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“A lifetimes work in the best of hands”

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Protecting a lifetime’s work for the ones you love with a range of professional affordable later life products from Golden Charter.

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Lasting Power of Attorney
[vc_separator type=’transparent’ position=’center’ color=” thickness=’10’ up=” down=”]Choose who makes the decisions

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It’s important that you decide who can make your decisions should you become unable to. A Golden Charter Lasting Power of Attorney allows clients to nominate an ‘Attorney’. This is normally a close relative or trusted friend who will make decisions about the customer’s health, welfare and/or financial affairs. Without a Lasting Power of Attorney family or friends may have to go to court to act on the client’s behalf which may be time-consuming and costly. It is important that the client realises they remain in control of their affairs now and have complete control over when the Lasting Power of Attorney comes into effect.

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The Family Protection Trust

[vc_separator type=’transparent’ position=’center’ color=” thickness=’10’ up=” down=”]With the Family Protection Trust from Golden Charter, you can plan for issues that may affect your assets in the future. A Will instructs what you want to happen but the Family Protection Trust ensures that it does happen. It provides protection of your assets, so that it can leave more inheritance to your loved ones, saving money, time and stress.

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The Probate Plan

[vc_separator type=’transparent’ position=’center’ color=” thickness=’10’ up=” down=”]Probate, is the name given to the legal process of administering the estate of someone who has passed away. It can often be an expensive and complex process, but by choosing to organise and pay for probate in advance, means you can save money and make things as simple as possible for your loved ones. A pre-paid probate plan from Golden Charter ensures the relevant probate services will be paid for and attended to by a probate practitioner. There are substantial legal, administrative and tax duties associated with administering an estate. It is important that the probate process is followed correctly. If any mistake is made, even in good faith, the person carrying out the probate process can be held personally accountable for any financial loss. All these details are taken care of with a pre-paid probate plan. The probate cost is also excluded from the value of the estate, giving your clients a potential saving on inheritance tax. The charges for our probate services are fixed and paid for in advance, giving complete peace of mind to your clients that the arrangements have been taken care of.

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Wills

[vc_separator type=’transparent’ position=’center’ color=” thickness=’10’ up=” down=”]A properly drafted Will is a document which expresses your wishes when you die. By taking out a Will, you can protect their loved ones and avoid complications and disputes when you pass away. A Will specifies who inherits what with regards to money, property, possessions and personal mementos or charitable donations. Also if you have children who are under 18 years of age, you are able to nominate a guardian to look after them if anything were to happen to you. If you do not have a properly drafted Will, then the people you love may wait longer to receive what has been bequeathed. Even if you have an existing Will, is it up to date? Families are continuously changing shape and it is important to ensure Wills are kept up to date to reflect changes such as changing relationships, family growth or bereavement. There are two main types of Wills:

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• Single Will – where assets are left to a direct relative e.g. children or grandchildren

[vc_separator type=’transparent’ position=’center’ color=” thickness=’10’ up=” down=”] • Mirror Will – two Wills for partners or spouses

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Why choose Golden Charter?

[vc_separator type=’transparent’ position=’center’ color=” thickness=’10’ up=” down=”]Golden Charter has specialist Will writers and is able to provide a fully tailored service. We also store the Will for five years and allow updates to be made once per year for ten years to reflect any change in circumstance free of charge.

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Property Protection Trust

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A Property Protection Trust is an affordable way to help protect you and the value of your home A Property Protection Trust from Golden Charter gives you peace of mind. You can specify who is to inherit your share of the home and if your surviving partner needs care, your share may not be taken to fund care costs. The surviving partner can continue to live in the home for as long as they wish, and even move house if they want to.

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A Property Protection Trust is an affordable way to help protect your share of the family home.

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Were here to help.

[vc_separator type=’transparent’ position=’center’ color=” thickness=’10’ up=” down=”]If you have any questions about any of the services we’ve outlined, please contact us on 01594 542205.

[vc_separator type=’transparent’ position=’center’ color=” thickness=’10’ up=” down=”] We can arrange for one of Golden Charter’s specialist consultants to visit you in your own home – with no obligation of course. The consultant can talk you through the different plan options and answer any questions you may have.

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How we can support you through the estate administration process

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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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Collier and Brain, 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 542205

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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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