Tax and Financial Planning

Planning for the future is very important; often we all leave things too late.

Here are just some of the areas where we can advise:

Inheritance Tax Planning: Inheritance Tax can now make a substantial impact on your children's inheritance. However, careful planning in your lifetime, and effective use of the available reliefs and exemptions can greatly reduce the tax burden. Often a suitable Will can achieve large tax savings.
Trusts: A Trust is a fund which contains assets that are controlled by trustees chosen by you for the benefit of specific individuals. They are governed by complex legal regulations and separate tax rules. A Trust can be set up at any time during the lifetime of an individual to become operative either immediately or following your death.
Lasting Powers of Attorney: It is possible to appoint one or more people of your own choosing to make decisions for you and manage your affairs for your benefit in the event of mental incapacity. You can make one Power of Attorney for financial and property matters, and another for welfare and healthcare decisions. Remember mental incapacity can affect not only the elderly - premature dementia or an accident can have the same effect.
Guardians: If you have young children, you should consider appointing guardians to take care of them if you die while they are still young. Relatives such as your parents or brothers or sisters have no legal status if you die without naming guardians for your children. The best you can do is to make a formal written appointment of guardians. This is usually done whilst making your Will.
Living Wills: A Living Will can record your wishes about certain medical procedures that are or are not to be employed on loss of mental capacity ("advanced directive").
Financial planning: Proper financial management and advice can be an important part of many different legal transactions, such as sales and purchases of property, the administration of Wills, Estates and Trusts and as part of effective financial and tax planning. We work closely with a number of specialist Independent Financial Advisers ("IFAs") who can provide detailed recommendations in conjunction with the legal advice we are providing. We are authorised by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and can provide limited financial advice where this is connected to legal transactions we are dealing with. We often co-operate with clients' own financial advisers. In other cases, where a client needs specific financial advice in connection with legal matters, we can obtain the necessary advice from IFAs known to us.

We can help with matters such as:-

investments
mortgages
pensions
retirement planning
inheritance tax planning
equity release
long term care
life assurance
household insurance
tax efficient investment

Stephen Gallico Solicitors is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (Registration number: 386696).
A copy of the Solicitors’ Code of Conduct 2007, which sets out the rules of professional conduct which apply to solicitors, is available on the Solicitors Regulation Authority website: http://www.sra.org.uk.

Our professional indemnity cover is with Zurich Insurance plc of The London Underwriting Centre, 3 Minster Court, Mincing Lane, London EC3R 7DD. The territorial cover of our policy is worldwide.