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Probate and estate administration

The time after losing someone close to you is always difficult.

There are a lot of administration requirements following a death, and it can be very confusing and painful to deal with when you are also grieving.

Many people are reassured by having someone they trust assisting them with these duties, in order to enable them to be able to focus on their family whilst knowing everything else is being taken care of.

Administration requirements following a death

The process involved in estate administration includes:

Greek Gods?

If the current standoff ( pre-referendum) was not so serious, it would be funny. It reminds me of a Marx Brothers film from the 1930s, in which Groucho said “he did not care to belong to any club that allowed him to be a member.”

It has been entertaining watching the Euro elite grappling with the profligacy of their Mediterranean club member, and last week, we saw Jean Claude Junkers, the EU President, reduced to tears pleading with the motorbike riding leather clad Greek Finance Minister Mr Varoufakis.

Financial forecasting; pie in the sky or a useful tool for gaining a bigger slice of profit?

Whether you are preparing a business plan for your ABS application or simply attempting to gain some idea of your income and expenditure over the next couple of years, you’ll need to get involved in financial forecasting.

Law Society Financial Stability Toolkit

Buy the Financial Stability Toolkit book by Peter Scott from The Law Society and Andy Poole from Armstrong Watson.

Five reasons for couples to include a trust in their wills

If you're reviewing your will, or maybe even writing one for the first time, you may not have thought of including a trust in it. There are several reasons couples may wish to include a trust in their will, from historical practice to forward planning. Here are five reasons you may wish to consider including a trust in your will that you may not have thought of.

Three small changes that could save you a lot of time

In this modern world almost everything happens quicker than ever before, and the old adage ‘time is money’ couldn’t be more true! I say ‘almost everything’ because there’s one thing that consistently takes many a consistently long time; filing a tax return. If you spend too long dealing with your accounts and tax return, you’re not alone.

Could your business really survive the loss of key personnel?

Over the past six years, Legal & General has conducted three waves of research with owners of different sized businesses at varied stages of development.

The research continues to demonstrate a general lack of awareness of business protection, showing that many businesses have not evaluated the potential risks. As an example, Legal & General’s research shows that 40% of businesses will cease trading in less than 12 months if a key person dies or becomes critically ill.

Failure to borrow could hold back growth

I was reading an article in the Independent by David Prosser saying that 'SMEs who fail to access external finance can expose themselves to just as much risk as firms which borrow too much.' Research has found that almost half of all SMEs now are a 'permanent non-borrower', meaning they are not currently using external finance, and have not done so in the past five years. It also means they have not applied or wanted to apply for finance over the past 12 months, and have no plans or desire to apply in the next three months.

Advisory fuel rates for company cars - 1 June 2015

These rates apply from 1 June 2015. You can use the previous rates for up to one month from the date the new rates apply.

Grant fund worth £4m available to qualifying businesses in Cumbria

I’ve recently been working with two of my clients who previously secured in excess of £100,000 of grant funding to assist the expansion of their businesses. This funding has enabled both businesses to achieve both growth in turnover and growth in Cumbrian employment, which is great news for the Cumbrian economy.