Care Home Fees

Helping Care Workers and Care Homes facilitate their clients’ Estate Planning

Working in Care, many of you will have clients who lack the confidence or the mobility to arrange a meeting to obtain professional advice when they need advice on important issues such as their financial or testamentary affairs.

You know that your client needs help and you would dearly like to assist, but you have a dilemma. If you don’t have a good relationship with advisers you can trust, you may not wish to take the risk of helping to arrange a meeting that could end up being detrimental for your client.

At Sutton McGrath Hartley we provide an Estate Planning service which you can refer your clients to with confidence, and help them to get the advice they need at a reasonable price and in a timely manner.

As a firm of Trust & Estate Practitioners, Solicitors, and Chartered Tax Advisers (all under one roof), you can rest assured that we have in depth expertise in both the legal and the tax planning issues that will impact your clients’ decisions.

Furthermore, all our work is regulated by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales (ICAEW), and our multi -disciplinary skill set, combined with a strong ethical approach and the highest of standards, is hard to find in any but the larger, and more expensive, national firms.

If you refer to us, your clients’ best interests will be served every time.

The following are some specific examples, indicating how the work we specialise in could benefit your clients:

Will drafting

The first, and universally essential, element of estate planning is a properly drafted Will, so the Wills we prepare for our clients are all drawn up to the highest standards, using the STEP Code for Will Preparation.

If your clients do not have a Will in place, they will die intestate and it is highly unlikely that the intestacy rules will dispose of their estate as planned.

Lasting Powers of Attorney & Deputyship orders

Some of your clients may become physically or mentally incapacitated through age, illness or injury.

If they do not have a Power of Attorney in place an application to the Court of Protection for a Deputyship order may be necessary.

That can be a very time consuming and expensive process, and could result in someone other than the client’s chosen attorney being in control.

A Lasting Power of Attorney is therefore a sensible, and relatively inexpensive, precaution.

Estate Administration

There may be times when someone in your care dies and if that happens our team can help with all of the following:

• The practical points on dealing with a death; such as registering the death,
• Locating the Will, making funeral arrangements, & safeguarding assets
• Locating and contacting the executors and beneficiaries:
• Obtaining probate
• Administration of the estate
• Estate taxes

Statutory Wills

If an individual lacks the mental capacity to execute their own Will it is possible, in certain circumstances, to apply to the Court of Protection and have a Statutory Will approved.

If there is evidence to suggest that the individual would have had specific preferences for the devolution of their estate we can help with this complex process.

There are many more ways that we may be able to help you help your client.

If you think we could be of benefit please give us a call on 0114 266 4432 for a confidential discussion or email wills@smh.group