Planned Departure – Leave memories … not a mess

Planned Departure is all about planning well in life so that you leave memories and not a mess!

It is about starting the conversation and answering some important questions such as:

• Is your life plan ready?
• How do you want to plan for your family?
• Offer the best education?
• Or gift them happiness?
• Or hope things will eventually fall in place?
• Have you taken any financial advice?
• Do you have life insurance or critical illness cover?
• Or Do you have a Will in place?
• Have you started the important conversation?
• Such as where all your documents are?
• Or shared your secret recipe?
• Does your family know your assets and investments?
• Or your liabilities!
• Are they aware of important online accounts?
• Can your family find everything they need?
• Even when you are not around?
• Will you leave them CHAOS ? Or Mess?
• Or Will you leave them memories?
• Have you planned for everything? or anything?

Now you can!!

With Planned Departure,

• Organise scattered information in one place.
• Leave clear instructions.
• Put everything in order.
• Ensure everything is there even when you are not.

We can help you avoid the mess

So that you can focus on creating memories.
Planned Departure – Leave memories… not a mess!

Sign up now and start planning.

Why your Skype credits could be lost – Forever!

Recently Facebook released its legacy contact feature in the UK. This is a welcome move by Facebook and highlights the importance of ‘digital legacy’.

However, our digital life and digital footprint goes beyond Facebook and Google. We have pointed out the enormous difficulties loved ones can face trying to unravel their deceased’s digital property. 

While Louise Palmer’s story is still fresh in our minds, story of Susan Rowan is surfacing digital legacy problems with another internet giant – Skype.

Susan tried to sort out her husband’s financial affairs after he died of cancer in January. She tried to close his online accounts but was faced with a long painful process of dealing with customer support centres of the online services.

Her experience with Skype left her feeling distressed. To begin with, it was difficult for Susan to contact their customer service over the phone. She had to use web chat and then they refused to refund £25.46 credit to her.

There are many more such cases of family members getting affected by lack of access to digital accounts.

At Planned Departure, our vision is to empower individual to take control of digital life and digital legacy.

The media coverages and now solution from Facebook are helpful in promoting the cause of digital legacy. The UK Law Society has advised people to leave a digital legacy after death, and an increasing number of lawyers are becoming vocal on the same issue.

There is still a long way to go and we need your support!

Please join Planned Departure or contact us for offering digital legacy solution to your clients.

Mind the (digital planning) gap

The message finally seems to be getting across. Families who have lost siblings may not have to fight quite so hard to get access to their loved ones’ social media accounts when they die.

Facebook has announced the launch of a legacy contact feature that allows users to give permission to someone else (a family member or friend) to manage their account when they pass away and to post a final message or an obituary on their behalf.

Prior to this service, when an account holder died Facebook offered just a basic memorialised account that was viewable but could not be managed by anyone.

It is estimated that more than 10,000 Facebook users die each day. Whilst the announcement of the legacy contact service is good news for the family of the deceased, they will still not be able to access everything in an individual’s account. Furthermore, the service is only available (at present) in the US.

However, it’s a good start and we are seeing other organisations such as Apple, Google and Twitter beginning to recognise the need to provide digital legacy services. But the social media networks can be just a small part of an individual’s digital legacy.

In research undertaken by Saga, a British company with around 3 million customers and focusing on serving the needs of those aged 50 and over, found that 87 percent of Britons have not planned their digital legacy. Almost a year ago the UK Law Society was urging people to leave clear instructions about what should happen to their social media, computer games and other online accounts after their death.

Gary Rycroft, a member of the Law Society Wills and Equity Committee, said people should not assume family members know where to look online and to make details of their digital life absolutely clear. Even if family members have knowledge of an individual;s usernames and passwords for online accounts, accessing these account could be committing a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990.

Given the rapidly changing volume, nature and ownership of digital assets, it is becoming more widely recognised by lawyers that including these assets in Wills can be difficult and expensive, particularly if regular changes are to be made to the WIll. That’s one of the reasons why Planned Departure is working closely with an increasing number of law firms to efficiently accommodate individuals’ digital legacies.

Types of Wills … Let’s Break it down

Over the next few blogs we will endeavour to shed some light on the different types of Will options available in a bid to help you decide which works best for you.
A good place to start is with couples Wills, of which there are three different types, all quite similar to each other. Joint Wills, Mutual Wills and Mirror Wills

A Joint Will is a single document that two people or more agree to draw up which generally relates to sharing their property in a particular way.

This kind of Will is particularly common amongst married couples.
These Wills are normally identical or very similar and give common benefits. They tend to dictate that the surviving spouse should inherit all their property if they die first and vice versa. After the death of the second spouse, the property is shared as specified in the document. The law treats a Joint Will as being two or more separate Wills.

Mutual Wills on the other hand occur where two or more testators make separate Wills or make a joint Will and in doing so agree to confer on each other reciprocal benefits or agree to confer benefits on the same beneficiaries.

These kind of Wills have four basic requirements and a strict standard for enforceability:

1.      The agreement must be made in a particular form.
2.      The agreement must be contractual in effect.
3.      The agreement must be intended to be irrevocable.
4.      The surviving party must have intended the will to reflect the agreement.

A Mutual Will creates a binding agreement between the two parties which prevents the survivor from changing their Will and disposing of the estate in a different way. Mutual Wills are preferred by couples in a second marriage with children from a previous relationship or marriage.

Mirror Wills are exactly that, they “mirror” each other. The terms generally are similar and complementary. This is a legal document that allows a couple (married, civil partners or unmarried) to write down their wishes for when they pass away.

In all three cases these types of Wills are convenient and cost effective and they ensure that spouses are well taken care of if one dies and that the estate is passed to his children at death.

 

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To Will or not to Will?

(DIY)Do-it-yourself may work in various aspects of our lives like plastering your living room or cleaning the dust out of your laptop.
Here are some interesting figures about Wills, DIY wills and the general attitude from the public towards them.

Do- It- Yourself Wills- Good or bad idea?

Few people below the age of fifty ever consider writing a Will. There is this belief that Wills are for elderly, wealthy people yet a Will can go beyond deciding who should inherit the family castle. Look at it this way –  creating a Will ensures that your loved ones receive items of sentimental as well as monetary value.

It’s interesting how many wealthy people die without a Will or don’t update their Will to suit a change in their circumstances. Such an example is Peter Brocks.

In cases where a Will isn’t made the deceased’s property will be shared out according to certain rules. Under these rules only married or civil partners and close relatives can inherit possessions owned by the deceased.

If someone makes a Will that is not legally valid it is down to the State to decide how the estate will be shared out, not the wishes expressed in the Will.

Whilst in many cases people invest in professional help when making a Will it is possible to write your own. Something which can be done from home and without a solicitor. However care and advice must be taken to ensure that a home produced Will is a legal document.

One of the main reasons people opt for DIY is because of cost. Tesco sells their DIY Will kit for £10, Last Will and Testament by Lawpack for £9.99.

A solicitor charges between £95 and £150 for a simple Will, yet their advice and the assurance that this is a legal document may be worth the additional cost.

Either way it is worth checking out what common mistakes are made in DIY Wills:

• Failing to take account of the possibility that a beneficiary may die either before the person making the will or before the estate is settled.
• Lack of formal requirements needed to make a Will legally valid.
• Changing the Will without a signature or witness. If these alterations are not signed and witnessed, they are invalid.
If all the money and property owned isn’t accounted for the property might fall under the rules of intestacy.

Solicitors have detailed guidelines that are designed to avoid foul play and vary from state to state. Making your own Will without these guidelines often renders the Will worthless since it is not in the right format.

Possibly one of the most cost effective routes is to produce your own Will and pay for a solicitor to ensure it is a legally binding document. Certainly it will offer all concerned peace of mind.

If you found this informative, please share.

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Children and the internet – What you didn’t know

The internet plays a major role in our lives on a day to day basis and that of our children without us realizing how long they spend online each day.

Whilst this might in itself not be a bad thing, the jury is still out on weighing the pros and cons. Key really is for parents to take responsibility of their children in terms of how they engage online.

Here are some facts and figures to show the visual seriousness of this online addiction.

Children and the internet – How safe are they?

No one seems too surprised by the fact that some 7.5 million users in the US alone violate Facebook’s member requirement every single day – simply by being under 13 years of age.

We have reached a stage in our digital era where digital consumers are increasingly starting younger. According to a study by the non-profit organisation, Joan Ganz Cooney Centre, more than two-thirds of 8-year-old children go online each day.

Whilst this might in itself not be a bad thing, the jury is still out on weighing the pros and cons. Key really is for parents to take responsibility of their children in terms of how they engage online.

Certainly this age of super connectivity has some drawbacks – from attention deficit, to lack of face to face engagement – having said that there are numerous positives from the way children can find out about the world around them, gain access to information, share, connect and engage – granted this is a whole new way of doing it but that does not mean it is all bad!

It is interesting to note that books were once considered bad for us – that they may indeed ‘brain wash us’. There are always two sides to any coin and the fact that we are neophobic by nature accounts for why we tend to be suspicious of any change in our lives.

Let’s focus instead on the benefits that digital offers us and ensure we keep our children safe as we would in any environment – familiar or otherwise!

 

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The Journey of Digital Art

With digital art starting to dominate the art industry, it’s safe to assume that some artists may have numerous art pieces, complete and incomplete that need to be organised and saved securely, especially in the case of something happening to the artist. His friends and family may not know where all these art pieces are or what the artist in question would like to do with them

Digital art in the 21st Century

Van Gogh certainly would not have thought about it and Picasso I feel sure would have agreed had he understood the concept, however art, whether it be digital or etched on canvas, is still, very much art by definition.

Over the years the argument that digital art wasn’t an actual form of art because it was computer generated and had infinite copies without an ‘original’ has pretty much been silenced. As technology has evolved, so too has our views on digital art.

The difference between digital art and any other art form is the fact the artist works mainly with digital technology as an essential part of their art piece – gone are the paint brushes and easels of old.

The first steps towards the evolution of art towards digital started in the 1950’s when a lot of artists and designers started working with mechanical devices and analogue computers.

Bear in mind during those times computers were very expensive. Only research laboratories, universities and large corporations could afford them. Regardless of these constraints, when the computer came into existence that’s when digital art started emerging.

From digital painting to animations, digital photography and 3D models, movies and games, they all come under the category of art. On the plus side they are accessible, on the downside there is no such thing as an original digital art form.

With digital art starting to dominate the art industry, it’s safe to assume that some artists may have numerous art pieces, complete and incomplete that need to be organised and saved securely, especially in the case of something happening to the artist. His friends and family may not know where all these art pieces are or what the artist in question would like to do with them.

As with all digital assets, digital art is yet another facet which needs to be protected, stored and effectively passed on. I can think of nothing worse than an unfinished Rembrandt entombed in the ether for no one to access and enjoy….