Are you putting it off, have you not thought about it? Many do not want to talk about a subject we all have to face?
Many people have it on their to-do list or back of their mind, but it comes down to the bottom somewhere or I get round to it sometime, and you can find you have not done one, in the event of the inevitable. You will find you are not the only one, you may have done a will but not included your business, you are not the only one.
You love your family right? Or you want your wishes to be followed in the event of death right? If you do not have a will the whole process after you are gone can be a financial nightmare for your family or business partners.
Commonly property, personal, or life business is your largest asset other than yourself and your family. People can automatically assume that without a will your assets will go to your next of kin or spouse or business partner, the legal term for not making a will is called Intestate, which, means your possessions including your business may not be passed or distributed exactly as you wish.
Also, see Living wills Without a will the state takes control of the estate. For Example, you are a landlord, with a portfolio of properties as a rental income and asset growth vehicle, if you do not have a will and included in the will this business is divided between spouse and relatives, if not married the spouse may not automatically inherit, or a business partner. Depending on how the Business is structured at the outset of inception. We offer to review your memorandum of articles for business owners to see how the corporation was formed with the directors, secretary, and shareholders. All this helps to advise on what you need to be covered.
Writing a will, reviewing an existing will, should be reviewed every 5 - 7 years, we normally recommend every 5 years with IHT gifting rules. A will directed to trusts, which can be covered in our discussion and topics and posts you are directing your will to reduce the amount of IHT tax to pay and transferred to whom you will.
Assigning in the will a Lasting Power of Attorney, you can delegate important decisions on your behalf when you are used to making decisions yourself, so you require A LPA incapacitated mentally or physically or both, or critically ill short or long term. This assignment will direct the instructions to the LPA & trusts to instruct in operating your business in your absence and those you assigned the Attorney to, manage your personal affairs too. This means your business and personal life can operate unhindered without stress paying the bills, and managing the finances can all be done on your behalf, with your instruction, giving you peace of mind to recover from an illness or in the event of death your will is carried out as you requested.
You made the brave step to set up your business, buy property, rent premises, put money in, and believe in yourself, you may have recruited staff that makes the business operate and without you or your partner for Partnership, or LTD or PLC, formations but in the event of your illness or death it is not protected so it cannot be operated.
Many well, typically 75% of Business owners, traders retailers, landlords require a will to be in place but do not get round to doing it.
Wills trusts and estate planners consult you on what you need on what you are lacking, what you do not have in place, or what you have not protected, we provide the products and services to suit your needs and purpose.
Once you have formed a relationship with us, we recommend a Will review at least every 5 years, totally free by doing regular reviews which are especially helpful for larger income taxpayers, and the gifting rule for IHT purposes every seven years. Writing down your wishes, say on a piece of paper is ok but not legally binding and easier to contest, whereas a will is legally binding and be stored with ourselves, your bank or solicitor, or somewhere safe at home with someone knowing where it is. If you do not have a will and relevant documents in place many businesses fail to operate and end up shutting down.
Be compelled to look at this life as a spring clean of your closets, by tidying up your assets, seeing for any potential IHT liabilities or over the NRB you are safely placing your assets in a protected framework of legal paperwork.
What if you have a business partner, shareholder, what is the succession plan? If you become unwell or pass away, it can burden the other shareholders. We can also give financial advice on the Directors' life cover for this instance. By having this assigned directed by a will, all parties have clear instructions on what to do, and the executor of the will.
Even if unsure, you do have adequate life insurance cover in place, we have an IFA who can review your investments, mortgages, BTL, or other insurances to provide stability for your portfolio or in the event of death you have the will and directors life cover for both parties in place in the event of either passing.
Then loans, mortgages, debts can be paid off from the insurance and sales income, revenue can continue in your absence or your death, for both directors, shareholders, and interested parties, meaning staff working and business continues to run.
If you are a sole trader without a will or directive in a will the business dies with you. It may still have asset value, capital, or revenue and you can make sure whom you want can succeed in having it when you are gone, So basically you cannot hand it on to another without a will in place.
Partnerships? If you have written agreements and shareholders with a will in place they can continue to operate and run the business and do not have to end.
Cover the what if's and have a plan in place.
We have advisers on life insurance, financial planning, tax savings, business and wealth preservation to coach and mentor you providing mortgage advice and writing your wills, so all the above and much much more, every client is different and your needs, so we look at your whole situation and look at the event of death first and then look at how to save you tax and using Trusts and investments to save you paying out.
Once we have a relationship, we can review your circumstances every 5 years, unless you need us in the event of probate situations, which we will cover in more blog editorials and especially recommend it for higher rate taxpayers.
This editorial is designed to make you think about what will happen to your assets and business you the owner dies?
contact us for advice.