FCA Regulate Funeral Plans

This time last year the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) confirmed its provisional conclusions about the funeral services sector.

Their final report set out further detail on the remedies, which they saw were needed to support the industry, these being

• an obligation for all funeral directors and crematorium operators to disclose prices in a manner that will help customers make more informed decisions;
• that information must be provided in advance of a customer committing to purchase a service so that people know the price they will be charged and the key terms of business – for example if a deposit is required;
• that customers should be made aware of any relevant business, financial and commercial interests of the funeral director, and that certain practices – such as payments which may incentivise hospitals, care homes or hospices to refer customers to a particular funeral director – will be prohibited;
• a recommendation to government to establish an independent inspection and registration regime to monitor the quality of funeral director services as a first step in the establishment of a broader regulatory regime for funeral services.

Following on from that funeral plan providers came under scrutiny and proposals were put forward to regulate the industry and after months of discussions it has been agreed that the funeral plan industry will be regulated by the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) from the end of July next year.

The new rules being introduced will ensure high standards in the funeral plans market and require firms to ensure that their plans are sold fairly, perform as expected and provide value for money.

These rules mean:

• funeral instalment plan products will always deliver a funeral (after a moratorium period) as the FCA will be banning those that don’t guarantee this
• cold calling will be banned and new standards on advertising will be implemented to ensure plans are sold fairly
• commission payments to intermediaries will be banned to ensure products represent fair value
• those selling funeral plans are subject to full checks on their fitness to operate to improve governance standards and oversight

Golden Leaves, the company whose plans we provide and having been doing so for the past 15 years, have been instrumental in getting regulation for the industry in order to weed out those less reputable companies and to put an end to cold calling and pressurised selling of funeral plans.

Whilst I firmly believe in funeral plans and have one myself, they are not for everyone. For that reason, I have produced a short and free report on the pros and cons of funeral plans  If you want the report you can download it here no questions asked,. I will not even be asking you for your name or email address!

If you are unsure as to whether a funeral plan is right for you, download a report on the pros and cons here

or copy this link into your browser

www.ccep.london/dwnloads/funeralplans.pdf

Video One
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qIQwxnEfnY
and the video link mentioned in it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyHVlGevSrY

I will post part two next week.  Enjoy!

It was originally believed that Aretha Franklin died without a Will, leaving her multimillion pound estate to the rules of intestacy. However, the lawyers for her estate revealed that three Wills have subsequently been found.

Initially, two handwritten Wills written in 2010 were found locked in a cabinet. These Wills revealed that the singer had named her niece Sabrina Owens and son Theodore White II as Executors of her estate. The third Will discovered under a sofa cushion more recently, was supposedly written in 2014 and names her son Kecalf Franklin as Executor.

The 2014 Will is reportedly difficult to decipher, so it needs to be determined whether it qualifies as valid Will. The Will has words crossed out, notes in the margins and the handwriting is hard to read in places.

Aretha Franklin’s estate is reportedly worth approximately $80 million (£62 million) and it is still unclear as to who will inherit the estate. If a Will is found to be valid then the estate should be distributed as per the wishes set out in the Will. On the other hand, if it’s ruled that the singer died intestate, then under the intestacy rules set out by Michigan state law, Aretha Franklin’s four surviving children would inherit an equal split of her estate.

The importance of leaving a valid Will

The uncertainty around how Aretha Franklin’s estate will be distributed highlights the importance of not only creating a Will but also ensuring that it is legal and stored in a safe place. Regardless of age, health and wealth, it’s crucial that people state their wishes in a Will. This avoids their estate being distributed in the predetermined way dictated by intestacy laws.

To make a Will,  you must be 18 years old or older in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, or 12 years or older in Scotland. You must make it voluntarily, be of sound mind and make it in writing. Additionally, in England and Wales, you are required to sign it in the presence of two witnesses who are both over 18, and your two witnesses must sign the Will in your presence. However, in Scotland, you are one required to sign it in the presence of one witness that is over the age of 16. You can’t name the witnesses or their married partners as beneficiaries in the Will.

You should also consider where you store the Will. The best approach to ensure your Will is found when the time comes, is to inform your Executor(s) of where the Will is stored.

Secure and safe storage of your Will(s) is crucial if they are to be found in a pristine condition when needed and hence not contested.  It is crucial they are found when needed otherwise you are considered to have died intestate i.e. not having a Will at all.  This is why we always talk about our storage facility and the importance of storing your Wills outside your home.

When we set up our Will writing division some 12 years ago, we needed to find a secure means of storing the Wills we write and we looked at all the options available

At the time banks used to store Wills, which they no longer do, so we needed to look for alternatives as storing Wills at home is extremely risky and something we strongly advise against.

Once securely stored with us, we provide you with a storage certificate to keep and we also provide copies to give to your Executors and friends.  Our facility is completely secure and offers the following safety features:

• Protection against fire, flooding & water damage
• 24 Hour CCTV Monitoring
• Secure perimeter fencing & electronic access gates

Your Will is then registered on “The National Will Register” free of charge (usually £30 per Will). This is a UK wide database used to record the location of Wills. This is the first place that a legal professional should check if the executors are unable to locate the original document themselves.  Please note “The National Will Register” do not store Wills.

There really are few alternatives.  Banks no longer seem to offer storage facilities for Wills, which means you’d need to rent a safe deposit box.  If you decide on that option, you need to find out how the bank will control the box after your death. Some banks will not allow anyone except a court-appointed administrator to open the box to retrieve the Will. This policy may cause difficulty and delay in settling your Estate. Other banks allow a family member to remove the Will in the presence of bank officials. Whatever their protocol you should make sure the Executor named in your will has access to your safe deposit box after your death.

Banks will make a charge for any storage facility and these charges will escalate over time.  The price you pay when your Will is stored with us stays the same for the duration your Will is stored with us, so the real cost, less than a cup of coffee per month, will diminish over time.  In addition, you can store other documents with us, such as Powers of Attorney, deeds, life policies etc.

We strongly advise against storing your Wills at home but if you do there is no guarantee they will be protected from fire, theft, floods or pests and any marking of the Will, even that made by a paper clip can draw its validity into question and may cause it to be contested.  It also leaves open the risk of someone defacing or destroying your Will. The majority of Wills that are destroyed or damaged at home are done so at the hands of the owner whether or not through a simple accident, but it happens with surprising frequency.

If you do decide to store your Wills at home you will need to tell someone you trust where you have put them, so that they can be found when you die.  This is very important because if the original, signed Will is not found, your Estate would normally be treated as if you had died intestate, and your assets might not be distributed as you would have wished.  Relying on others to remember the location of Wills is not wise. Individuals do forget and become confused, particularly at distressing times, so it is sensible to leave a note of their location with your important papers.  If you decide to store them at home, you should really get a fireproof safe and you will need to advise your home and contents provider of this.

Storing your Wills with us is not only safe and secure, but also at £25 per Will per year is remarkably good value.  Having taken the responsible step in getting your Wills written then give yourself the peace of mind to know that they are being properly looked after.  There’s no point in writing your Wills to risk them being lost, damaged or defaced.

If you decide to store your Will outside our storage facility then you accept full responsibility for its safekeeping and it would be worth paying the £30 registration fee to “The National Will Register” to have the location of your Will(s) stored on their database.

In the 2018-2019 tax year, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) opened a staggering 5,537 Inheritance Tax (IHT) investigations.  This represents a 3.4% increase in comparison to the previous 2017-2018 tax year. Staggeringly this equates to nearly a quarter (23%) of the 22,000 estates where Inheritance Tax is due. With such an incredibly high proportion of estates affected, it raises concerns about whether those responsible for paying Inheritance Tax are aware of the risks if they make mistakes.

There have been well-publicised cases of lay-Executors having to shell out thousands of pounds of their own money for mistakes they’ve made in the Estate Administration of their loved ones.  One of the worst cases was in 2018, when a lay Executor was held personally liable for a £340,000 IHT bill. Read all about it here

This is an extreme case but employing the services of legal professionals to help you administer the estate can ensure the role is carried out correctly and minimise any personal risk to yourself.

The role of an Executor or Administrator: Risks and responsibilities

Personal Representatives (Executors if there’s a Will or Administrators if there’s no valid Will) are responsible for administering someone’s estate when they pass away. This includes handling all the paperwork and paying the correct amount of Inheritance Tax (IHT), as well as dealing with assets, paying debts, handling Income Tax and transferring the inheritance to beneficiaries.

The role of an Executor or Administrator is not to be taken lightly as they have a legal and financial duty to ensure everything is dealt with correctly and in a timely manner. Among other responsibilities, they’re personally liable for the correct distribution of an estate, responsible for maximising the estate for the beneficiaries, and accountable if there are any errors on the Inheritance Tax return.

Many people are unaware of the risks and responsibilities that come with the role.   It’s easy to walk in to such responsibilities when asked if you can be named as an Executor by a loved one, spouse or sibling, where the typical response is “of course, no problem”.

So if you have taken on such a role, what can you do about it.  Well, you have the right to stand down, in which case others named as Executors can take on the role or you can appoint a professional Executor.

In the Wills we write, we insist that a professional Executor is named in one of three capacities. as the sole Executor, as the joint Executor working with other named Executors, or as a reserve Executor, to be called in only when the named Executors are unable to act.

The professional organisation we work with are Premier Solicitors and you can read about their services here

We believe that Executors and Administrators need to be more aware of their responsibility when it comes to administering an estate. Estate administration can be extremely complex so we advise putting the estate in the hands of experts, preferably someone who will take the legal and financial burden off your shoulders.

Premier Solicitors are one of the UK’s leading estate administration providers and take care of the complicated practicalities after death, so you can focus on life’s important moments.

Before you agree to being an Executor find out what’s REALLY involved. Request our report “The Role of An Executor by clicking here 

So, if you are in one of these arrangements and don’t have a Will be aware that your partner will get absolutely nothing when you die.  It is a popular misconception that if a couple live together they will gain certain rights by being a ‘common law wife’ or a ‘common law husband’. There is no basis in English law for this. There is no such thing as a ‘common law husband or wife’ regardless of how long you’ve lived together.  So,. if you really love and care about your partner and you don’t want her to suffer financially when you pass away, act now and write your Will.

In summary

• In 2018, there were 19.1 million families in the UK, an increase of 8% from 17.7 million in 2008.
• The number of cohabiting couple families continues to grow faster than married couples and lone parent families, with an increase of 25.8% over the decade 2008 to 2018.
• The number of same-sex couple families has grown by more than 50% since 2015, with more than four times as many same-sex married couple families in 2018 compared with 2015.
• In 2018, there were 27.6 million households, an increase of 350,000 on the previous year and 1.7 million since 2008.
• The number of people living alone in 2018 has surpassed 8 million, up from 7.7 million in the previous year, driven by increases in women aged 45 to 64 years and men aged 65 to 74 years.
• In 2018, one in four young adults (3.4 million) aged 20 to 34 years were living with their parents.

If you’re interested in knowing more and in greater detail click here

Whilst Will Writing is not a regulated industry, (yes even your next door neighbour can set themselves up in a Will writing business with absolutely no qualifications), we treat is as though it were regulated.  We have a compliance team which set out the way I am to operate, they check every Will I write to ensure it fully meets your wishes and I carry a £2m Professional Indemnity Insurance policy for your added protection.

If you have a friend or relative that you know does not have a Will, please give them my details.

Steer them well away from online services that offer cheap Wills, such as Nine Minute Wills that only charge £19.99 for a single Will or £29.99 for a joint Will.  Yes, it is cheap and those using their service will not get the 2 hours or more I spend face-to-face with my clients taking their instructions and discussing their options.  Companies that offer such cheap Wills write themselves in as the Executor for which they charge a high fee, as much 4% of the Estate in the case of Nine Minute Wills.  So, in the London area where an Estate can easily be above a million pounds, their fees at 4% on a £1m Estate would amount to a staggering £40,000 plus a 25% uplift on disbursements!

We work with Premier Solicitors to ensure you get charged a fixed fee fair and proper and commensurate with their work acting in the capacity as Executor.  So if you know someone who has recently suffered a bereavement let me take away the burden, worry and pressure of the administration of the deceased’s Estate at such an upsetting and distressing time.

So, if you know of anyone without a Will or who has suffered a bereavement, please pass on my details.  I get nearly all my new clients from referrals and don’t want to be the industry’s best kept secret!

Your Will is one of the most important documents you will ever make and if you store your Will at home you are taking a real risk.  You’ve written a Will to protect your family, your assets and to ensure you are no considered to have died intestate (i.e. not having written a Will) so why take the risk of it being lost, damaged by flood, fire or pests, having it stolen or defaced maliciously.  Sounds extreme?  Well it’s not.  Even a simple marking of the Will, even that made by a paper clip can draw its validity into question. The majority of Wills that are destroyed or damaged at home are done so at the hands of the owner whether or not through a simple accident, but it happens with surprising frequency.  So don’t store it at home!

If you decide to store your Will at home, really need a fireproof safe and yes, it really is that important .  You will need to advise your home and contents provider of this and the likelihood is that your premiums will rise.  You would need to ensure others can access the safe and that they are aware that your Will is stored there.  This may not be the obvious place to look at a time of grief when they have found your source of important papers and not found your Will among them.

Banks no longer seem to offer storage facilities for Wills, which means you’d need to rent a safe deposit box.  If you decide on that option, you need to find out how the bank will control the box after your death. Some banks will not allow anyone except a court-appointed administrator to open the box to retrieve the Will. This policy may cause difficulty and delay in settling your Estate. Other banks allow a family member to remove the Will in the presence of bank officials. Whatever their protocol you should make sure the Executor named in your will has access to your safe deposit box after your death.  Banks will make a charge for any storage facility and these charges will escalate over time.

Only the original Will, in a pristine condition will enable probate to take place so that the assets can be distributed in accordance with the wishes of the person who wrote the Will.  A copy of the Will, will not do, it has to be the original, which is why it is so important to look after the original signed and witnessed Will.

So why not take advantage of our secure Will storage facility.  We will take ownership and FULL responsibility for the lifetime storage of your Will and other documents you entrust to us for less than a cup of coffee a month, a charge that remains the same for the duration your Will is stored with us.

Once checked over to ensure it has been properly signed and witnessed, your Will is then deposited in our secure facility which has the following safety features:

• Protection against fire, flooding & water damage

• 24 Hour CCTV Monitoring

• Secure perimeter fencing & electronic access gates

In addition your Will is registered on “The National Will Register” a UK wide database used to record the location of Wills, free of charge (usually £30 per Will). This is the first place that a legal professional should check if the executors are unable to locate the original document themselves.

However, the fact that the beneficiaries are only known once a Will is read can cause concerns, upsets and disputes.  Even more so the fact that the distribution of assets is also only known at the time of the publishing of the Will.

The circumstances surrounding a Will can come as a worry and/or disappointment to beneficiaries who often enthusiastically accuse family members of undue influence and fraud. Capacity issues are also more common largely due to an ageing population, the rise in mental health issues, such as dementia and Alzheimer’s, and a greater awareness of mental health issues in general.

So although you’ll not be around when the proverbial hits the fan, do you really want to leave such an unpleasant legacy behind?  If you know your Will could be an issue, why not talk to your beneficiaries about its contents.  This way you can you circumvent the possibility of your Will being contested.  Bear in mind what is called the M-Word – money.  Nothing can be more divisive than the issue of money.

Where a serious dispute arises as to the validity of a Will, the knowledge of the person who wrote the Will makes them a material witness. This is why I ask so many questions when we first meet and why I ask you to sign a variety of documents in the process.  In that way, I know that the contents of your Will will stand the test of time and that a successful contesting of your Will, unlikely.  In such a situation I have a paperwork trail that shows that you had the mental capacity to write your Will and that the contents fully reflect your wishes.

Remember too that after your passing, your Will is published openly and is then in the public domain.  Your Letter of Wishes, however is private and only available to the Executors of your Will,  So if you have excluded someone from your Will, the reason for doing so should be contained in your Letter of Wishes and not in your Will.

.A living funeral is where someone attends their own funeral before they die so that they may say goodbye to loved ones and celebrate their life and the end of it

Today a living funeral is most commonly held by those who are expecting to pass away soon, such as those with a serious illness and the person will write their own eulogy and participate in a funeral-like ceremony during which they can silently meditate and reflect upon their life and the end of it.

Holding a ‘living” funeral can help to get a fresh perspective on life, face up to the inevitability of death and, in the case of those suffering from a terminal illness, give people a chance to say goodbye to loved ones.

In a culture like Britain’s, which is traditionally quite emotionally reserved, living funerals can free people up to let their emotions out without feeling embarrassed or awkward.  It wasn’t all that long ago, that all mourners had to wear black and widows were expected to stay in black clothes for at least a couple of years.  Queen Victoria famousely mourned the loss of Prince Albert by wearing black from the moment he died until her passing some 40 years later!

So, does the advent of living funerals suggest we’re getting more comfortable with the idea of our own mortality? Not necessarily so.  It might be down to a mixture of a freer culture and a more open conversation around end-of-life issues, but living funerals are more common than you might think.

Whether or not the thought of attending your own funeral appeals, perhaps some people will be comforted simply by having the option. There’s an expectation that a funeral needs to be quiet, religious and solemn.  But if you’ve organised your own funeral you could ditch the religious side of things in favour of a brighter and more party atmosphere.

While living funeral therapy may seem extreme – and it may not be for everyone – it might be one way for us to start considering our options and make plans that will help our loved ones after we are gone. Even something as simple as a funeral plan can be an important step.

I’m not sure it’s something I’d like to do as I really don’t want to hear the eulogies of what people might say about me when I’m gone!

So if you don’t want your pension or other benefits going to the wrong person, then take a few moments to see who is named on the policy.  If you don’t change it, then the person you named all those years ago, is the person who will get the benefit, regardless of their current relationship to you,

How would your current partner feel if everything went to your ex?

Maybe now is right time to review the named individuals on these policies before it is too late!

Our Wills are as individual as you are