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LP1F | The official form to create a property and financial affairs LPA. |
LP1H | The official form to create a health and welfare LPA. |
Land Charges Register | A register kept by the Land Registry which records information about a property’s history including planning applications, building regulations applications, conditions or other charges on the property. |
Land Registry | A non-ministerial government department that registers the ownership of land and property in England and Wales. |
Lasting power of attorney (LPA) | A formal document appointing one or more people to make decisions on an individual’s behalf should they become unable to do so. There are two types – a health and welfare LPA and a property and financial affairs LPA. |
Leave | See gift/give. |
Legacy | A gift made in a Will. It can be a specific gift, a residuary legacy, or a general legacy. |
Legal ownership | The absolute ownership of property. In the case of registered land, the legal owners are the persons whose names appear on the title at the Land Registry. Legal owners – such as Trustees – sometimes own property without the right to benefit from it. |
Legitimate | Describing a child born to parents who are married or in a civil partnership. |
Legitimated | Describing a child born to parents who marry or enter into a civil partnership at some time after the child is born. |
Letter of wishes | A document that accompanies a Will and sets out the testator’s wishes and guidance to their Executors on what should happen after their death. A letter of wishes is not legally binding. |
Letters of administration | The authority given by the court which entitles a person or persons (administrators) to deal with the estate of a person who died intestate – i.e. they did not leave a valid Will. |
Liabilities | The debts owed by the deceased on their death, including any credit card payments, mortgage, and other things that the estate would be liable to pay. |
Life interest | A right to receive the income from an asset for the rest of the beneficiary’s life or until the life interest is terminated. If the life interest relates to a property, the beneficiary will either be entitled to live in the property or to receive the rental income from it. |
Life interest trust | A trust in which the primary beneficiary has an interest in possession in the trust assets. This means they are entitled to the income from the assets for the rest of their life or until the life interest is terminated. |
Lifetime gift | A gift made by the deceased before they died. A substantial lifetime gift made less than seven years before the death will have to be added back to the value of the estate. |
Living Will | Another, less formal, name for an advance decision. |