Posted: Monday, 21 October 2024 @ 12:05
Rise in Growth in Wealth of Elderly Population.
The stakes are high with more elderly people having wealth. According to Savills UK owner-occupiers aged 65-plus hold a record estimated £2.587 trillion of net housing wealth in homes worth a total of £2.735 trillion, according to the latest assessment of housing wealth from property firm Savills. The analysis also showed that with 50-64-year-olds holding an estimated further £2.183 trillion of housing equity (including £679 billion in the private rented sector), in total the over 50s now hold 78% of all of the UK's privately held housing wealth.
Lack of Legal Control
While there is coming greater control of new Lasting Power of Attorneys, fundamentally laws exercising scrutiny of LPAs, deputyship, signing of wills and executor conduct remains weak and provide for greater opportunity for dispute and possible abuse of vulnerable people. This provides potential for families to fall out and for disputes to be created. As long as you have a combination of wealth, testamentary freedom and a lack of legal control, significant problems will remain.
Sophisticated Opponents
From experience, we find opponents are increasingly knowledgeable about their rights and some have the ability to apply strong tactics to obtaining what they perceive to be "their" inheritance. This can lead to people using such strategies as ensuring that the vulnerable person makes a lasting power of attorney giving someone responsibility as attorney, making someone as Executor of the Will, changing beneficiaries of the will and using a solicitor to achieve these objectives and biding ones time for making any extra payments to oneself.