The actual probate part is probably the easiset bit! The bulk of the work is simple but very time consuming. It really is within the capability of a person of average intelligence. Which publish and excellent book on the subject.
Peter Crosland
messagenews: snipped-for-privacy@proxy01.news.clara.net...> Ho hum.
Why do estate agents often charge a percentage fee? Why is tax a percentage and not a flat rate fee for everyone?
The issue is that if they c*ck up on a 10 quid estate, they pay you ten quid. If they c*ck up on a 10 million estate, they pay you ten million. The costs cover their liability insurance, and the fact that they will not process a 10 million estate without putting the best and most expensive man on to cross the t's and dot the i's.
Basically they will charge whatever they can get away with, like everyone else, with the sole exception that they had better not break the law or exceed their professional guidelines. If they want to sty rich and smug, that is.
messagenews: snipped-for-privacy@proxy01.news.clara.net...> Ho hum.
Because that way they have an incentive to get a better price for the seller. If you go on a 'work done' basis they simply create more work - as every conveyancing solicitor ALWAYS does.
Very good question.
If you let him.
On behalf of all taxpayers, I would like to thank you publicly for the contribution your relative chose to make, which reduces what we would otherwise have to pay ourselves .
Don't mention it (:o), but, on a point of order, he didn't believe he had chosen to make it and had thought that all was arranged satisfactorily to avoid paying tax that was not at all liable either legally or morally (a not unreasonable goal). The particular arrangements that were put in place after my mother's death were wrong and resulted in, yes, legally (if not morally) him having chosen to make the donation.
This was an obscene amount of money but, if you don't start giving it away till you're 90, the odds are rather stacked against you. Why does everyone think they've got at least 7 years left?
They don't, but they can't bear to part with their money. It's a delicate but understandable conundrum.
One thing I've always been a bit uneasily about on inheritances is that, if you leave it to responsible offspring, they won't get it until they've made their own way in the world and, if history is anything to go by, have made more money than you anyway. So, they add your amount to the wealth they've created themselves, and leave it all to their offspring in turn who will behave similarly. It therefore just accumulates until ... well ... someone somehow gets hold of it early and wastes it.
So, whatever you leave, you're leaving it eventually for a waster.
Sad really.
Unless you're that waster of course.
We seem to have abandoned the concept of family. Parents with young kids are working all hours while the grandparents are busy counting their money. Serves them right if they have to go into care
Chance would be a fine thing :-)
The grandparents I know are actually looking after the kids.
What should they be doing? Giving their money to their children so they don't have to work, or what? The grandparents probably made their own way in the world without much help from their own parents, and probably think it's a good thing if their children do likewise.
but if it goes in IHT, you know it will go to bunch of wasters immediately...
Serves who right? Care homes will use up an estate in no time...
If things are timed right the grandparent's house can be sold off to get the grandchildren into their own homes. The price of housing nowadays is quite frightening.
And on solicitors. I know of one involved in a major estate who is happy to take a 2 hour train journey from London to meetings. Charging full fees while on the train!
Andy
In my day one salary was enough to pay the mortgage on a 3 bed house. I feel sorry for the poor sods trying to raise a family nowadays. Granny's money is largely house inflation anyway, so it should be a case of easy come, easy go. Either that or, as you say, the grandparents actually look after the kids, which is a bloody silly arrangement IMO.
In my day one salary wasn't enough to pay the rent on a one room bedsit. Not and eat too and run a car, anyway.
As people can't afford to have kids till they're 40, the grandparents might be getting on a bit by then. Even the parents are too old to kick a ball around
Yes if the execs are likely to be in good health when the time comes, and get on with each other. In my brother's case he included a solicitor to forestall disputes and it worked. Another relative on the other hand tried to be clever, had two additional friends as executors in case I couldn't be trusted, and gave me a load of extra work (bearing in mind we are also managing trusts for minors).
It's an excellent arrangement (for the grandchildren).
They've done surveys and the children who's grandparents are closely involved in their upbringing are higher achievers than those without daily contact.
In message , at 18:32:42 on Tue,
17 Jun 2008, Norman Wells remarked:Many of them are paying their grandchildrens' school fees.
And why should they be doing that? They've done it already for their own children. Isn't it the parents' responsibility to provide for their children?
Oh, of course, why didn't I think of that? Someone else has money, so you're entitled to it!
Actually, given that granny still has to live in a house, she hasn't benefitted from any house price inflation. She may be asset rich, but can't pocket the proceeds. Any money she has is therefore much more likely to be the result of her and her husband's own labours and thrift, qualities which the newer generations might think to follow instead of effectively begging for outside support.
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