Legacy Law Limited

11/06/2024

Very happy to be supporting this great community event again this year!

23/12/2022

Sending our very best wishes to all our clients, family and friends at this special time. We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy 2023.

Catherine

09/12/2022

The festive fairies at Legacy Law had a lot of fun shopping for the 36th annual Reading Toy Run.

Lots of goodies ready for our own Christmas elf to deliver for Barnardo’s.

In the midst of the cost of living crisis, it was lovely to see over 1,300 bikers turn out to support local children.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-63838759?fbclid=IwAR3TevWN_H2qReBdQuATbl0UdQTOAGbu1C_eZ981SBWCbfn5tDpy-EV1LCU

09/09/2022

Queen Elizabeth II

1926-2022

We join with the country in expressing our sorrow on the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

We send our condolences to the Royal Family at this difficult time.

08/05/2022

We had a wonderful time last weekend at the Reigatians charity football match: England v Albania. The final score was a win for England, but in the words of the Albanian ambassador, they were all winners. A massive £2,262 (and still counting) was raised by the East Surrey MND Association, so a great day all round.

23/04/2022

We're delighted to be sponsoring this football match, supporting the East Surrey branch of the MND Association. An excellent cause.

Do come along (bargain £2 a ticket) and/or donate if you can https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/englandvalbania4mnda

MND Association

11/04/2022

If you have ever wondered about trusts and whether you should have one (or do you have one and are not sure what it means), check out our article in Wokingham Today which covers some of the basic points.

Do get in touch with us if you have further queries.

Trusts have been around for thousands of years and are a useful mechanism for managing wealth, safeguarding the needs of family members, and even saving tax. A trust is an arrangement by which someone (the ‘settlor’) gives assets to individuals (the ‘trustees’) to hold for the benefit of oth...

15/03/2022

There was a disturbing case reported by the BBC this morning (https://lnkd.in/egrWpA_T).

This involved the abuse of a lasting power of attorney (LPA). Relatives were able to use the document to access (indeed, to steal) the money of a vulnerable person.

A particular phrase jumped out at me from this news report: they “made the victim sign a lasting power of attorney in order to give them control of his money…”.

Speaking frankly, this should not be able to happen. The LPA has a safeguard built into the process which is designed to stop this.

This is the role of the certificate provider.

The certificate provider can be a someone who has known the donor personally for at least two years. Or it can be a person who has relevant professional skills (such as a solicitor). Whenever I am asked to act as a certificate provider, I am very careful when fulfilling this role. I am conscious of the importance of the role and the need to protect vulnerable individuals from being exploited.

I wonder how many members of the public are approached to act as the certificate provider, and do so without understanding their significance in the process? Do they speak with the donor on their own and establish that they understand the documentation and are acting without fraud or undue pressure?

Or do some people just ‘tick the box’ and sign the form without giving it much thought? I hope not, but this article suggests this could be happening behind closed doors. The drive to digitalise these documents and allow the public direct access without professional involvement makes it so much easier for anyone wishing to exploit a vulnerable donor.

The certificate provider is the last line of defence, the person who is supposed to act in the best interests of the donor (the vulnerable person in the BBC article). I think there is certainly an argument that this should only be able to be a professional person – someone who understands the role and the responsibility and acts to protect the donor where necessary.

If you have been asked to act as a certificate provider, you may find it helpful to look at our article about the role of the certificate provider, which goes into more detail on all of these points.

https://lnkd.in/eThvzknE

An exploration of the role of the certificate provider in the process of the creation of a lasting power of attorney

08/03/2022

Happy International Women's Day to our Facebook community.

11/02/2022

The Trust Registration Service (TRS) is a HOT TOPIC at the moment.

With a looming deadline of the 1st September 2022 and a complex registration process, those affected need to take action now.

Are you one of them? Time is ticking. Our new article looks at the process and those affected in more detail.

An overview of the recent changes in trust administrative requirements, focusing on the requirement for use of the trust registration service

08/02/2022

Do you have any Apple devices? If so, you need to read this......

An article considering the protection of your digital assets, with a focus on Apple products