Leaving Behind More Than Memories
[vc_separator type=’transparent’ position=’center’ color=” thickness=’20’ up=” down=”]Protecting a lifetime’s work for the ones you love with a range of professional, affordable legal services.
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- Wills An easy way to make your wishes clear.
- Lasting power of attorney Choosing a loved one or trusted friend to make important decisions.
- Property Protection Trust Protect your share of the home for the ones you love.
- The Probate Plan Pre-pay probate to reduce final legal costs.
- Family Protection Trust All round protection for your home and assets.
How we can help
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With Golden Charter Later Life Planning Legal Services we can help you protect a lifetime’s work for the ones you love. As a trusted provider of later life services, Golden Charter offer a range of options to make it easy for you to plan in the way that’s right for you.
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If you would like to know more about any of the Legal Services provided by Golden Charter, please call us on 01594 832159 or 01600 772244 or email us at info@ernest-heal.co.uk
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We understand that dealing with the death of a loved one can be a stressful and emotional experience. This is why we want to support families by offering you access to professional services that can reduce the burden at a difficult time.
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One task that you may need to consider is administering the estate of the person who has passed away. This can be a complex and time consuming legal process that involves dealing with all of the assets and liabilities associated with the estate. This could include property, stocks, shares, bank accounts and other personal belongings that need to be distributed in line with their Will.
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There is often a significant amount of paperwork that needs to be completed, not to mention liaising with various third parties and calculating the tax that is payable on the estate. Some clients choose to undertake the estate administration themselves, but others prefer to appoint a specialist firm to do the hard work for them.
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Ernest Heal, working in association with Golden Charter, can help you to understand your options and recommend a solution that reduces the workload for your family. We can offer:
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- Free, impartial and practical advice on what to do when someone dies so that you can understand your options and make an informed decision with confidence
- A comprehensive estate administration service that will remove the stress, effort and legal liability of dealing with a potentially complicated process yourself
- A fixed fee service so that you know exactly what you will pay up front and don’t have the uncertainty of hourly rates or contingency fees to consider
- Regular updates on how the estate is being managed and the opportunity to track progress at any time via an online case monitoring system
- A dedicated personal estate adviser who you can contact directly by phone or email – no call centre queues or being passed from person to person when you need to speak to someone about your case.
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For an informal discussion about our estate administration service and how it could help you and your family, please contact us on 01594 832159 or 01600 772244
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Helping families to move on – A Golden Charter case study
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The family
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Louise and Jonathan are brother and sister and both live in Bristol. Their mother, Jean, recently passed away so they contacted their local Golden Charter funeral director, F H Halliday and Sons, to make the arrangements for her service. While speaking to Louise and Jonathan, their funeral director explained how they could now offer them access to a market-leading estate administration service through a trusted associate called Kings Court Trust.
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Louise and Jonathan admitted that they were at a loss at what to do with their mother’s estate and the reams of paperwork associated with her various accounts and assets. They said that they would welcome support with the legal work as this was something that they had never had to deal with before and wouldn’t know where to start.
Their funeral director put them in touch with Charlotte at Golden Charter and she was able to explain how the service worked and provide a guaranteed, fixed price quote of £3,860 over the phone. Louise and Jonathan were reassured by the fact that the service covered all aspects of the estate and that specialists took care of all the legal, tax and administration work on their behalf.
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Helping the family to find ‘comfort’
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Golden Charter organised a meeting for the children with Nigel Merchant, an experienced estate administration consultant from Kings Court Trust, in the comfort of their own home. During the meeting, Nigel was able to explain what needed to be done regarding the estate and how long it was likely to take. He was also able to gather more detailed information about the estate itself and answer any questions that Louise and Jonathan had.
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The children were very pleased that they could rely on an expert to guide them through the process, without the need for them to worry about dealing with the estate themselves. They told Nigel that they found ‘comfort’ in the fact that they knew the cost of the service was guaranteed not to change, regardless of what work needed to be done by the specialist legal and tax teams.
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The estate
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Jean’s estate was likely to be subject to Inheritance Tax and the thought of having to deal with complicated paperwork and calculations so soon after their mother’s death was a daunting one. Louise and Jonathan had done some research about estate administration and were considering trying to do the work themselves. However, they soon realised that they didn’t have the specialist knowledge to do this and were pleased to hand the work over to Kings Court Trust so that they didn’t need to worry about doing it themselves.
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What happened next?
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Kings Court Trust’s specialist staff are now working on the estate to ensure that all of the assets and liabilities are settled. A grant of probate has been applied for and the legal and tax work is being dealt with. Louise and Jonathan have been in regular contact with their personal estate adviser, Joe. He is the specialist who will be overseeing their mother’s estate and all of the work that needs to be done. They have scheduled regular updates by phone and if Louise and Jonathan have any questions, they know they can contact Joe directly for an answer. They have also started to use Insight, an online case tracking system that allows them to find out what progress has been made at any time.
The work on the estate is due to be completed in around nine months, considerably quicker than most solicitors would take. In the meantime, Louise and Jonathan are able to relax knowing that everything is in hand.
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They celebrated their mother’s life with a beautiful service in Bristol, surrounded by their family and friends. While the loss of their mum has been difficult to deal with, they are pleased that everything that needs to be done has been handled so efficiently by the friendly team at Golden Charter and Kings Court Trust.
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They feel that they have been able to celebrate their mum’s life appropriately, whilst also dealing with the practical issues that will help them to begin the process of moving on.
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