You may not remember that many years ago a trust was created by your grandparents and Aunty Pearl was appointed as one of the trustees. With the passing of time the trust has been forgotten. Family members have been born and died and times have changed. But not Aunty Pearl. Everyone is delighted that she is still going strong in her care home having been diagnosed with dementia five years ago. Until they remember the trust........ Assets now need to be distributed from the trust and the trust needs to be closed but Aunty Pearl for all her greatness cannot remember her children let along the responsibility of trustee that she holds. Does this mean that nothing can happen or can the other trustee sort everything out without Aunty Pearl? The reality is nothing can happen whilst Aunty Pearl lacks capacity to make decisions. All trustees have to act together and one cannot make a decision or act independently of the other. So what are the solutions to this enormous problem? Worry not, a solution is to hand..... The Court! Trusts are not only formal documents which are specifically created to house assets but they can arise naturally with ownership of property. Where there is a formally constituted trust with trust documents an application would need to be made to the High Court for the appointment of a new trustee under the Trustee Act 1925. This will allow Aunty Pearl to be removed and for assets to be transferred to the trustee who is capable and the new trustee. The Court will ask for evidence to support the application such as evidence of the capacity issues, a draft deed of appointment and details of the trust. It is a bit of a faff but you get there in the end! Where a trust arises naturally for example if Aunty Pearl were to own a house jointly with her husband, an alternative course of action has to be taken. If Aunty Pearl has not made an enduring or lasting power of attorney and no deputy has been appointed her husband will have to apply to the Court of Protection under the Trustee At 1925 for the appointment of a new trustee. Hubby will also have to ask the Court of Protection for a deputyship order to manage Aunty Pearl's financial affairs and to seek permission to enable the purchase of a new property. Bearing in mind hubby is probably the same age as Aunty Pearl he ought to have someone appointed to act with him as deputy, just in case. These procedures are not particularly straightforward and the easiest thing to do is remember when you have a trust, who is appointed as a trustee and take precautionary steps to prevent this problem arising. Drafting a deed of appointment of trustee is easy when everyone has capacity and a lot less time consuming and costly. As always Argo is always here if you need any help.

Do you remember the run on the banks in 2008 when everyone was worried about the security of their cash in the bank. I certainly do. The day after the crash was one of my busiest with concerned clients calling to enquire whether funds held in my client account were safe. I know that for a long time this issue was uncertain for legal practices holding cash for clients in a pooled client account. I wanted to clarify Argo's position with this as I have recently been asked by a client. You will already know that for your personal savings held with a bank you have protection for the first £85,000 of funds within that institution. This limit applies to the individual and therefore if you have other money within that institution that is also taken into account ie joint savings. For legal practices it does not matter whether funds are held in a pooled account or individual accounts, each client holding £85,000 has protection up to that amount. At Argo to make absolutely sure that you are protected we hold individual designated client accounts with our bank in which your individual funds are held. If for some reason we hold a temporarily large balance over £85,000 then we also have protection for these funds for a period of six months from receipt. These funds would be things like personal injury settlements, inheritance from an estate, death benefits or proceeds held by executors on behalf of an estate. It is not Argo's policy to retain your money for any longer than we absolutely have to. We want you to be spending and enjoying the benefit of it!!

Alan Eccles, Chief Executive of the Office of the Public Guardian, has endorsed a pilot scheme for mediators to become involved with warring families in Court of Protection disputes. The scheme "attempts to put things back together again " in order to "honour the wishes of the donor" rather than imposing a local authority or panel deputy on a family to manage the financial and personal affairs of their incapacitated family member. This seems a sensible step forward to try and eliminate the need for costly Court of Protection hearings where everyone loses, particularly the incapacitated family member who usually bears the burden of everyone's costs.hat's this item about? What makes it interesting? Write a catchy description to grab your audience's attention...

Thank you to Highlands House for providing us with feedback from our input to the last Carers' Ed meeting. Did you find input from Argo life helpful? Carers comments: “Very stimulating and informative” “Yes I will review our situation” “Definitely!” ​ We help the families who have just received a diagnosis of dementia by providing them with some insight into how wills, lasting powers of attorney and the care fee system works. We are pleased to play a small positive role in a life changing event.

Have you heard about the new priority service register provided by South East Water? ​ A priority register has been developed for elderly and vulnerable customers or those who have additional needs. If you experience a burst pipe or an interruption to your service South East Water will deliver bottled water to your home. ​ You should also check whether you are eligible to review your water tariff as charges can be capped according to household income. What's this item about? What makes it interesting? Write a catchy description to grab your audience's attention...

Have you given up a full time job to look after your grandchildren? If so, you need to make sure that your protect your National Insurance contributions if you are not yet receiving your state pension You may be able to claim National Insurance credits if your grandchild is under twelve. To apply for the specified adult childcare credits you will need to complete an application form. You will need to include details about you, the child you are caring for, the periods in which you care and your child. If you wish to claim applications cannot be accepted until October following the end of a tax year that you are claiming for example for the tax year 2016/17 claims can be made in October 2018. If you want to speak to someone about this call 0300 200 3500

Have you checked your state pension payment for April to confirm you have received your annual increase? From April 2018 your basic state pension has increased by 3%. If you are a couple receiving state pension you should now receive £164.35 instead of £159.55. If you are an individual your increase should be from £122.30 to £125.95. You have received notification of this increase if you haven't call the Pension Service now!

Did you know that you can now apply for your blue disabled badge online? The online application and renewal process has been in place since 14 March 2018 on gov.uk website and they will contact the right authority in your area to apply for the blue badge If you are a current blue badge holder you should have been contacted directly by your council that you can apply online Use this link https://bluebadge.direct.gov.uk/bluebadge/ to apply, If you need to speak to someone about this then you can pop in to your local library or community hub.

For those individuals receiving registered nursing care there is some good news for once. As of 1 April 2018 the standard rate for funded nursing care will increase from £155.05 to £158.16 per week for the 2018/19 financial year. You must make sure that your care home takes this increase into account when issuing your monthly invoices. ​ If your funded nursing care was awarded at the higher rate before 2007 then your increase will be from £213.32 to £217.59 per week. ​ You are allowed to ask and if you are an attorney or deputy you have a duty to make sure the correct payment is allocated!!!

With fraud on the increase it makes sense for you to protect what is likely to be your most valuable asset. Property fraud can happen when criminals pretend to be you to try and sell or mortgage your property. Your risk of being a victim of property fraud is higher is you rent your property, have an empty property, are mortgage free or are not registered with HM Land Registry. By signing up to the Land Registry Property Alert service and ensuring your property is registered with them will allow you to apply for a restriction to be placed on your property to prevent activity from taking place unless a conveyancer or solicitor certifies the application was made by you. This is a free service provided by HM Land Registry which will message you if certain activity takes place with the property you are monitoring. You can monitor up to ten properties at a time and is particularly helpful if you want to register the property of an elderly family member or a friend

From 13 January 2018 new rules were introduced to stop the charging of fees when an individual pays a bill by credit or debit card. Argo offers clients the ability to pay online by credit or debit card but we would never pass on the costs associated with this to our clients. If you have been charged a fee since 13 January 2018 you can demand a refund of any unlawful charge that you have paid and take action to recover the money paid. We are not withdrawing the facility to pay by card either. If you wish to pay our bills in this way please call the office.