Three threats to your family's inheritance
BY READERS DIGEST
1st Jan 2015 Insurance & Legal
If you want to make sure your hard-earned wealth benefits your children and grandchildren, you need to take action now. Are you vulnerable to one of these three threats?
It’s a basic human desire to see the fruits of our labour pass down to future generations—it’s our legacy. But if you don’t take action and plan for the future, there are some significant threats to your wealth.
Every family is different and there’s no “one size fits all” solution, so taking advice from a specialist is a crucial starting point.
Care fees
With the care fees funding cap now “abandoned” in the words of our former care minister, it’s clear that action must be taken to plan and protect against the high costs of care where possible.
If you require care and have assets exceeding £23,250—often including the value of your home—you will likely have to fund that care yourself, possibly from the sale of your home.
With the average annual care home bill pushing towards £50,000, it’s easy to see how an inheritance intended to benefit your loved ones can erode very quickly.
Read more: What does the future of care look like?
Loss of capacity
We rarely receive warning of accidents or illnesses, the likelihood of which increases as life progresses. You may assume that the authority to manage your financial affairs and make decisions about your medical care and health automatically passes to your next of kin. It doesn’t.
Without a Lasting Power of Attorney in place, your next of kin are required to obtain an order from the Court before they can manage your affairs—which is a long, complex, expensive and intrusive process.
Sideways inheritance
If you leave all your assets to your spouse or partner and they meet someone else after your death, everything you have worked hard for could pass to someone you didn’t intend to leave it to.
If you leave an inheritance to your children and they suffer a marital breakdown, that inheritance could form part of a divorce settlement.
Take the first step to protecting your family and wealth by requesting your free information pack
Call Reader’s Digest Legal on 0800 031 9516 and quote reference “RDL15”
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