Planning for later life?

Now that we finally have a roadmap out of the troubles of the past 12 months, many of us will be looking towards the future with hope, and perhaps with a renewed sense of focus on what life means to us and how we can make the most of it.

Spring is the perfect time for making plans, touching all aspects of our lives.  This can mean many different things to different people.  

Planning for later life, and even death is something that people tend to shy away from, putting to the back burner to think about another time.  However, there are some positive and powerful steps that you can take now that will help both you and your loved ones in the future.

From a legal perspective, you can make some decisions now about who gets to be involved and make decisions on your behalf if you become ill, and also about what happens when you die.

Writing a will

Writing a will can seem daunting, as it forces you to contemplate what will happen when you die.  However, if you can spend just a very small amount of time now, putting plans in place, then you can ensure that your loved ones are taken care of when the time comes.  

This is really important if you have children who are under the age of 18 as you can specify who you would like to be their legal guardians, should the worst happy to you.

Once you’ve made those decisions, and finalised your will, you can relax in the knowledge that you’ve sorted it out, and then get on with enjoying your life in the here and now.

Lasting Power of Attorney

Another plan that you can put in place is to choose someone that you trust to make decisions on your behalf should you be unable to do so yourself.  This is called a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA), with the attorney being the person or people you have chosen.  With the increase in dementia in the UK, alongside an aging population and people living longer, the chances of us getting it in older age are substantial.  Recent NHS research shows that there are 850,000 people living with the disease in the UK today, that’s One in 14 people over the age of 65, increasing to one in 6 people over the age of 80.

While contemplating our death or incapacity in the future is not something any of us want to do, it’s worth considering putting some arrangements in place.

Contact Us to find out more

These are just some of the arrangements that a solicitor can help you with. At Rucklidge Law we are specialists in Wills and Lasting Powers of Attorney and would always be happy to advise you on your specific situation.  Why not book in a free 30-minute consultation with one of our team today?