denotes premium content | Jan 9 2009 Feature
posted 1 Apr 1998 in Volume 3 Issue 3
Conference Report - Managing the Affairs of your Elderly Clients.
The message seems to be
coming across loud and clear from all quarters - at a Seminar which I recently
attended for the Elderly Client Adviser on this subject the consensus was that
this is an expanding, important and distinct area of our Practices - whether
Legal, Financial or Social Services.
The Financial Services "jargon" is in
fact very apt - our Elderly Clients deserve our Best Advice, and we should Know
Our Client - and we should also know who is our Client in some family situations
the Elderly Client appears to take a back seat whilst the arrangements are made
by the children or other members of the family - we must ensure that our Client
gives the instructions.
We should consider whether our offices are "user friendly" (and that we
ourselves are also!)- Elderly Clients can be very vulnerable and deserve our
very best care - we are often in a privileged position, and must merit the trust
placed in us to act on their behalf to the best of our ability. There is a wide
area to cover - financial, social, and personal. We should consider tax
efficiency and investment planning; post-retirement planning (if someone is
aiming to retire in their 50's, the time sent in retirement could be longer than
that spent working!); Long Term Care provisions; Insurance; Property - and in
particular we are advised to consult the Law Society's Guidelines re Gifts of
Property; the need for an Enduring Power of Attorney - an extremely useful
document, but one which needs sympathetic explanation; Capacity - the need to
understand this and the tests applicable; Court of Protection procedure; and
Wills.
This is a
developing area of practice which should be approached with care and
consideration and requiring considerable specialised knowledge. The Client base
is expanding, with more people living longer - it is calculated that the number
of over 75's will double in the next 50 years!
Margaret Atkinson. The author is
T.E.P. Probate and Trust Executive with Holmes Campbell, Solicitors,
Littlehampton, West Sussex.
Documentation from the seminar held on 5
March 1998 is available, price £125, from: Abigail Elwick, Tel: 0171 453 2151,
Fax: 0171 453 2739
