LOCAL NEWS – Thame Food Festival

Love food, wine, music, not to mention fun? Then make a note in the diary for the return of the Festival on the 24th & 25th September 2022. Festival opening times: Saturday from 9.30am – 6.00pm, and Sunday from 10.00am – 5.00pm Aside from the wonderful artisan producers, street food stalls and obviously yummy foodie sampling, there will be demonstrations galore, pop-up pub, gin garden, live music and children’s activities. See you next year.

Owner of Domino Menswear, Vic was one of Thame’s longest serving retailers. A real character and a true gentleman. Vic’s son Kristian has taken over the running of Domino. We wish him well.

Ring in the festive season to Thame at the popular Christmas Lights Switch-On! Join us for an evening of festive entertainment, a Santa’s Grotto, lantern parade, gift stalls, refreshments, carol singing and much more.

In many cases where assets pass automatically to the surviving spouse, or under the terms of a Will, it is not necessary to take out a grant of probate on first death. In such circumstances, like your mother’s and late father’s, when the surviving spouse (i.e. your mother) passes away it is likely that you will wish to transfer your late father’s unused nil rate band allowance and/or unused residential nil rate band in order to minimise any inheritance tax due from your mother’s estate. It can be difficult to calculate the value of your late father’s estate, at that stage, if you do not have records of this and if many years have passed since your father’s passing, financial institutes such as Banks may not have retained the records that you might need either. I would advise you to keep hold of the probate valuations of all assets held by your late father, the original Will (if there is a Will) and a note of any substantial gifts made 7 years prior to his death.

Lightfoots provide services to support families going through bereavement by helping them deal with the legal work needed to gain access to their loved one’s assets and carry out their last wishes. When a loved one dies, or becomes mentally incapacitated, it is hard managing your grief and dealing with all that needs to be done. This is where we can help you, doing so in a friendly and

understanding way. If a person has left a Will then we can guide you through the process of applying for probate and, if there is no Will, then we can advise you on the rules (the intestacy rules) that determine what will happen to their estate. In both cases we can advise you on the inheritance tax consequences and the payment of any tax. Lightfoots offer a tailored Will writing service that ensures your property and possessions go to the ones you love. We can make Wills for individuals, married couples and common law partners. We can also advise on planning for the cost of nursing and care homes, or in the unfortunate scenario when issues arise regarding a Will, we can act to resolve this. While completing their Wills, we often provide clients with an additional tax planning service. We can help with managing your estate and all areas of taxation including inheritance tax, setting up trusts, protecting assets from nursing and care home fees, managing money for those who may not be able to manage it for themselves, and protecting vulnerable people. Our experienced Wills and Probate team is made up of Solicitors, a senior legal assistant and experienced and support staff. The team is supervised by a Partner, Monica Havers, who is STEP qualified and has over 20 years’ experience working in Wills and probate, tax and trusts.