Everyone is going to face this.
The Last Ten Years helps families deal with the crisis before the crisis.
Before illness, care, loss of capacity or death, there is usually a pile of personal admin and emotional admin that nobody has sorted.
We help you work through both.
Personal admin. Emotional admin. Family decisions. Practical preparation.
The Last Ten Years
A short introduction to what we do, why it matters and why almost every family will face these issues at some point.
Doing nothing is a decision.
Most families do not struggle because they do not know what probate is. They struggle because nobody knows where anything is, nobody knows what Mum or Dad wants, nobody knows who is supposed to do what, and the difficult conversations have been left too late.
- The personal admin nobody wants to deal with
- The conversations families keep putting off
- Who needs to know what
- Who is expected to do what
- What happens if care or loss of capacity arrives
- What should be sorted before it becomes urgent
Get the important things sorted
Care
What happens if you, your partner or a parent needs care? We help you understand the questions worth asking, what choices may exist and who may need to get involved.
Money
Could somebody find the financial information they need if you could no longer deal with it yourself? We help families think through what information needs to be available, where it is and who may need access to it.
Key documents
A will is only useful if somebody can find it. A power of attorney is only useful if it exists before it is needed. We help you check wills, powers of attorney, advance decisions and other key records.
Family decisions
Who would make the phone calls? Who would deal with the hospital, council, care provider, bank or solicitor? Families cope better when these conversations happen before something goes wrong.
Choose the level that fits
From a quick conversation to a full working day, the idea is to make this useful rather than complicated.
Initial chat
A short phone or video call. No visit required. We talk through where you are, what is worrying you and what might actually help. That could be a workshop, a family session, a one-to-one conversation or simply pointing you towards the right next step.
Lunchtime session
A practical introduction for a workplace, club, community group or small team. We cover personal admin, emotional admin, care, money, documents and family decisions without trying to cram a day's worth of information into an hour.
Extended session
More detail, more time for questions and space to start looking at your own situation rather than simply listening to a presentation. This works particularly well for groups that want something practical to take away and act on.
Full day
The full working version of The Last Ten Years. There is enough time to properly work through The Rehearsal, explore the issues in more depth and identify what is missing, who needs to know what and what needs doing next.
The Last Ten Years is a community-funded project. There are no fees for individuals attending a session or using the project.
The aim is to make practical help around care, money, documents, family decisions and later-life planning available before a crisis forces the issue.
Why The Last Ten Years exists
The Last Ten Years did not start because I thought the world needed another presentation about wills.
It started because I saw what happens when families reach a crisis without having sorted the things that suddenly matter.
I experienced it with both of my in-laws. Years later, I saw many of the same issues again with Judy.
Different people. Different circumstances. Much the same problem.
Nobody deliberately decides to leave everything until the last minute. Life simply carries on. Then somebody becomes seriously ill. Someone loses capacity. Care is suddenly needed. A hospital wants a decision. Money needs dealing with. Documents need finding. Family members have different ideas about what should happen.
And suddenly there is no time.
The paperwork is only part of the problem.
There is the personal admin: money, accounts, documents, passwords, powers of attorney, wills, pensions, care arrangements and all the practical information somebody else may need.
Underneath that is the emotional admin: who knows what Mum or Dad actually wants, who is going to make the decisions, who does what, what happens if the family disagrees and what happens when somebody is frightened, guilty or overwhelmed.
Those conversations are much easier before somebody is sitting in a hospital bed.
That is the crisis before the crisis.
Where I come into it
I have spent more than 30 years working with people around money, financial planning and the practical decisions that come with it.
Over those years I have seen plenty of complicated financial problems. But the thing that repeatedly causes families the greatest difficulty is often much simpler: nobody has talked about what happens next.
The Last Ten Years is designed to start those conversations and put some structure around them.
It is not therapy.
It is not regulated financial advice.
It is not about frightening people into buying something.
It is practical, structured help to work out what needs sorting, what is already in place, what is missing, who needs to know, who needs to act and what should happen next.
The rules keep changing too
The rules surrounding pensions, inheritance tax, social care, probate and other areas of later-life planning do not stand still. Governments change policy. Tax rules change. Care proposals appear and disappear. Pension rules move. Thresholds and processes change.
Something somebody was told five or ten years ago may no longer be right.
The Last Ten Years is not about predicting every future change. It is about making sure families know what they have, what they need to check and when specialist advice may be required.
Where we are going
The Last Ten Years is now being delivered as a community-funded project, with no fees payable by individuals or session attendees. We are also continuing the work towards Community Interest Company (CIC) status so the project can reach more families, carers, workplaces and community groups.
What would happen if something happened tomorrow?
Imagine that tomorrow morning a parent, partner or family member became seriously ill and could no longer deal with things themselves.
Where is the will? Is there a power of attorney? Where are the bank and pension details? What bills need paying? Who knows the passwords? What would they want medically? Who should make which decisions?
The Rehearsal is a simple family exercise. It shows what you know, what you can find and what is missing.
The point is not to frighten anyone. It is to find the gaps while there is still time to sort them.
Questions people ask
Is this financial advice?
No. The Last Ten Years provides practical education, training and support. It does not provide regulated financial advice.
Do I need to be elderly?
No. One of our main audiences is people in their fifties and sixties with ageing parents. The best time to understand these issues is before illness or age forces the family to deal with them.
Can families do this together?
Yes. That is often the best way to do it. The aim is to make sure the right people know what matters, where things are and what they may need to do.
Where do we start?
Start with a short one-to-one call, or contact us to arrange a workshop for your group or place of work. We help you work out what is already in place, what is missing, what the family needs to know and what should happen next.
Everyone is going to face this
Maybe it starts with your parents. Maybe your partner. Maybe you. You do not have to sort everything today, but you should know what needs sorting.