Yes, a Lasting Power of Attorney/LPA provides your chosen person with the power and authority to deal with your assets and make financial decisions on your behalf but only while you are alive. A Lasting Power of Attorney/LPA automatically ends on your death. You will need a Will to specify how you want your estate to be distributed after your death.

Real estate, business interests, investments, cash accounts, notes payable to you, insurance policies and tangible goods are among assets that can be placed within a trust.

You have nothing to worry about. Your documents folder will contain your funeral directors information.  Your family will simply have to contact the funeral director referencing your plan number. The rest will be taken care of by the funeral director, who will make all the arrangements agreed in your plan.

Inheritance Tax is a tax payable by a person who inherits a deceased person’s assets. This includes money, savings, property and other effects.

The executor named in the will can apply for probate or if you are named in the will to receive some/all of the estate and there is no executors willing to apply. If there is no will, then the next of kin may apply: spouse, civil partner, children (including adopted), parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles.

If more than one person applies then a joint application may be made. No more than four applications is permitted, and the applicants are required to attend an interview with the Probate Service at HMCTS.

Generally, you will need a grant of probate if the person who died held assets in their own name. Exceptions include where the only assets involved are low-value banks or building society accounts, or where all assets are kept in joint names.

A Joint Will (also known as a Mutual Will) is a single Will covering two people. The Joint Will leaves everything to the survivor if one person dies. Joint Wills also state what will happen to the assets if both people die.

The greatest problem with Joint Wills is that after the first person dies, the remaining party can not change the Will. If the circumstances of life change-for instance, and the survivor wants to remarry after the death of the first person, the survivor will be stuck with whatever the Joint Will terms are.