Whether it’s your first purchase, or one of many, buying a property is a big investment that will be included in your estate. 
 
Although you aren’t required to have a Will in place when you buy a property, it’s important to be clear about what you want to happen to it when you die. 
A recent survey showed that the average of age a person making a Will in the UK has risen to 57 in 2019. 
 
This is despite attempts to encourage younger generations to include a Will as part of their plan for life. 
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A year after the government called for evidence on the regulation of pre-paid funeral plans, a consultation paper on its new proposed policy has just been published. 
 
Having looked at how the market currently operates, the government is proposing that all funeral plan providers should be controlled by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). 
 
The government says the objective is make sure that pre-paid funeral plan providers are: 
• subject to robust and enforceable conduct standards 
• properly overseen 
• part of an appropriate dispute resolution process if things go wrong. 
Here are some things you might not know about death in medieval times. 
 
Death and taxes 
 
Today we understand that coroners are responsible for examining the cause of death when the circumstances are unknown or unusual. They also investigate and confirm the identity of the person who has died. 
 
However, when the coroner’s role was first introduced in in England in 1194, their main job was to collect taxes, although they also recorded deaths that occurred in unusual or suspicious circumstances. Looking back at their records tells us a lot about how people once lived and died. 
 
Here are five causes of medieval death from the coroner’s records of the time. 
Inheritance tax (IHT), normally at 40%, affects estates worth more than £325,000. The value of your estate is made up of property, money and possessions, after any debts have been settled. 
 
A study by the financial services company, Canada Life, says Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) collected £5.4billion of IHT in the financial that ended in April. 
 
This is an increase of £200million on the previous year and £600million more than in 2017. The study predicts that the amount collected is likely to rise to £10billion by 2030. 
Older hand writing the word tax
Up to a million people could be owed refunds on their Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) fees. 
 
Between 1 April 2013 and 31 March 2017, the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) overcharged for LPA applications. 
 
A year ago the Ministry of Justice started to give refunds to people who had applied for LPAs between 2013 and 2017. 
 
Up to 1 February this year 194,713 claimants had received refunds of more than £12m. However, it’s estimated that 800,000 people could still be eligible to claim. 
The answer could be ‘yes’.  
 
Many people are unaware that local Councils can investigate your finances if they think your cash and other assets have been deliberately reduced to avoid paying for your care. 
 
The average cost of a care home in 2017 to18 was £750 a week. With the average length of a stay being around 30 months, a typical bill could be £90,000. 
 
If Councils believe that someone has deliberately given away assets to avoid paying for their care, they can use ‘deliberate deprivation of assets’ rules to claw back the cost of care. 
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