Meeting 24 April 2013 Tax, Care and Toy Boys A talk by Glenys Laws Collective Legal Solutions. This is the sort of speaker we need every week! Not only did Glenys offer to provide a synopsis of her talk, she also sent a lifesize picture which I have unfortunately had to reduce to fit on this page. While I am tempted to just give you the synopsis (which is on the next page), some might feel this was a bit of an advert for Collective Legal Solutions, so I will give a bit of our side of the evening as well. A rather small gathering, as many members had just arrived back from Belfast and decided not to be forced to compare the Dorset Arms with the Europa Hotel; i.e. there is less chance of getting blown up in the Dorset. Glenys came all the way from Worthing to talk to us, about tax, care – and toy boys. Possibly Glenys was drawn so far afield by the chance to eat at said Dorset Arms. I will not comment on the food as this is apparently off limits for a lowly scribe, suffice to say that our speaker chose to forego the pabulum presented on this occasion or “les saucisses à la purée with an afterthought of sauce jus d’oignon”. Yum. After an introduction which cunningly avoided mentioning anything so sordid as valuable consideration for the services provided by Collective Legal Solutions, Glenys settled into an erudite presentation of the situations where her advice might be beneficial. It took a degree of practice but mainly personality and conviction to save this from turning into an evening with your friendly neighbourhood doubleglazing salesman. But, without smoke, mirrors or even a script, this was a masterly run through of everything you need to know before you kick the container mentioned by last week’s speaker. An example? – I’ll try. The toy boy reference? Well, Glenys’s second paragraph touches on it delicately. To paraphrase: If you want your money to pass to your deserving children and not to the ne’er dowell stock of some Johnnycomelately who usurps your barely cold space in the family pile, ring the number at the end of the synopsis. There wasn’t time to ask the question, “How do I stop my money passing to my son now that he is a qualified solicitor and puts Postit notes on things saying “Mine” when he visits?” ……so a big “thank you” to Glenys will have to suffice. Joint bank account? These days your bank may decide to freeze the account if you or your partner is declared doolally (military term for Glenys’s “loses capacity”). You can plan ahead to avoid this by setting up a power of attorney for each other (not joint – that puts you back to square 1). But why do the banks do it? In case the condition was deliberately brought on by the partner. Just a minute……