Care Home Fees could wipe out Wills.

Care home fees continue to be an issue that dominates the headlines and remain a particular concern to both the elderly and their families.

First, there is the question of whether people who are rightly entitled to care home funding are getting that help. Last year, BBC Panorama aired a programme entitled “The NHS National Homes Swindle” which highlighted the fact that some NHS Trusts were misapplying the eligibility criteria and denying funding to those who should have been entitled to it.

Essentially, if your funding needs relate to one of a list of qualifying medical needs, then funding should be available whereas if the care is for social care then the funding needs to be paid for by the individual.

There does seem to have been greater clarity since the programme aired although, as a firm, our elderly client specialists are still dealing with cases where funding has been refused.

More recently, the Law Society has issued a report suggesting that increasing care home fees may mean that assets in wills will be wiped out, leaving nothing for the elderly to pass on to their beneficiaries. This comes hot on the heels of Government proposals to address the inevitable pressure on long term care as life expectancy increases. Last year, Age UK estimated average care home fees at £470 per week (1) which prompted the Law Society to warn that many wills may need reviewing as the assets of residents in care continue to deplete and they suggest that people should seek legal advice on these issues before it is too late.

This concern also followed a report that more that more than 20,000 pensioners had to sell their homes last year to pay for their care home fees – an increase of 17% in the past 5 years.

Darrell Collins, partner with FDC Law and member of the Solicitors for the Elderly, said, “Many people will consider it unfair that people have saved and lived carefully all their lives only to see their assets wiped out because of care home fees. Also, what many people do not realise is that consultation with a specialist solicitor in this area of law to ensure that you have the right will, can mean that such a situation does not arise in the first place. Anybody who is worried about care costs should contact a specialist solicitor so they can receive the best advice on what can be done to help.”

(1) Age UK’s figures were based on research by healthcare analysts, Laing & Buisson, and the House of Commons library.

Children In Need - Feeling the Pinch?

As everyone knows, particularly if you were watching BBC1 last Friday night, the 19th November 2010 was Children In Need day. By the end of the telethon, over £18,000,000 had been raised for the charity - a healthy figure given all the talk of austerity measures and job cuts. In 2009, the figure was just over £20 million raised on the night, and in 2008 almost £21m was raised. In fact, looking back to 2004, the average amount raised by the end of the telethon across the seven years is around £18.5m.

So no obvious signs of people reining in their charitable giving or compassion fatigue?

FDC Law, Solicitors in Frome and Midsomer Norton, decided to run a fund-raising event this year. Four of our lawyers offered their time for free on Friday, 19th November to take will instructions from clients. The clients then paid our normal fee to Children In Need rather than to us. The lawyers were available for meetings all day and if they saw clients at, say, one will per hour, around £3,000-£3,500 could be raised for the charity.
So far so good.

By the end of the day we had raised just over £1,000 - and we were very pleased with the event. The clients and staff who took part all felt it was worthwhile and the charity will benefit. But why didn't we raise more?

There are a number of possibilities and what is more interesting is that take-up of the offer was significantly different between the two towns, Frome and Midsomer Norton, in which we ran it. Of the 28 clients who could have been seen on the day, 9 booked to see us. Is this a sign of belt-tightening in preparation for leaner times ahead? And if it is, why are people feeling the pinch more in one town than the other - towns only 10 miles apart?

Of course, it could just be that the marketing of the event needed to be better - and longer. If we run the event again next year with more adverts for a longer period and take-up is higher we may have our answer. But by that time, the economy may - hopefully - be moving in the right direction and people feeling more optimistic about the future.

As with so many things in life, only time will tell….

Pre-Nuptial Agreements - A Fresh Start?

Pre Nups

If you are planning your wedding, or getting ready to move in with a partner, the last thing you want to think about is the possibility of splitting up. It hardly sits well with the idea of the fairy tale wedding and lover everlasting. However, just as you buy home insurance and hope you won’t be burgled, it makes sense to consider a pre-nup or cohabitation agreement, even though you hope that you will never need it.

Both pre-nuptial agreements and cohabitation agreements are becoming increasingly common and have just been given a boost by the Supreme Court in their judgment in the landmark case of Radmacher v Granatino, which was handed down on 20th October 2010.

The Supreme Court upheld the wife’s contention that the parties should be held to the terms of their pre-nup. This is not an absolute rule: the court will always consider whether it is fair to hold couples to the terms of an agreement, and that changes in circumstances such as the birth of children will also have to be considered, however this is a clear indication that a pre-nuptial agreement will not lightly be ignored or disregarded.

The court also gave a strong indication that post-nuptial agreements would also be given significant weight, and that while this particular case concerned a marriage, the same would apply to couples in a civil partnership.

Discussing attitudes and expectations about finances with your partner in advance can help reduce the likelihood of falling out over those issues in the future, and if the worst happens, having a pre-nup can significantly reduce the cost and stress of a divorce, and can allow you to have a clear idea of where you would stand in such an event.

Contact Marjorie Taylor on 01761 417575 or Andrea Boutcher on 01373 463311 for more information or help.

Read more on Radmacher V Granatino here:

Full judgement available here:

Sponsorship

“We have a long tradition of supporting the communities in which we operate……” so begins the Community and Sponsorship page of FDC Law’s website.

And its true. We do. And there are many reasons why we do, ranging from “we think it’s the right thing to do” to, “many of us live in the area and our children and families will use the organisation” to, “it’s a sensible bit of marketing that might make people more likely to use the firm”.

Whatever the reason, it works for us and it seems to work for the many organisations that we help - you can see a list on our website:

But although we do try to help as many organisations as possible, it is not possible to help everyone and we receive more requests each year than our sponsorship fund can help. This creates a problem - who should we support and why? And what are the implications for supporting one request and not another?

These questions become even more relevant in recessionary times as, inevitably, sponsorship budgets are looked at more carefully at the same time as other avenues by which, for example, sports clubs or art organisations can obtain funding are cut.

This issue was highlighted recently when we received a request from a local under 8s youth football team for some sponsorship support. The club had come up with a new idea to try to raise the £400 to purchase a new kit by selling raffle tickets at £50 each to a number of local businesses. The successful ticket would then “win” their name on the team’s kit for the year.

We bought our ticket and awaited the result. Some weeks later, we were told that, despite promises from other businesses, we were the only organisation to have actually bought a ticket and the club needed more money. We have managed to find some extra funds to help the club buy the kit and so it seems that the story may have a happy ending; the children will get their new football kit and, hopefully, word of mouth will be positive about the firm.

But, of course, with only finite marketing budgets, some future requests may have to be turned down and this illustrates the problems of trying to help as many organisations as possible in these difficult times.

Will Writing

Use a solicitor for your Will

Over recent years, the pace of change in the legal industry has continued to accelerate and there are now, more than ever, a variety of avenues through which individuals can access legal services.

Traditionally, if an individual wished to draw up a properly constituted will, he or she would approach a firm of solicitors who would deal with this for them. Now, there are many options, including buying an off-the-shelf, fill-in-the-blanks will form from a high street retailer, using an online service or approaching a “will writer” who may offer to visit you in your own home. But are they offering the same service and value for money?

Solicitors have, for some time, been concerned with the rise of will writers and the de-skilling of this specialist area of the law. Here at FDC Law, we have had to deal with rectifying problems that individuals have encountered as a result of defects with incorrectly drafted wills. Of course, some might say that these concerns are merely self protection but the fact remains that there are real concerns about the burgeoning will writing industry in the UK.

Recently, BBC Panorama aired a programme “Wills – The Final Rip Off” which went out on BBC1 on Monday 9th August 2010. It raised a number of issues about the industry, including the lack of protection through regulation for consumers when compared to using a solicitor and also problems around the clarity of pricing.

On the face of it, it seems that a will writer offers the same service as a solicitor. It may also seem that the price they are offering is much cheaper than the solicitor’s service, particularly regarding the initial costs.

Solicitors train for a law degree for 3 years and then, generally, are at Law College for a further 2 years before they begin working in a law firm. A will writer can start writing wills immediately with no requirement for training.

Unlike solicitors, will writers are not required to have insurance and are not necessarily regulated by any umbrella organisation which ensures they conduct their activities in the interests of the client and provide redress if things go wrong. If a will writer goes out of business, there is often little that can be done and this can lead to problems, for example, with locating wills.

The Panorama programme highlighted a real case where an individual’s wife had used a will writer but the will failed to include any provision for him, leaving the entire estate in trust for his step-daughters. The Chief Executive of Solicitors for the Elderly appeared on the programme and expressed concern that a spouse had not been provided for and that the will writers appear to have failed to advise on his right to bring a claim against the estate for inadequate provision. She also emphasised the point that a specialists solicitor would have asked why a spouse was left out at the time of making the will, kept a detailed record of those reasons and advised of the high risk that the will would ultimately be challenged. She highlighted the fact that one of a solicitor’s main area of business is giving legal advice and, in this and many other instances, it is often the case that the will writer simply drafts the will without providing advice on the consequences and implications of clauses in wills.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority ensures that solicitors conduct their business in the interest of clients and that there is a form of redress if things go wrong. If a law firm goes out of business, the Solicitors Compensation Fund steps in to look after the firm’s clients and settle any claims. No such provision exists for will writers.

The other area of concern with regards to will writers is lack of clarity over costs. This lack of regulation means that many will writing companies offer low cost wills that potentially include significant fees to be paid once the client has died as part of the probate administration and more hidden costs for storage and any subsequent updates to wills.

What is clear is that, at the moment, will writers and solicitors are not operating on a level playing field. As a result, members of the public who think they are receiving a quality service at a low price from unregulated will writers are, very often, not receiving either.

It will be interesting to see if the new coalition Government looks to take any steps to protect consumers in this regard.

Welcome to our Blog

Brian Noctor

We are proud to say that we are entering into a new era at FDC Law. We have invested in our brand, our people and our marketing and our aim is to continue providing our clients with the best legal advice possible.

We cover a vast range of legal services and are more than happy to have conversations with our clients where we can actually help and direct you.

This Blog will contain case studies, news and advice so please feel free to subscribe to it, but you can also contact us in complete confidence if there is anything you need to discuss.