Compulsory Pension Contributions for Employers
Compulsory pension contributions for Employers from 2012  
 
For the first time, all employers will have to make pension contributions for all eligible employees. 'Auto-enrolment' will take effect from 2012 although there will be a staging process, starting with the largest employers and moving down to the smallest from 2014. Eligible employees will also have to contribute.
 
The Pensions Regulator will enforce these new laws. Employers are likely be heavily fined if they do not comply.
 
If an Employer does not have a ‘qualifying’ pension scheme then they will have to auto-enrol their employees in a government scheme known as NEST (National Employment Savings Trust) or set up their own qualifying scheme.
 
If an Employer already has an existing pension scheme they must make sure that it will qualify under the new rules. Changes may need to be made to it.
 
Every Employer should plan ahead and receive advice surrounding the facts, eligibility, and how these new rules will impact your business or your clients' business as current business plans could be affected by this. This will be added cost the Business Plan!
 
Whilst there are clear benefits for the Employer for its employees to have a pension scheme, for many Employers this will almost certainly involve additional expenditure.
 
We are NOT regulated by the Financial Services Authority and can give Clients no advice other than that bringing in an Independent Financial Adviser is highly advisable. We can recommend a suitable IFA for this purpose. 

End of default retirement age
Government confirms end of default retirement age

13 January 2011
The Government’s Employment Relations Minister has said that the default retirement age of 65 is to be phased out between 6 April and 1 October 2011.
Hence employers will no longer be able end their employees’ jobs just because they have reached the male state retirement age.
Thus from 6 April 2011, employers cannot issue any notifications for compulsory retirement using the age 65 procedure.
Between 6 April and 1 October, only people who were notified before 6 April, and whose retirement date is before 1 October, can be compulsorily retired on this basis.
After 1 October, employers will not be able to compulsorily retire employees at age 65.
The employment relations minister has stated that firms could still dismiss workers if it was felt they were no longer capable of performing their duties. However EMPLOYERS SHOULD NOT DO THIS WITHOUT TAKING LEGAL ADVICE!! Various procedures need to happen failing which the Employer could leave themselves open to a wrongful dismissal claim
Employers will continue to be allowed to run with a compulsory retirement age for employees provided there is an objective business justification for doing so. This could be difficult to prove!!
The Government is issuing guidelines setting out how employers can manage without fixed retirement ages and the advantages of having an older workforce
Employers who have group risk insured benefits (such as life assurance, and other such products but including private medical cover) need to discuss these changes with their Independent Financial Adviser but an age related insured benefit contract relating to a certain age already in place will not be prejudiced. However if Employees are likely to work beyond 65 the existing arrangements need to be looked at. Pension arrangements also need to be considered.
We are NOT regulated by the Financial Services Authority and can give Clients no advice other than bringing in an Independent Financial Adviser is highly advisable. We can recommend a suitable IFA for this purpose.
Lasting Powers of Attorney
 Concerned others might need to make decisions for you?

Are you worried that certain diseases, general ageing or accidents might cause the loss of mental clarity for you or for your nearest and dearest as they get older?  If unfortunately that happened, that person  might be unable to handle the business of your life: paying bills, or  making key financial decisions or deciding matters affecting health and welfare.

Not putting the paperwork in place now for your nearest and dearest to be able to make these decisions might result in the only solution would be apply to the Court of Protection. This could cost over £2,000, and feature almost inevitable bureaucratic delays causing your loved ones endless uncertainty at a time of high emotion.

We are able to prepare the detailed paper work so that you can be confident that should you need someone else to make decisions on your behalf, the paperwork required would be in place.

We offer you a straightforward and affordable means of getting the lasting power of attorney in place.

We can help you decide who would be the attorney, complete all relevant paperwork including act as certificate provider if required and arrange registration (The Office of the Public Guardian - OPG may charge a fee of up £120 for registration for each Lasting Power of Attorney – one to deal with financial affairs, the other to deal with health & welfare decisions).

Please contact 0161 720 7200 to for the peace of mind you know is needed in this situation.

Intestacy - Changes
What happens when you die without a will?

The current law of intestacy was established in 1925 and sets out which of your relatives will receive how much of your estate and what will happen if there are none. The last time the rates for the statutory legacies were set was in 1993. The basic rule is that the spouse or civil partner will receive the first £125,000 of the estate if there are children and the first £200,000 if there are none. After that, there are complex rules about what happens to any amounts in excess of the statutory legacies (which include the house). The 1993 rates for the statutory legacy were just about reasonable at the time they were set but inflation has made them progressively more unrealistic.

In August 2005, the Government carried out a consultation exercise on whether there should be any changes. Three years on it disclosed the results of the consultation and announced the action it intends to take, in a press release issued on 27 August 2008, just after the bank holiday. There are two big changes. From 1 February 2009, the statutory legacies will increase to £250,000 and £450,000 respectively.

Furthermore, the Law Commission is going to review the present intestacy rules, including aspects of the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, under which dependants of a person who dies without making appropriate provision for them in his or her will can apply to the court for provision to be made. However, the review is unlikely to be completed before 2011.

Making a will is straightforward and is recommended for everyone – even those with relatively small estates – so that loved ones are provided for according to your wishes. We can guide you through the process to give you the peace of mind which comes from knowing that all your affairs are in order and your family’s interests are protected.

Who Decides the Location of the Funeral?
 The general rule regarding a person’s funeral is that the executor of the estate has the right to make any necessary arrangements. Where there is no will, the person granted the letters of administration of the estate has the right.

That seems straightforward and it usually is, but not always. A recent case dealt with the funeral arrangements of a man who died intestate. His divorced parents were jointly entitled to administer his estate. The father wished his son to be buried in the town in which he had lived for several years and in which his brother, most of his friends and also his fiancée lived. The man’s mother wanted him to be buried near where she lived. It took a court hearing to determine that he should be buried in his home town.

In this case, the failure to make a will didn’t cause problems over the division of the man’s estate, but over the administration of it. Had he made a will, whoever was appointed executor under it could have decided on and made the appropriate funeral arrangements, no doubt saving much distress as well as time and money. There are reasons other than the disposal of property for making a will.

Dentists beware! NHS DENTISTRY v. PRIVATE DENTISTRY

A NEW TWIST FOR THE SOLE PRACTITIONER

Are you a sole practitioner? Have you ever considered what would happen to your Practice in the event of your death?  Under General Dental Law, as a sole practitioner, on death your estate has 3 years to find a buyer[i].

But what if you have an NHS contract?

In those circumstances, your local PCT is obligated to provide continuing service for your patients. Your NHS contract is terminated 7 days after your death, unless the PCT agrees with your Executors to extend that time for 3 months.

The PCT can opt to extend this period to 6 months if they know of another contractor who can provide services you would have provided, but for your death[ii].

To extend this PCT agreement, the BDA recommends:

‘In order to obtain this agreement, the personal representatives have to confirm in writing that they are employing or engaging another dentist or dentists, to provide Units of Dental Activity (UDAs), which would entail employing a locum.

This means that during an initial period of shock and grief, the personal representative/s (which is likely to be the dentist’s widow or widower) will have to contact the PCT/LHB to gain their written agreement for continuance of contract.

For sole practitioners it is therefore recommended that their personal representatives are aware that they need to contact the PCT /LHB (include contact person and telephone number) within 7 days and that the PCTs/LHBs written agreement needs to be obtained.

The PCT/LHB can also agree (but is not obliged to do so) that the contract can be continued for a further period of up to 6 months following the end of the 3 month period. The only reason for such an extension is that the PCT/LHB is of the opinion that another contractor may wish to enter into a contact/agreement to provide the services. This obviously covers a situation where the practice is being sold and the PCT/LHB agrees that it will commission a service from the new owner (which may not necessarily be on the same terms)’.

In the event of your death, the continuance of contract process is not at all geared to protect the goodwill value of your Practice, or the interests of your family. Organising a locum to cover your contract is a major responsibility but a short term palliative. Making personal representatives[iii] (widow/widower or grown up children) aware that they need to act quickly under tragic circumstances puts a huge responsibility upon the very persons who need protecting.

To organise a locum, get PCT approval and decide how to proceed with Practice within 3 months is asking a lot of the family during a difficult time.

In order to avoid this situation, there are alternative possibilities available: -

Set up mutual agreements with another trusted local NHS sole practitioner, either on a temporary basis to protect the Practice on death or a binding agreement for the surviving dentist to purchase the deceased Dentist’s Practice (perhaps with each of them entering into a minority partnership in the other’s Practice);

Forming a limited company (a process called incorporation) to hold the NHS Contract during your lifetime – this may not be acceptable to the PCT, the PCT may require conditions to control the shareholding ownership of the Dental Limited Company;

Ensure a non-family member is appointed in your Will to be a Special Executor, to appoint a locum and secure continuity of the Practice; deal with the PCT and to seek sale of Practice on the best possible terms.

The importance of making a valid Will is abundantly clear. By planning for your death, and appointing Executors to ensure the continuance of your Practice you are protecting not only your business, but also your family.

Without a Will, until the Probate Court has granted Letters of Administration to the next of kin, no one has legal authority to make decisions about your Practice. By the time Letters of Administration are granted, it may be too late to protect the family from losing value of the asset – whereby the PCT would allocate your patients around other NHS Practices in the area.

[i] Section 41(4) Dentists Act 1984 states ‘Where a registered dentist…was at his death carrying on a…practice constituting…dentistry, this section shall not operate to prevent his personal representatives or his widow or any of his children, or trustees on behalf of his widow or any of his children, from carrying on the business of dentistry in continuance of that…practice during the three years beginning with his death’

[ii] It is the same whether under GDS or PDS so that clause 173 of the GDS Contract states

173. ‘Where the Contract is with an individual dental practitioner and that practitioner dies, the Contract shall terminate at the end of the period of seven days after the date of his death unless, before the end of that period –

173.1. ‘subject to clause 307, the PCT has agreed in writing with the Contractor’s personal representatives that the Contract should continue or a further period, not exceeding 3 months after the end of the period of seven days; and

173.2. ‘the Contractor’s personal representatives have confirmed in writing to the PCT that they are employing or engaging one or more dental practitioners to assist in the provision of dental services under the Contract throughout the period for which it continues.

174. Where the PCT is of the opinion that another contractor may wish to enter into a contract in respect of the mandatory services which were provided by the deceased dental practitioner, the 3 month period referred to in clause 306.1 may be extended by a period not exceeding 6 months as may be agreed.

[iii] The Executors appointed by Will or the next of kin if there is no Will under the Intestacy Rules.