All FAQs (Helpie FAQ)

Finawis Advisors can help you plan your long-term care and funding you may need to support your later years.

A trust can be a great way to cut down your IHT bill. Our expert advisors can guide you through the process.

Your heirs may be subjected to Income Tax, Capital Gains Tax and may also get their benefits affected if they have more than £6000 after inheritance.

Will Planning is a simple process of documenting your wishes and what happens to your assets in the event of your death.

Estate Planning is a more comprehensive process incorporating various documents pertaining to securing and passing of your assets in the most tax efficient way.

Annual exemption: You can give away a total of £3,000 worth of gifts each tax year without them being added to the value of your estate. This is known as your ‘annual exemption’.

Small gift allowance: You can give as many gifts of up to £250 per person as you want each tax year, as long as you have not used another allowance on the same person. Birthday or Christmas gifts you give from your regular income are exempt from Inheritance Tax.

Gifts for weddings or civil partnerships: Each tax year, you can give a tax free gift to someone who is getting married or starting a civil partnership. You can give up to:

£5,000 to a child

£2,500 to a grandchild or great-grandchild

£1,000 to any other person

Regular payments/Excess Income Gifting: You can make regular payments to another person, for example to help with their living costs. There’s no limit to how much you can give tax free, as long as:

• you can afford the payments after meeting your usual living costs
• you pay from your regular monthly income

These are known as ‘normal expenditure out of income’. They can include: paying rent for your child,  paying into a savings account for a child under 18,  giving financial support to an elderly relative

If you’re giving gifts to the same person, you can combine ‘normal expenditure out of income’ with any other allowance, except for the small gift allowance.

Yes, life insurance policy can cover a part of or your full IHT bill before Probate is granted. It can protect your assets from being sold to pay IHT making things easier for your family. It required special planning.  To know more, please contact us.

Wills and Estate Planning are often used interchangeably but it’s important to recognize they don’t mean the same thing.

Our Estate Planner will work with you to estimate your potential inheritance tax obligations and provide you with tailored advice.

Yes, you can write your own Will. It should be only done when your wishes are simple like leaving everything to partner.

However, you must seek professional advise if you are trying to reduce your Inheritance Tax bill, or own a property abroad, or have foreign investments or bank accounts, or you have people financially dependent on you.

Never store your Will in a bank safe deposit neither bank can access it nor can your executer until Probate is granted, and Probate cannot be granted in the absence of Will.

We strongly advise that once the Will is made, it should not be kept in home environment as it can get damaged due to theft or loss.

You can take advantage of our Secure Storage Facility for a small annual fee. You can access your documents free of charge at any time, upon written request and surrender of your Storage Certificate. We can advise you other options as well.

Once you have decided how to store the Will, we recommend informing your executor about its storage and how to access it.

Powers of Attorney are powerful documents. We strongly advise that once the Powers have been signed and registered, you do not keep these legal documents in the home environment, for the following reasons:

1. Storing your documents will ensure that these Powers are NEVER used without your express knowledge and consent, while you have capacity.

2. Prevent your documents from being accidentally damaged or destroyed.

3. Ensure that your documents are never lost or stolen.

You can take advantage of our Secure Storage Facility for a small annual fee. You can access your documents free of charge at any time, upon written request.

If you were to become mentally incapacitated due to an illness or an accident, then without an LPA in place, the ONLY way your financial affairs can be managed is by an application being made to the court of Protection for a Deputyship Order.

The applicant must provide personal information about themselves, their family, their own finances, and the relationship with the person they wish to help care for.

This process costs a considerable amount of money and can take anything between 12 weeks and 10 months, by which time your finances could be seriously hampered. Even worse, the Judge will make the final decision as to who is appointed as your attorneys, and it may be possible they are not the person you had wished to manage your affairs.

The court may appoint a Panel Deputy (a retired Solicitor or Barrister who works for the Office of the Public Guardian) or a local authority.

While choosing your attorneys, you should consider how your attorneys will act. There are three options:

1. Jointly

This allows your Attorneys to make all decisions together. If one of your Attorneys disagrees, that decision can not be made on your behalf.

2. Jointly & Severally

This means your Attorneys can make all decisions either together or independently.

3. Jointly for some decisions and jointly & severally for others

This option means that your Attorneys can make some decisions independently, but for others they must all be in agreement.

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