Following the death of a loved one, many of us find ourselves reflecting on our own lives, and how we intend to spend the years we have left.
Planning for later life can involve a wide variety of decisions, but is something that we tend to shy away from, putting on the back burner to think about another time. This is unsurprising given that when planning for later life, we will inevitably consider our death, which none of us want to consider. But there are some positive and powerful steps that you can take now that will help both you and your loved ones in the future.
You can make some legal decisions about who gets to be involved if you become ill, and also about what happens when you die.
Writing a will
Writing a Will can seem particularly daunting, as it forces you to consider what will happen when you die. But if you can spend a very small amount of time putting plans in place now, then you can rest assured that your loved ones will be taken care of in the future.
This is particularly important if you have children under the age of 18 as it involves you choosing the person or people you would trust to be their legal guardians, should the worst happy to you. Once you’ve made those decisions, and finalised your Will, you can have peace of mind 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 for you in case you become unable to do so in the future. This is called a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA). You can appoint one or more ‘attorneys’ and there are 2 categories of LPA that you can appoint. 1) Property and Finance LPA. 2) Health and Welfare LPA. This can be the same people or different people. The number of people living with dementia in the UK today is 850,000, according. Recent NHS research, 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 health in the future is not something any of us want to do, it’s worth putting some arrangements in place and planning for the future now.
Rucklidge Law is a family-owned law firm, covering the Yorkshire area. We specialise in helping people to plan for the future. We help people with Lasting Power of Attorney Will Writing and Probate services.
Contact Rucklidge Law for a free 30-minute legal consultation.
Email us at [email protected]
Call us on 01904 806031
