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Divorce Do’s and Don’ts

Divorce is often a traumatic and stressful time for families. Here is a list of our top five divorce do’s and don’ts.

Do’s

1. Make absolutely sure you wish to Divorce. Consider attending a marriage guidance counsellor or a mediator to discuss your marital problems.
2. If you decide to proceed with divorce it is very important that you obtain expert legal advice from a specialist family solicitor.
3. Prepare a schedule of your income, outgoings, assets and debts. Try and encourage your spouse to do likewise so that you are aware of the matrimonial assets and your financial situation.
4. Do at all times put your children first. It is of paramount importance that you both continue to co-parent your children at all times. Keep the family lifestyle at home as normal as possible.
5. Keep a diary of major events that occur during the proceedings, if any.

Don’ts

1. Do not argue over what is to go into the Divorce Petition. Your solicitor will advise you on this aspect. The ground for divorce is “irretrievable breakdown” of the marriage. This is proven by one of five facts; adultery, unreasonable behaviour, desertion, two years separation by consent or five years separation. The usual facts used are unreasonable behaviour, adultery or two years separation. With two years separation the other spouse must consent to the divorce otherwise you cannot use this ground.
2. Do not criticise your spouse in front of the children or try to make the children take sides. Avoid using the children as messengers between yourself and your spouse.
3. Do not prevent your spouse from visiting the children if you are living separately. Try and agree a schedule in respect of your spouse’s visits, holidays contact etc.  If necessary obtain your solicitor’s assistance with this.
4. Do not introduce a new partner to your children during the early stages of divorce.
5. Do not under any circumstances, argue over the proceedings in front of the children or cause harm to your spouse.

– Lynette A’Court

For any legal assistance or advice with divorce, separation or child access issues, contact our family law specialists here or call 01753 486 777.

Child arrangements during Christmas can be tricky, it’s a magical time for children but when parents are in the midst of a separation or divorce, and this can often be a particularly emotional or lonely time of year for all concerned. In order to ease the transition for children at this difficult time, parents are encouraged to find ways to ensure children are able to spend quality time at Christmas with both parents and their families, either separately or, in certain cases where both parents agree, with both parents together.

Despite the breakdown in their relationship both parents too owe it to themselves to work together to experience the joy of seeing their children’s faces light up when they open the presents they have received from Santa at Christmas. Unless there are issues of domestic violence or other compelling reasons, children should not be deprived of seeing each parent at this joyous time of the year and enjoying the excitement of the festive season with their parents. Arranging child arrangements during Christmas is important to think of leading up to the holidays.

Situations such as where a father is only permitted by the mother to deliver the children’s sack of presents and he is deprived of seeing his children or indeed ensuring that they will ever receive the presents, should be avoided where possible. Similarly, where the resident parent books a holiday abroad throughout the Christmas holiday period (and informs the other parent that they will not see their children until their children’s arrangements visit in the New Year) tensions can arise which can quickly escalate at this time of year. Conversely, gestures such as parents purchasing or encouraging children to purchase a present for the other parent (or simply make a Christmas card for the other parent) can ultimately lead to a more harmonious and peaceful Christmas experience for all concerned.

When parents separate they should agree a children’s arrangements schedule to include all of the holiday periods throughout the year, to include, Easter holidays, summer holidays, Christmas holidays, New Years Eve, New Year’s Day and half term holidays as well as children’s arrangements generally.

We set out below some examples of child arrangements during Christmas:-

• Year 1: The children stay Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with their mother and stay Boxing Day and the following Day with their father. Year 2: The children stay Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with their father and stay Boxing Day and the following day with their mother. Thereafter this arrangement to continue to alternate each year.
• The children spend Christmas Day with both parents at the family home and the children spend Boxing Day with their mother during Year 1 and Boxing Day with their father during Year 2. This arrangement to continue on alternative Boxing Days.
• Year 1: The children stay with their mother on Christmas Day and Boxing Day and they stay with their father on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. Year 2: The children stay with their father on Christmas Day and Boxing Day and stay with their mother on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. This arrangement to continue on alternative years.

In the event that children’s arrangements cannot be agreed by the parents (or through mediation or collaborative law) then parents should consult a solicitor and make an application to court; whose main goal will be the welfare of the children.

Our experienced team at Aston Bond are always available to assist you in respect of children issues.

What happens if I do not make a Will?

It is so important to have a Will in place to ensure that your estate passes to the people that you want it to go to.

Some people wrongly assume that if they do not have a Will their estate will pass to the Crown, however this is not always the case. There are rules dictated by law, known as the Intestacy Rules, and these rules set out who should inherit your estate if you do not have a Will.

If you are married/in a Civil Partnership and have children:

If your estate is worth less than £250,000 then your spouse will inherit everything.

If your estate is worth more than £250,000 then your spouse will inherit all of your personal belongings, the first £250,000 of the estate and half of the remaining estate.  The other half of the remainder will pass to the children equally.

If there are no children then your spouse would inherit the entire estate.

If there is no spouse then the order for those in line to inherit is as follows:

1. Children (if any have predeceased, then their children will take their share i.e. the deceased’s grandchildren)
2. Parents
3. Siblings (if any have predeceased, then their children will take their share)
4. Half-siblings
5. Grandparents
6. Aunts and Uncles (if any have predeceased, then their children will take their share)
7. The Crown

It is worth noting that if your estate is worth more than £250,000 and you are married with children, that your spouse will not inherit everything, which most people probably would not intend to happen and this is not always the best outcome from an Inheritance Tax planning point of view.

You will see that the Crown will only inherit if you have no surviving blood relatives.

People that cannot inherit under the Intestacy Rules include carers, friends, partners (unmarried/not in civil partnership) and relations via marriage such as a brother-in-law.

It is therefore imperative that you have a Will in place stating exactly what you want to happen to your assets on your death, as the Intestacy Rules can sometimes have unintended consequences.

Should you wish to discuss your own personal situation with us then please do not hesitate to get in touch.

How can I mitigate my potential Inheritance Tax bill on my death?

This is a question that many people ask and inheritance tax planning is very important. Knowing your options could make a massive difference to any potential Inheritance Tax bill on your death.

The most common way to mitigate Inheritance Tax is to gift your assets to your beneficiaries whilst you are still alive, thus reducing your estate for Inheritance Tax purposes. However, if you gift a large sum of money or high-value asset, then you must survive seven years from the date of the gift in order for the value of the gift to no longer form part of your estate for Inheritance Tax. It is important to remember that whatever gift you give away, that it is a genuine gift and that you do not retain any kind of benefit from the assets given away, otherwise no matter how long you survive after the gift it may still form part of your estate for Inheritance Tax. An example of this would be a parent transferring their property into the names of their children, but continue to live there free of charge. This is a gift with reservation of benefit and the value of the property would still form part of the estate of the parent even after seven years. One way around this in this scenario would be for the parent to pay the market rent to the children to live there and then the gift is genuine, as they are not living there for free as though it is still their asset.

There are other gifts that can be given that do not require the donor to survive seven years. You may use your annual gift allowance, which is a total of £3,000 per financial year. You may also go back and use the previous year’s allowance if you did not use it, for example, if you did not give any gifts in the last financial year (2015/2016) then in this current financial year you could gift up to £6,000 as an individual, or £12,000 as a couple. You may, however, only go back one year to use any unused gift allowance.

If you receive an income which exceeds your outgoings to maintain your standard of living, then you may also give regular gifts out of income. In this case, you must have the intention of giving away income regularly and retain enough income to meet your own needs without reducing your standard of living or having to resort to spending capital in order to maintain your standard of living. It is important that you keep good records of income and outgoings and gifts given, as your Executors will have to provide evidence of this on your death. This does not really reduce the value of your estate, but it helps at least to minimise the increase.

It is also possible to gift £250 to any one person in a tax year (as long as you haven’t used another exemption on the same person) and in addition to that, you can give gifts in consideration of marriage, for example, a parent can gift £5,000, a grandparent can gift £2,500 and gifts of up to £1,000 can be given from others.

These options are legitimate ways to reduce your estate or at least minimise the increase.

It is important to remember that when you give a gift, it then belongs to the person receiving it and if they later divorce or become bankrupt for example, then those assets that you gave them would form part of their estate during those proceedings. You cannot control the assets once given away.

Have any questions? Leave a comment below…

Although my work experience at Aston Bond consisted of only a short period, within such a small time scale, I was provided with an excellent insight into the working life of a solicitor, and gained a solid understanding in regards the jobs they are involved in on a day to day basis, and challenges they face.

Throughout my work experience at Aston Bond, I had the privilege of attending meetings with clients,  witnessed the signing of clients wills and deeds,  and read several large cases based on employment law and litigation that involved a great deal of in – depth documentation, evidence and critical  analysis of each case from the start until finish. I rather enjoy collating evidence and conducting analysis to conduct a case and examining these cases further fuelled my interest. I was also able to directly witness the influence of current affairs and recent advances in politics and government changes such as Brexit, and was able to see the strong impact it has on the Home Office and an immigration lawyer’s job which was particularly intriguing, and one of the highlights of my experience, as I was able to distinctly apply a real life application of law.

The staff at Aston Bond were friendly and approachable and provided me with support and useful advice in regards to achieving a successful future career in law; I was particularly impressed with how the solicitors conducted themselves with such high levels of professionalism and integrity whilst maintaining a down to earth approach when communicating with clients, and learnt how to adapt and communicate with a variety of different clients.

Overall, I would like to thank everyone at Aston Bond for an exceedingly insightful and hugely beneficial experience that has motivated and driven me to work hard in my law degree when I start in September this year. I would thoroughly recommend work experience at Aston Bond to any student who is eager to pursue a career in law, and is interested to gain a broad insight into the profession.

Unfortunately, BLegal ceased trading earlier this year. They had various offices and when these closed, most of the documents that they held for clients, such as wills, powers of attorney and deeds, in storage came over to us to look after on an ongoing basis. BLegal were also holding documents held by Fendom Dawson, Coopers and Baily Gibson and these documents will now also be with us. We will continue to store these documents safely here at Aston Bond in Slough.

If you were a client of any of these firms and wish to discuss any legal matter, then please do not hesitate to contact us and we shall be pleased to assist.

If your Will was stored by any of these firms, and you have appointed them as your Executors, then it is very important that you review the terms of your Will, as this appointment will fail and could have unintended consequences.

If you wish to appoint this firm in place of these firms that no longer exist, then we will be happy to prepare a free Codicil for you to appoint this firm in their place.  Should you wish to take advantage of this: then please do not hesitate to contact ;

01753 486777

Have any questions? Leave a comment below…

When embarking on my first ever work experience, the term ‘a little fish in a big pond’ had never been so significant. My knowledge and experience was minuscule, and I couldn’t help but recount horror-filled anecdotes regarding work experience that I’d been acquainted with in the past during the days prior to my work experience beginning. Sunday night consisted of a bout of tossing and turning as nerves got the better of me, but what adolescent wouldn’t feel the same way when change comes along?

However, when the fateful morning of Monday 11^th July 2016 came along, I was amazingly surprised. My butterflies were diminished instantly as I entered the law firm, the warm smiles of my colleagues for the week melting all of my worries away. My first impressions of Aston Bond were highly positive, as I was formally introduced to every worker in the firm and guided through the building. I was then informed of what my work experience would consist of; meetings, documents and cases, and set my first task.

I faced challenges while at work that put me outside of my comfort zone, but due to the experience and support of my colleagues I was able to use my common sense and will to complete these tasks to the best of my ability. Everyone working at Aston Bond was warm and approachable during my time there, and had no problem with the questions I’d ask and support I’d sometimes request for. At first I believed my age would act as a hindrance during work experience as I’m only going into Year 11 this September, but I was completely proven wrong. I was treated and respected by my colleagues at Aston Bond, and I couldn’t have chosen a better place to carry out work experience at.

My outlook on the world of law and knowledge on what being a solicitor consists of has considerably increased due to this enriching and intriguing work experience. I have now been enlightened and attracted to the world of work in corporate law thanks to this opportunity. I wholly recommend completing work experience at Aston Bond, as they’re a welcoming, open and cordial place.