Red Apple Law legal services

Before the funeral has taken place, families may have lots of questions about belongings and property as well as how to locate and understand the Will. Red Apple Law’s experienced bereavement team will ensure that loved ones receive correct, jargon-free information to help them understand the process.

Some of the things Red Apple Law can help with:

• Advice on how to locate a Will, Funeral Plan or Memorandum of Wishes (Funeral Wishes document)
• Advice on how the costs of the funeral will be managed in relation to the whole estate
• Support finding a reputable and regulated funeral planning service

Red Apple Law can help administer the estate after the funeral and are available to support families with practical advice and step-by-step guidance.

After the funeral, Red Apple Law can help with:

• Practical help to identify next steps 
• Clarification of legal duties as an executor or beneficiary 
• Support to understand whether Probate is required and what services are available
• Access to the widest range of legal services available. Employees can access the Executor Toolkit free of charge
• Providing a free interactive bereavement guide for everyone

At any time before or after the funeral, families can access free online Grief Counselling via Red Apple Law’s online portal.

Funeral Wishes Register

In a legal sense, a Will is really helpful to determining how a person wants their property and assets distributed after death. But a ‘Memorandum of Wishes’ is often missing and can be equally as valuable, helping to answer the questions that a bereaved family will have in the days that follow a death. 

Not knowing what someone would have wanted can create feelings of regret and doubt, and even lead to family disputes. Being able to refer to the ‘Memorandum of Wishes’ can help the family feel as though they are comfortably fulfilling the wishes of their loved ones.

Once created, it is stored on the National Funeral Wishes Register until needed and their loved ones can access them easily in the future.

The Funeral Wishes Register is an optional paid for service.

A Will ensures your money, property and possessions go to the right people when you pass away. Through planning ahead and writing a Will your client's employees will have the peace of mind that, when the time comes, their wishes will be carried out in exactly the way they’ve chosen, and they’ll have done all they can to make life as easy as possible for those they leave behind.

The Will Writing service is an optional paid for service

A Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) allows an employee to appoint Attorneys to make decisions on their behalf should they become unable to. An Attorney is a person who they trust to make decisions which are in their best interest.  An LPA is mainly used if they don’t have the mental capacity to understand and make decisions themselves.

A Living Will, sometimes referred to as an Advance Directive, is a way in which an employee can let medical professionals know their decisions about what medical treatment they would and would not like to receive, should there come a point that their unable to express this information themselves. This can help their loved ones when needing to make a very difficult decision at a hard time.

A Living Will is an optional paid for service

A Living Will is legally binding in England and Wales – but not legally binding in Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands, or the Isle of Man. However, in Northern Ireland, a clear and specific advance decision is given legal effect under common law, meaning a healthcare professional must follow it if they know about it. If a healthcare professional has been advised to follow the decision of a Living Will and becomes aware one exists, this does then make it legally binding.

When someone is diagnosed with a terminal illness, they may want to review their current Estate Planning or talk to a professional to put legal documents and practical plans in place, as well as bereavement support for their loved ones.

Red Apple Law offer a legal planning consultation with their highly experienced Estate Planning team. They work in partnership with the bereavement team to provide the best advice to help the individual support their loved ones with legal planning and emotional support.

This service is accessed via a call-back from a specialised professional. A member of our support team will call your employee back to learn more about their goals for their planning session. They will then allocate your employee an appointment with an Estate Planning specialist to finalise any plans they would like to put in place.

The Legal Helpline is a telephone call back service which provides access to advice and guidance from a legal expert and is free to use. Whether an employee is looking for legal guidance in relation to buying or selling a home, making plans for their loved ones through writing a Will or managing an inheritance; or maybe they have questions about divorce or co-habiting – this service could help them.

The helpline can also provide guidance on accident and personal injury implications or their rights and restrictions when someone they love loses capacity. They can rest assured that through this service, support is available during many of life’s more serious moments.

The Legal Helpline may suggest some additional services that could also be helpful – some of these services may charge a fee.

The Estate Administration service offers different levels of support, depending on an employee’s needs. It includes a free online legal tool which provides step-by-step guidance to help manage and complete practical tasks and legal duties when someone has passed away. It helps them get everything they need in one place and save money by completing Estate Administration and Probate themselves, while giving them the security of knowing they haven’t missed a thing.

If they’d prefer not to do everything themselves, employees can choose to hand over some or all the work to a regulated professional – fees will apply depending on the level of support they would like. In addition, they can access free online professional Grief Support and an online Bereavement Guide at any time through their dashboard.