Murray Beith Murray LLP is a leading Scottish private client law firm.
For 175 years we have specialised in meeting the legal, financial and administrative needs of individuals and families, family trusts, charities and private companies.
One difficult question you need to address when preparing a Will or Power of Attorney is how to deal with digital assets. By their very nature, digital assets are intangible and may be difficult to trace, access and manage. Some of them may be deleted by social media platforms and cease to exist whilst other platforms might convert the digital account content into a legacy but refuse access.
A Power of Attorney is a legally binding document, which can provide your attorney, or attorneys with the authority to manage your financial affairs, make welfare decisions on your behalf in the event you become unable, or lack capacity to make decisions for yourself. This may occur due to an unexpected change to your physical, mental, or emotional wellbeing, which affects your ability to make sound decisions.
In part one of this blog, we looked at establishing whether there is a Will, who the executor and beneficiaries are and the extent and value of the estate. In the second part of this blog we will look at the steps which must be taken to report the estate to HMRC for Inheritance Tax (IHT) purposes (if required) and make the application for the Grant of Confirmation, as well as ingathering and distributing the estate.
Whilst it might seem straightforward at the outset, winding up an estate in Scotland can be difficult, complex and time-consuming. In the first of a two-part blog, we will look at the initial steps which must be taken.
In life, things change over time. That means you must be able to change arrangements you make from time to time. When you take the steps to grant a Power of Attorney, you consider the circumstances you face at that moment in time. What happens, however, if circumstances change? This article considers how you can change a Power of Attorney in Scotland.
