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.

Ask your adviser – Part 1

At Planned Departure, we believe in empowering people by educating and guiding them about life planning and legacy.

With this in mind, I am beginning to write a new series. The idea is to empower people to ask the right questions when going for financial advise. My notes are simple and easy to understand. I have tried not to use jargons unless absolutely necessary. Please send me your feedback, likes or dislikes.

What is “Equity Release”?

It is a financial arrangement / contract by which you can sell a part or whole of your house / property and still remain to stay in that house / property without paying any rent. You will however pay all other expenses relating to the house / property. In this process, you can receive cash upfront or as a monthly pension for as long as you are alive. After your death, the part or whole of your house / property is legally transferred to the other party in the contract. This other party is usually an insurance company.

Please ask the following questions for an informed decision making.

1. What is the type of arrangement he/she is proposing?

• E.g. Lifetime mortgage
• Interest only mortgage
• Home reversion
• Shared appreciation mortgage
• Home Income plan
• UK Equity release schemes

2. What is the

• Valuation of your property on which you are signing the contract
• LTV (Loan to Value) of the mortgage (to ascertain amount of Equity being released)
• Amount of annuity being purchased (if you are opting for monthly pensions)
• Interest rate levied (for upfront cash receipts)

Please remember that

• You will have the right to live there as long as you are alive and also be responsible for all costs associated with the property.
• If you have chosen to take upfront cash, you can use it as you wish. Perhaps, go for a World Tour?
• You can also refinance in the years to come, if interest rates fall drastically.
• You are reducing or completely eliminating the possibility of your family inheriting your asset after you have died, especially if the appreciation of your asset is slower than the rate of interest on your contract.

Note: Please do not treat this as financial advice.

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.

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.

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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.

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….

Picture trends made possible with Digitization…

In the past, when all we had was film photography, we had to be very selective of the kind of pictures we wanted to take. I’m sure there wouldn’t be half as many ‘selfies’ ‘photo bombs’ or ‘duck pouts’ as there are today. Images have a strong emotional factor, and emotions have a powerful pull on us as human beings.

It wasn’t that long ago that taking a photo involved substantial decision making. With a mere 24 or 36 shots on each roll, the expense limited us from wildly shooting away. Not to mention the actual insertion of the roll, the fact that one ray of sunlight would ruin the film. Then of course there was the cost of developing the film and the time it took to do so.

Now with digital cameras and technology there’s relatively no cost at all and it is immediate – don’t get me started on Polaroid cameras!

Our next evolution came rapidly too. Who would have thought, 15 years ago, that we would be taking quality photos using our phones?

As a matter of fact the digital camera was invented almost 40 years  ago,by an engineer at Eastman Kodak named Steve Sasson. The camera weighed 8 pound and recorded 0.01 megapixel black and white photos to a cassette tape. To images were stored as data on the cassette and played back by displaying the images on a television set. It probably seemed like science fiction back then!

Regardless of which era our photos record and which form they come in they will always be memories which we treasure. They capture time and give our future generations a glimpse of moments we wanted to capture. Whether in black and white, sepia or overexposed, they are very precious.

So the question is, if you misplaced your phone, your computer crashed or your house burned down would you lose all your photos? With our current ease for taking photos we have accumulated a huge visual memory bank which needs to be protected and managed.

Chances are you probably have more than one electronic gadget; mobile phone, computer, tablet, digital camera etc and on all these gadgets you have digital images stored.

It is easier to manage if all your pictures are stored in one place but how do we do that?

The first step…

If you haven’t done this already you can make it easier by setting your camera to the correct date and time. This allows your pictures to automatically be categorised which helps in organising your pictures.

Finding all your pictures…

It’s a good practice to go through all your stored images and delete the ones that are not needed. In fact delete them as soon as you have taken photos you don’t want to keep.

Use the right names and appropriate tags for your various folders. Example image:  20141012_093416 will be hard to place in a folder without viewing the actual image compared to image: Bella’s first school day.

Geo-tagging photos as they’re taken can also be a useful tool for helping to organise your digital pictures in advance.

Import all you pictures to one device, most likely a PC and create various albums based on the tags and names you chose.

Back up all your images onto an external drive but if you want to be safeguarded the ideal back up is via CD’s or DVD’s or in a cloud. Also,protect your images from hackers and identity thieves, switch off automatic backups on your phone or other device and add a watermark to your images.

And remember to protect your photos carefully – the recent picture hacking scandal from iCloud accounts is still fresh in our memories Apple iCloud leak and serves as a cautionary tale that sensitive photos are best stored in encrypted digital vaults.

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