and the cost of setting one up is a small price to pay for the continuing success of the business you have worked so hard to build. It’s a one-off cost as well (as long as you don’t change your mind about who you have appointed as your attorney).

A Business LPA is a type of ‘insurance’ that all business owners should have, and it truly is the final piece of the business protection jigsaw puzzle!

Next steps…

Our fee to arrange a Business LPA for you (including registration of the document with the Office of the Public Guardian – so that is ready to be used immediately should it be necessary) is £175 (no VAT to pay). It’s a tax-deductible expense for your company, and the only additional fee to pay will be £82 to cover the Office of the Public Guardian fee.

Contact A.R.K. Lasting Powers & Wills today for a chat about how easy it is for us to assist you with making this document that could be vital for your business. It can be arranged at a face to face meeting, or by phone/email if you prefer. Call us on 01438 746977 or email info@arkpowers.com.

The law regarding Inheritance Tax and making gifts

October 17, 2017December 30, 2018Leave a comment

Believe it or not, you are actually allowed to make some gifts without your heirs having to pay any tax at all. Understanding where these boundaries lie however, is generally an area many of us can find confusing. With this in mind, I’ve pulled together a breakdown that whilst comprehensive should be easily digestible!

The law –

You are allowed to make tax free gifts as follows:

Gifts to ‘exempt beneficiaries’:

You can give as much money as you like to certain people and organisations without paying Inheritance Tax (this applies whether you give money whilst living or after you death, via your will). Exempt beneficiaries include:

Your husband, wife or civil partner, provided they live permanently in the UK
Charities registered in the UK – to check which charities qualify, visit the HMRC website
Some national organisations like universities, museums and the National Trust

NOTE that gifts to unmarried partners or unregistered civil partners are not exempt from Inheritance Tax.

Your Annual Exemption:

You are allowed to give away a total of £3,000 each year, without any tax implications after your death. Bear in mind that this is the total annual amount that you can give away, NOT a total amount you can give to each beneficiary, each year.

It is also worth noting that your Annual Exemption can be carried forward for one year if it has not been used. In other words, if you did not make any gifts of money during last year, you can give away a total of £6,000 this year. Equally, if you gave away £1,500 last year, you’ll be able to give away a total of £4,500 this year.

The Annual Exemption cannot be carried forward by more than one year.

Giving small cash gifts:

In addition to the exemptions above, you can give away small gifts – not more than £250 – to as many people as you like in one tax year. However, some points to remember include:

You can’t make a gift of more than £250, and claim exemption on the first £250 (larger gifts are treated differently)
You can’t combine the small gifts exemption with another exemption when giving money to one person. In other words, you can’t give one person £3,250 and claim exemption based on a combination of the small gifts and ‘Annual’ exemption.

Wedding gifts:

Provided that you give or promise to give a cash gift on, or shortly before, the ceremony you can make quite large cash gifts as wedding or civil partnership presents, without being liable for Inheritance Tax. The limits on such gifts depend on your relationship with the recipient:

If you are a parent you can give up to £5,000 tax free
Grandparents can give up to £2,500
Anyone else can give up to £1,000

Remember, however, that if the wedding or civil partnership is called off and you still give the gift, it will NOT be exempt from Inheritance Tax.

Regular gifts or payments:

Any gifts that are part of your normal expenditure are exempt – provided they are made from your net, ie. after tax income (not your savings); and that you have enough money left over to maintain your lifestyle. These exempt payments include:

Maintenance for your husband, wife, civil partner
Maintenance for your ex-husband, ex-wife or former civil partner
Maintenance for relatives who depend on you
Maintenance for your children, adopted children or step-children, as long as they are under 18 or in full-time education
Monthly or regular payments to anyone
Regular gifts for Christmas, birthdays or wedding/civil partnership anniversaries
Premiums on life insurance policies

What if I want to make other/larger gifts? – The ‘Seven Year’ rule

Any gifts you make that do not fall under the scope of those mentioned above will be treated as your asset in decreasing percentages for some time after you have made that gift.
Gifts made 3 to 7 years before your death are taxed on a sliding scale known as ‘taper relief’.

We’d all rather our loved ones benefitted from the full inheritance we want to leave them, let’s not line the taxman’s pockets with more than we have to. Contact A.R.K on 01438 746977 or email info@arkpowers.com for more information.