Understand Your Rights. Solve Your Legal Problems
Making informed financial decisions requires the right tools, and refinance calculators are among the most valuable resources available. Whether considering student loan refinancing, mortgage adjustments, or business loan restructuring, these calculators provide borrowers with insights into repayment terms, interest rates, and potential savings. However, while these tools help clarify financial options, borrowers must also consider the legal implications of refinancing. This article explores how to refinance calculators aid financial planning and why understanding legal obligations is crucial before making a refinancing decision.
Refinance calculators help individuals and business owners assess their loan options by providing projections based on loan terms, interest rates, and repayment schedules. Some of the most commonly used types include:
While these tools provide valuable insights, they do not replace the need for careful legal review of new loan terms.
Refinancing any loan involves more than just finding a lower interest rate. Borrowers should be aware of key legal aspects, including:
While refinance calculators provide critical financial insights, legal professionals help borrowers navigate the complexities of loan agreements. A lawyer can:
For borrowers unsure about certain terms or conditions, consulting a legal professional can prevent costly mistakes. Legal guidance becomes especially important when dealing with high-value loans, complex financial agreements, or regulatory changes that could impact refinancing options. By working with legal experts, borrowers can confidently move forward, knowing they are making the best possible decision for their financial future.
Refinance calculators are indispensable tools for making well-informed financial decisions, but they must be used alongside a strong understanding of legal considerations. Whether using a refinance calculator, mortgage tool, or business loan calculator, borrowers should carefully review loan terms and seek legal guidance when necessary.
Refinancing can be an effective way to reduce debt burdens and optimize financial health, but the process requires careful attention to detail. Taking the time to assess both the financial benefits and legal implications ensures that borrowers avoid unnecessary risks and take full advantage of available opportunities. By combining financial analysis with legal due diligence, individuals can make confident refinancing decisions that align with their long-term goals, providing peace of mind and financial stability for the future.
Lawyer Monthly marketing manager James Gardner has outlined two growing avenues of legal marketing that would benefit law firms to explore in the new year.
For many lawyers and law firms, marketing can still seem daunting and a task that feels more like experimentation than a strategy. Worse still, the past two years have shaken the legal landscape for everyone involved. How can you ensure that your law firm is still attracting customers during this tumultuous time?
While marketing spends may still sit below pre-pandemic levels as we come to the end of 2021, now may be the time to re-focus your marketing strategies to optimise your lead generation and new customer intake.
Below, we have laid out two core strategies for your legal marketing that, if implemented correctly, will help you to gain qualified leads and attract new customers in 2022.
Your law firm’s website is still one of the most important, and often overlooked, components of your legal marketing. With over 96% of clients, using search engines to seek out legal advice, it is vital to ensure that your website is offering a positive experience and value for your visitors. If you can get your target audience onto your website and provide them with the information they are looking for, you will win more clients.
Ways to accomplish this can include:
We are very visual creatures. We eat with our eyes, and the online space is no different. If your website and branding are on point, then visitors will be more likely to stick around and even engage with you. If your website looks like it was made in 1994 and is in need of a makeover, get one done this year!
Put simply, make sure your website visitors can easily find their way to the information they are looking for. Most people will only look at one or two pages when they visit, so you have to make sure those pages easy to find.
Your law firm’s website is still one of the most important, and often overlooked, components of your legal marketing.
Use online tools to test your website page speed and ensure they are loading quickly. Slow pages will turn off potential clients, leading to higher bounce rates – as much as 32% – and lost clients. So even if you write great content and your site looks fantastic, if it is not loading within ten seconds you need to spend some time fixing it. Ideally, you will want to hit a page load speed of around three seconds.
Allowing visitors to get the most out of your site no matter which device they are viewing it on is essential in an age where more and more visitors look at websites on their mobiles. Often ignored, this is a vital tool in your arsenal and one that is very easy to check. Simply view your own website on your mobile device and see how it looks. Are pages cropped? Buttons missing? If so, then you need to look at creating either a more responsive website or a mobile-friendly mode. If your potential clients are not seeing your website in a good light, they will look unfavourably on your law firm.
Content is and always will be king online. Google’s E-A-T (Expertise - Authoratativeness – Trust) algorithm received some updates this year, but its fundamentals remain the same. Avoid short blog posts that have no value and concentrate on writing content that answers a search query with expertise and authority, and you will gain the trust of the search engines – and your website visitors. When you write content, imagine that you are answering a client’s question and impart your expertise so they can understand exactly what is happening, what it means and what actions they need to take. By following that simple tactic, you will invariably improve your content.
Content is and always will be king online.
SEO can seem scary, but it really does not have to be. To simplify it, SEO is making your website more appealing to search engines. But how?
Well, a combination of good content, keyword research and use and backlinks will certainly help. Look into keywords that your target audience will look for and produce content on that subject. You can use different types of keywords too, so if on your homepage you describe yourself as a divorce lawyer in London, look at the transactional queries such as “divorce lawyer London”, “London’s best divorce lawyer” etc. to target those looking for your services. On your blogs, focus on informational and educational search queries such as “How do you get divorced in England?” By finding those queries that match what your target audience is searching and implementing them across various spaces on your website, such as in URLs, headings, content and quotes, you will increase your SEO and your online visibility.
An additional element to consider is looking to increase your number of links to reputable websites. When a reputable website publishes a link to your site, it is similar to a client referral or a positive review, telling Google that your website has good information and thereby giving you more authority with the search engines and improving your rankings. To increase your backlinks, focus on writing good content and then promoting that to other websites so they feature it. Include quality information and infographics that are easy for people to share so they can link back to your original content.
Social media, love it or hate it, continues to be one of the largest segments of the online space across the globe. It also remains a key marketing channel for 2022. But we would suggest a very different approach and encourage you to get smart with social media.
Social media offers a unique way to interact and appeal to different audiences, whether that be local, national or global. Position yourself right on social media and you will likely be onto a lead generation goldmine. The problem? It is horrendously time-consuming and ineffective – at least, the way most law firms do it.
Position yourself right on social media and you will likely be onto a lead generation goldmine.
Too often law firms fall into the trap of thinking that they have to be on every social media platform to be effective. This is one of the most common mistakes and can actually harm your law firm in the eyes of clients. Rather than looking at social media as something you have to do and sign up to every service under the sun, instead use the same targeted approach that you would in other areas of your law firm marketing. Be sensible about where to have an account and how many accounts you have.
If you work in corporate law, I am sure you can guess which social network will feature more of your target audience out of TikTok or LinkedIn without resorting to statistics. That does not mean you cannot or should not have both, but it means that if you can only budget for one (either financially or time-wise), then you should choose the one your audience will more likely frequent.
This year, operate a policy along the lines of ‘If you don't have anything good to say, don't say anything at all.’ If you feel you can contribute to the conversation, then get involved, add value, write good content and start conversations. If, on the other hand, you do not have the time to put content out and all you are left with is a handful of social media channels posting soulless marketing messages aimed at no one once every month, then you are going to put more people off. Nothing looks worse than an abandoned social media channel where the last post was made in April 2021.
This year, operate a policy along the lines of ‘If you don't have anything good to say, don't say anything at all.’
Social media takes time and effort, particularly the largely visual ones such as Instagram and TikTok, so pick one channel to start with and put some effort into learning how it works. Dip your toe in the organic and paid side of it. If you find you are enjoying it and you see potential in other channels, then go ahead, but make sure your resources will cover it. The rise of TikTok has seen bigger businesses employ creators whose sole job is to make TikTok videos to promote the company. If you can do that and you work in an area of law where your clients form part of the audience, then it is an excellent opportunity for your law firm to reach new customers. If not, then it is probably not worth getting an account on that platform.
Try to avoid being sucked into prioritising page views and ‘likes’ over engagement. Many people seem to want their page to hit 10,000 followers and pay little attention to how many people are actually engaging with their posts and who they are. If you are a local law firm and you have got a Reel that has been viewed 24,000 times, that is great, but if those viewers are on the other side of the world and never going to use your law firm then what is the point? Create the content that appeals to your audience in the areas where they are. You will find more potential clients using this method than creating content for a mass audience that is not made up of your customers.
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Again, do not try to bite off more than you can chew. Either of the above avenues, if pursued correctly, will ensure that you generate more leads in 2022 and form a solid launch pad for your legal marketing to grow. It is up to you to determine which makes the best fit for your needs.
Weston Anson is the Founder and Chairman of CONSOR IP Consulting and Valuation, a leader in intellectual property issues for more than 25 years. He is the author of Expert Witnesses, Valuation, and Damages: The Expert’s Point of View (ABA, 2013) and IP Valuation for the Future (ABA, 2018), edited by Jeff Anderson the Managing Director at CONSOR.
When a complex problem arises, you sometimes need outside help—especially when litigation is involved. Litigation can and will drain away your available hours. An expert can be of tremendous assistance during these times: in pre-litigation planning, preparing discovery requests, document review, deposition preparation, and especially if and when litigation gets to trial.
The litigation process can stretch over many months or even years, and an expert can and should be involved during every stage to assist the litigation team. For example, in one case on which our firm worked, we went through a process that had 24 distinct phases (including initial discussions outlining the case) from start through the appeal process.
Having an expert on board before discovery even begins will help you wade through the specialized knowledge subtleties and shades of meaning that come with each industry-specific case. The expert will especially be able to sift through the facts and help point out what issues are relevant to your case. This is true whether you are dealing with real estate, bankruptcy, or intellectual property. Within my own practice dealing with intellectual property, areas of specialty can include rights of publicity, trademarks, patents, royalty rates, licensing, and trade secrets valuation.
Besides providing industry-specific details on a case, an expert can help you to coordinate scheduling, establish industry standards, and put in place work product controls. The following briefly outlines some of the phases during which an expert can prove to be valuable to any litigator:
Pre-litigation planning. Talk to your expert about your case and use the expert as a sounding board to determine whether the cause of damages is logical and supportable, based on the expert’s knowledge of the subject in question. When discussing the case, put aside the legal issues. Determine whether the facts, as explained to the expert, are in his or her opinion, sufficiently grounded in established customs and practices in the subject industry. Also, find out if the litigation makes sense from an industry point of view.
Estimate of order of magnitude damages. Early on, have the expert, based on the facts you outline, provide you with a rough analysis of what the total damages may be. This will enable you to discuss with your client whether it is worthwhile to move forward with litigation based on economic risk-reward analysis.
Mediation or arbitration consultation. Subsequently, consult with the expert concerning what would be a reasonable amount to seek in a mediation or arbitration, when settlement is sought prior to formal litigation.
Discovery strategy and requests. As litigation moves forward, consult with the expert on what types of documents would be most important to the discovery process. The expert can provide a detailed request for information (RFI) that can be submitted to the other party.
Document review. Depending on the size of the litigation, the amount of produced documents can be substantial. An expert can provide valuable assistance in reviewing these documents, finding out which documents are relevant to the damages or other issues, and also outlining what additional documents should be requested.
Alternative damages theories. Discuss alternative damages theories with the expert. This preliminary discussion will help give you and your client a clear picture of possible financial damages scenarios.
Pre-deposition assistance. Experts can look at the opposing side’s organization and determine who would be useful to your case to have deposed. This includes deciding which personnel would best be named as the 30(b)(6) witness. Also, experts can provide you with general deposition guidelines as well as specific questions to ask during the deposition that are relevant to the industry.
Opposing expert intelligence. Ask the expert for information about the opposing expert, both informal and public information. The expert will have industry and professional contacts that can help you gain more insight into opposing experts and their tendencies.
Deposition attendance. The expert can help prepare questions for the opposing expert’s deposition. The expert, or one of the associates at the expert’s firm, can attend the deposition and can assist you with questions and suggestions before and during the deposition.
Daubert challenge assistance. Experts can provide you suggestions on how to present a Daubert challenge of the opposing expert. Your expert can review the opposing expert’s earlier reports to identify potential inconsistencies as well as review any written work outside of litigation.
Industry-specific issues analysis. As with damages theories, the expert can present you with a discussion of industry-specific issues in the case, along with recommendations, analysis, and conclusions.
Expert reports. If the expert is providing two reports, make sure they are consistent. And by now, you should not be surprised about what is concluded.
Rebuttal report. Your expert can write a rebuttal to the other expert’s report. The opposing party’s expert will most likely have a diametrically opposed position, which your expert can systematically analyze and dissect.
Deposition and preparation. Beyond being deposed, the expert can help you prepare for the deposition by reviewing reports and key documents.
Trial and testimony. The expert’s ultimate role will be trial testimony. Preparation will be similar to that leading to deposition. Preparation for this moment should have been ongoing and constantly communicated between you and your expert. Make sure that congruency between you and your expert is in place especially, as to the merits of the case in general (this is critical from the very beginning).
Appeal preparation. When you receive the decision, review it with your expert, and get his or her opinion on whether to accept the decision as is, or to appeal certain aspects. If you appeal any part of the decision, your expert can once again be very instrumental, helping prepare a supplemental report to be included with the appeal.
Conclusion. The lesson that every attorney should learn, whether a solo practitioner or a partner in an international firm, is that your expert should be brought onto your litigation team early in the process. The whole litigation process takes time, experience, and patience. And remember, it is a two-way street: When you respect the expert, the expert will respect you, your client, and especially your strategy. Hiring an expert, and hiring that expert early, will be the best move you make.
T: 800 454 9091
Below Emma Jones, senior lecturer in law and member of the Open Justice team at the Open University, talks to Lawyer Monthly about the various ways you can bets plan your legal studies and get ahead of your fellow students.
One of the key differences between success and failure in legal studies is the way students organise their studies and manage their time. Getting into good habits will make for a much smoother study experience and prepare you well for life in the legal profession. Here are five top tips to managing your legal studies effectively:
Whether you keep it in your pocket and scribble in it, or note everything using an app on your smart phone, it is really important to note down key deadlines. This can include dates and times of lectures and seminars, meetings with fellow students and dates for submitting assignments. Make sure you set a reminder for at least one week in advance too, so that you can complete any necessary preparation.
If you’ve got your own room, make sure you have a desk and chair to use. If you’re in shared (or very noisy) accommodation, you might find it better to use the university library or a quiet corner in the Law School. If you are going to be studying away from home regularly, make sure you have a bag or backpack with everything in it you need to work – books, highlighters, laptop charger, etc.
Spend some time thinking about your schedule and deciding which times you will set aside for study. Make sure you are being realistic – if you are going to be out every Saturday night, then deciding to set aside Sunday mornings to write assignments probably isn’t going to work! Think about the times of day you work best and try to concentrate your study in those. Often, studying in shorter chunks with quick breaks in between is the most effective way to learn. Plan in some flexibility for those weeks when other commitments arise and try to give yourself more time than you think you’re going to need. Make sure you build in time for hobbies, seeing friends and relaxing too.
If you’ve met a deadline, or finished a piece of reading, don’t forget to build in rewards. These can be anything from a cup of tea and a chocolate biscuit to a new purchase or a big night out! Having an incentive you are working towards can really help motivate you and focus your mind.
If you are writing notes (and you definitely should be) make sure you are keeping them in notebooks or files that are clearly labelled and stored somewhere safe. Investing in post-its, index cards and sticky labels can all help you to keep track of key points. When storing information on your computer or laptop you also need to ensure you create files which are clearly named and easy to access. If you have different versions of the same document, it is really important to save these under different names (for example “draft 1”, “draft 2” and “final version”).
The best laid plans will go awry on occasion. When that happens, make sure you keep your tutors, course convenors or other appropriate people updated so that they can help you. A good idea is to try and develop a strategy for how you will catch up/get back on track and explain this to them, so that it’s clear you are trying your best to sort out the problem. When you have resolved things, make sure you spend some time reflecting on what went wrong and how you handled it, to see if there is anything you can learn for next time. Remember, you often learn more from your mistakes than your success.
She reveals more on legislation developers should be aware about, growing environmental concerns which affect planning and regulations which need to be updated.
What are important parts of EU legislation that property developers/developers should be well versed on?
From my perspective there are three areas of legislation: The National Planning Policy Framework as revised in 2018; UK legislation implementing the Habitats Directive; and, legislation related to Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). While the UK will soon leave the EU, the EU driven legislation is unlikely to change, especially as we are signatories to the Bern Convention, which pre-dates but is similar to the Habitats Regulations in its intent.
The main risk is not prosecution, but the slowing down or failure to progress a planning application.
The requirement for EIA is well-established in UK law and is unlikely to change. There is a lot of confusion regarding EIA: only a small number of projects require it. I have quite a few clients who think it is useful to voluntarily submit an EIA, but my advice is to always avoid this, if possible, using the process whereby a project can be formally screened out of the requirement. Except for its use as a process (evaluating fully the environmental ramifications before freezing the design), EIAs are costly, time-consuming and slow down planning approval. They do not substitute for planning obligations, and indeed do not carry the weight that planning obligations do.
A seller’s pack should include up to date survey information that must be produced to best practice standards and to have been undertaken by competent ecologists.
If they are not well versed on such legislation or regulations, what legal sanctions can they potentially face?
The main risk is not prosecution, but the slowing down or failure to progress a planning application. Applications for development move through the system very slowly. If the requirements of the Habitats regulations are not met, then a planning application may not even be registered, never mind approved. What clients often do not realise is that the competent authority has a duty to consider the effect of development on species afforded special protection. If the information on species, usually presence and population size, is not provided with the application, it will be refused due to the risk to the local planning authority. The LPA will not stick its neck out; it wants the data and all of the legislative boxes ticked.
It is unlikely that a client would get to the point to where they could be fined or sanctioned. It is far more likely that they fail to get planning permission. Maximum environmental fines are not large, especially in relation to the lost opportunity cost of development not getting approved. The costly environmental fines are in breeches to various Environment Act Regulations, but these usually apply to industries, not to developers.
Prospective purchasers should check ecological constraints prior to purchasing; can you share what they should be looking out for?
A seller’s pack should include up to date survey information that must be produced to best practice standards and to have been undertaken by competent ecologists. The purchaser should read these carefully, particularly in relation to findings, recommendations for further survey, and any reference to licensing. If ecological constraints are present, these do not preclude development, but may have cost and timing implications.
Most ecological constraints are not particularly onerous and can be worked around. The need to take into account the protection of bats is probably the most common issue and can create some design challenges if refurbishing a building where bats are found. I also find that the presence of high-quality trees can be quite a constraint and am working on a project now where the designers will need to be innovative on foundation construction. My understanding in that case is that the initial purchase site survey by the buyer did not take note of a significant tree line on the boundary of the site. Obvious site constraints always need to be considered.
There has been some movement in the Agencies to update European Protected Species Licensing, but they have a long way to go.
With ever-growing environmental concerns, can you share ways in which businesses can be more proactive in ensuring their new construction venture is as environmentally friendly as possible? Building Regulations incorporated in 2013 the key elements of Code for Sustainable Homes, so it is not difficult for business to meet sustainability targets simply by complying with regulations. The NPPF also incorporates a range of ways that any permitted development is likely to be environmentally friendly. I would always recommend that a client go the extra distance to identify areas where environmental enhancements can be incorporated, and I would also encourage partnership working with local wildlife groups, to help support local targets in terms of protecting and enhancing wildlife and habitats. Green space within and around development is vital, and involving new residents or users of a development can increase community cohesiveness and also improve sell-on prices for residents. The “value-added” created by Green Infrastructure is now well-documented and developers should look for opportunities to maximise this. Value is not only created by maximising floor space.
Moreover, are there any regulations that you think need updating?
There has been some movement in the Agencies to update European Protected Species Licensing, but they have a long way to go. Once we leave the EU, then the validity of the Habitats Regulations as they stand may be challenged. The licensing system used in the UK to meet the requirements of the Habitats Directive was a very awkward and legalistic “fix”, which cries out for improvement. A system which nationalizes the protection of species and habitats, rather than dumping it on developers on a site by site, un-strategic basis, would be a far better way to resolve the very real issue of habitat fragmentation and species population decline. However, until Brexit is resolved, there is little government energy being directed towards regulatory review.
Jaquelin Clay
Director
Tel: 0845 2263618
Email: jackie@jfa.co.uk
Web: www.jfa.co.uk
Businesses that fail to re-enrol certain workers into the workplace pension scheme every three years could end up being fined by The Pensions Regulator (TPR).
Workplace pensions are arranged by employers, who pay a percentage of a worker’s salary into a pension scheme each month – helping them save for retirement. Auto enrolment, which makes it compulsory for employers to automatically enrol eligible workers into a workplace pension, was introduced in 2012.
However, all employers will need to re-enrol certain workers back into the qualifying pension scheme every three years. Fabian Taylor, independent financial adviser at Nelsons, shares his advice for businesses.
All employers now have an obligation to help safeguard the financial future of their workers through pension auto enrolment.
If employers fail to comply with their legal duties for auto enrolment, TPR has the ability to levy fines against them. Initially, businesses may be sent a fixed penalty notice of £400 however, if this is not paid within a certain period, this can rise to between £50 and £10,000 a day until the fine has been paid.
What do I need to know about re-enrolment?
Employers should start by selecting a suitable re-enrolment date that will apply to all eligible jobholders. Businesses have a six-month window from which they can choose a re-enrolment date – it starts three months before the third anniversary of their last staging date or last re-enrolment date and ends three months after.
At the re-enrolment date, businesses will need to check which workers are eligible for re-enrolment. To make this easier, employers should make sure their worker data is up-to-date by checking they hold the correct details about all those affected by re-enrolment.
Once workers have been re-enrolled, employers have a legal duty to send them statutory communications telling them they’ll be re-enrolled, what this means and that they can choose to opt out of the scheme within one month.
Businesses must also complete a re-declaration of compliance within five calendar months of their re-enrolment date – even if they had no eligible members of staff to re-enrol. An employer’s re-declaration is mandatory and failure to complete it on time could result in a fine.
How do I know which workers need to be re-enrolled?
Businesses will need to carry out an assessment of certain staff on their chosen re-enrolment date to see whether they meet the age and earnings criteria to be re-enrolled (eligible workers are aged between 22 and the state pension age, and earn at least £10,000 in a year). This applies to staff who have previously been assessed for auto enrolment and have:
“If any of the above events happen within 12 months of an employer’s chosen re-enrolment date, they can decide to enrol the eligible staff, but they are not required to do so. They should, however, be re-enrolled at the next re-enrolment date in another three years’ time.
Which workers are excluded from re-enrolment?
Active members of a qualifying workplace pension scheme, along with those aged 21 or under or of state pension age and older are excluded from re-enrolment.
Employers can also choose whether or not to re-enrol a member of staff meeting the age or earnings criteria if any of the events listed in the above question happened more than 12 months before the chosen re-enrolment date and:
Is there anything else I need to know?
Re-enrolment is a good time to review the workplace pension scheme. TPR requires employers to make sure that schemes are monitored regularly and deliver good outcomes for members.
Employers should ask themselves the following questions:
If a workplace pension scheme follows these principles in its ongoing operations, it will ensure good outcomes are delivered for members.
Will dispute experts at leading national law firm Irwin Mitchell Private Wealth are warning of the importance of updating a will after a deceased man’s young children had to go to court to apply for maintenance.
Bianca Maria Corrado, who had a long-term affair with the late Malkiat Singh Ubbi, was awarded £386,000 against Mr Ubbi’s £3.5m estate in court this month. Mr Ubbi was still married to his widow and had one disabled child as well as a stepdaughter.
The deceased was described as living a ‘double life’ in the case, running two households to a high standard of living. At the time of Mr Ubbi’s death he was in the process of getting divorced from his wife and was living with Ms Corrado, but died unexpectedly in February 2015 before the divorce was finalised.
Ms Corrado originally sought a lump sum of £850,000 from Mr Singh’s estate. Ms Corrado’s illegitimate children with Mr Singh – aged just three years and six months – had not been provided for in his will, which was dated August 2010, a claim was brought under the Inheritance Act by Ms Corrado on behalf of her children.
Will dispute specialists at Irwin Mitchell Private Wealth are warning that thousands of families could face the same fate. Divorce and remarriage have become increasingly common in society, yet wills are rarely updated after big life events.
“It can be incredibly costly in the long run to let your will languish with outdated information,” said Nazia Nawaz, a senior associate in the will, trust and estate disputes team at Irwin Mitchell Private Wealth. “In this case, the deceased led a double life and stayed married to his former wife while living with his mistress at the time of his death. It’s vital to consider the consequences of staying married to someone when the relationship has broken down irretrievably, particularly if you then have a second family.
“It’s unusual to have infant children as claimants in an Inheritance Act dispute, but it was necessary here to provide for their future – particularly as the relationship between the two separate families was unfriendly at best.”
The judge recognised there is little specified guidance for claims made by infant children, and so this case is likely to be used as future guidance for Inheritance Act claims involving children.
Nazia continued: “The judge noted that while the provisions used in family proceedings can be used for guidance, the question of ‘reasonable financial provision’ in such claims must ultimately be determined in accordance with the Inheritance Act. Mr Ubbi may have wanted his children to receive more from the estate had he set out a provision for them in his will.
“This case also goes to show that while updating a will may seem costly and time-consuming from the outset, the fallout of leaving heirs and second families unaccounted for is much worse. Will disputes can have a devastating effect on families and can massively exacerbate existing tensions.
“It is not commonly known that getting remarried can invalidate a previous will, leaving potential heirs with no option other than to pursue a claim.
“We strongly advise that a person’s will is updated after every major life event, be that divorce, remarriage or death. That way the inevitable stress, cost and fallout from a will dispute can be avoided.”
(Source: Irwin Mitchell)
Glen Wagstaff, Founder and Managing Partner at Inter Vivos, PLLC, believes planning around your estates for the future is as much about values as it is about the assets themselves. Glen and his firm are on a mission to make “proper planning affordable and accessible for everyone” in a family focused environment that challenges more than just competition on price.
What would you say are the most common obstacles clients face in the US as they look to plan their estates?
Most families are unaware of what their planning needs are. It is common for a client to assume that they have very basic planning needs when in reality there are more complex or specific provisions that they should have in their plan.
Many people would assume that when one dies or becomes mentally disabled, without proper estate planning, their assets automatically pass to their next of kin or offspring. Are they wrong and why?
Most of the time, between spouses it is fairly easy to arrange for assets to pass automatically to each other, but to anyone else the law generally provides for a court directed probate process, which would be necessary for assets to be transferred to offspring or next of kin, or according to the provisions in their will. In the United States the best way to avoid this is through a properly structured and funded trust plan.
What is the difference between family estate plans and niche estate plans; which would be best for clients?
Most families may only need a family estate plan. Niche planning is used to address situation specific needs or asset specific needs, but it is important if a client has those assets or situations. For example, business owners generally need to consider business succession planning while families with special needs children, spendthrift children, or with strained relationships between individuals, should address those specific needs in their planning.
As a thought leader, how are you actively working towards the development or implementation of new estate policies?
We believe while estate planning is becoming increasingly important and needed for our aging population, our industry is becoming very polarized with large traditional law firms on one side and non-lawyer services like Legalzoom and Rocket Lawyer on the other. The legitimate experts in the industry who take a value driven approach to planning are being squeezed out of the marketplace because they find it difficult to compete in terms of price or marketing, and the public is largely unaware that there even is a difference. We want to present a better model for the industry and build out opportunities for professionals to be successful at specialty planning. We also want to make proper planning affordable and accessible for everyone, which is why we have different planning options and price points representing different planning experiences for clients to choose from. We want to help clients pass on values, not just assets, so to do that we offer a much more customized approach to the planning process. This year we are also doing our very first Legacy Retreat to Costa Rica, which allows clients to learn valuable principles about building a legacy and transferring values, while combining humanitarian service with a high-end vacation. We want to help change the way people think about planning and the planning process.
Is there anything you would like to add?
As we expand, our goal is to become the largest and most influential estate planning law firm in the world. We currently have licensed attorneys in four countries including the US and in 17 states within the US.
Inter Vivos, PLLC
100 N State St, Ste B
Lindon, UT 84042
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Inter Vivos is an estate planning law firm offering customized planning solutions including Estate Planning, Tax Planning, Asset Protection Planning, Business Planning, Legacy Planning and Estate Administration. Most of our clients are middle class families needing to protect their assets and their loved ones.
We structured the firm as a cooperative virtual law firm, which is very unique in our industry. It allows our attorneys a lot of flexibility and independence while at the same time allowing us to grow into a large firm with well-known branding and to reach clients across the country and globally.
Paresh Raja, CEO of Market Financial Solutions believes proposed changes to planning laws are a step in the right direction, and are likely to open a new wave of investment opportunities for property investors while at the same time increasing the number of houses on the market. However, Paresh believes changes to planning laws will not solely address the housing crisis, and is calling for the Government to introduce additional reforms to ensure that more people are able to jump onto the prope11rty ladder.
In February, Secretary for Housing and Local Communities, Sajid Javid announced a change to existing housing extension regulations. In a plan to amend the Government's national policy framework, homeowners and businesses in well-built areas could soon be able to extend their property upwards by two storeys.
With the proposals incentivising councils to approve more extensions, Mr Javid hailed the relaxation of extension regulations as a creative solution to help increase the country’s housing supply. While a positive step by the Government and something that should be welcomed by homeowners and businesses alike, this needs to be the first in an on-going series of reforms that ensures more people are able to act on their property-buying intentions.
Instead of announcing short-term fixes to the property market through one-off reforms, the Government must overcome its dubious track record towards housing by pursing strategy that offers long-term vision and support. With 16 different Housing Ministers since 1997, consistency in housing policy has been challenged for successive governments. Furthermore, in order to support the UK’s future as a centre for commerce and business following Brexit, there also needs to be significant attention directed towards the commercial property market, ensuring the country has the infrastructure in place to remain a thriving hub for businesses.
An important section of the UK’s property market, 2017 was an important year for commercial real estate, with commercial property investment in London reaching £12.64 billion. However, increasing demand for office space in London has increased fears that the capital could be soon facing an office-space shortage.
A recent report from Knight Frank stated that a total of 13.84 million square feet worth of office space was leased in central London last year – over 2 million square feet more than in 2016. Evidently, business appetite for office space in the city is clearly strong. What’s more, with London's population projected to increase to 9.5 million people by 2025, and so too therefore its workforce, the need for more office space is vital so that the capital remains a leading business capital.
Luckily, while still in its infancy stages, the proposed reforms to planning laws could mean that extra storeys can be added to office builds and shops, as well as homes and apartment blocks – that is providing the developments keep with the roofline of surrounding builds. More will be revealed once the Government revises its draft National Planning Policy Framework.
Ultimately, the Government’s reform to planning laws is something that should be welcomed by the industry, and in particular by developers who can take advantage of the space available to extend properties upwards. This is necessary to meet not only meet residential demand for real estate, but also to open up new opportunities for businesses seeking to set up an office in a busy urban centre. However, the changes must also form part of a wider Government-backed solution that addresses the needs of the UK property market across both residential and commercial real estate.
Media attention and auto-enrolment have pushed pensions to the front of our minds, but how has Britain’s pension performance altered over time?
Each quarter, True Potential Investor creates their Tackling The Savings Gap: Consumer Savings and Debt Data report. The campaign was launched in 2013 and to date has polled 30,000 people to determine current attitudes to pensions, savings and financial knowledge in the UK.
Using findings from these results from Q1 2016 to Q3 2017, we examine how pension attitudes have shifted across a number of key areas:
As we wake up to the importance of our pensions, we would expect that the number of people contributing nothing to their pension would be in decline — but how do the stats line up?
In Q1 2016, 34% of people did not put anything towards their pension. By Q3 2017, this figure had increased significantly to 45%, rather than decreasing as expected. In fact, in 2016 and 2017 so far, Q2 2016 has been the best month for pension contributions; the number of people failing to contribute was at its lowest (29%).
Overall, our analysis of the reports’ findings shows that women are more likely than men to contribute nothing towards their pension. In each of the quarters — with the exception of Q1 2017 when the data was unavailable — a greater number of women failed to contribute. This was at its highest in Q3 2017, when almost half of all women (49%) did not add to their pension.
When we are contributing to our pensions, just how much are we adding each month? Of the data available, we contributed the most in Q4 2016, adding £566 on average to our pension pot. This was followed by Q2 2016, with an average monthly contribution of £474.
Despite awareness of pensions rising, Q3 2017 saw an average pension contribution of just £203, the lowest of all available data between 2016 and 2017. However, the Q3 2017 Tackling The Savings Gap report does discuss Britain’s growing debt. On average, UK consumers take on £370 of debt each month, with 33% of those surveyed admitting to having financial worries on a daily basis. As unsecured borrowing rises to £200 billion according to Bank of England data, perhaps Britain’s mounting debt is hindering our pension performance?
With the exception of Q3 2017, UK consumers most commonly contribute between £1 and £300 in the quarters analysed.
As the above analysis shows, there is great fluctuation in our quarterly pension contributions. While highlighting the flexibility offered by personal pensions, it’s clear that our pensions are struggling amongst our other priorities. Illustrated by the changeable monthly contributions, debt and other monthly outgoings could be consuming our finances, stunting our financial planning for retirement.
However, while the amount we set aside may fluctuate, the impact of even the smallest contribution can significantly bolster the funds we have available come retirement.
Research from True Potential Investor has found that Brits waste £4.70 per day on purchases that they later regret, such as food, alcohol, clothes and going out. If this amount was invested into a pension in a typical balanced fund for 35 years, it could result in a pension pot of £189,607— enough to fund 8 years in retirement, based on receiving £23,000 annually.
The above highlights how even the smallest of pension contributions can make a difference over time. We need to strike the difficult balance of managing our financial commitments with contributing to our pensions — and the sooner we start, the better we could support ourselves in later life.
