Arranging my family inheritence and affairs today
Arranging my family inheritence and affairs today

Recovering from illness, caring for the children and keeping up with industry contacts before a drive to Cambridge to see my solicitor with my Accountant and organise my wills, trusts and investments before a quieter afternoon recovering as the IRA kill four police in Newry and the scene is set for the climb down of the miners tomorrow

Awake feeling much better after my temperature had subsided, but still weak and with a light head. Much family pandemonium this morning as the baby is ill and will not stop crying. Things start all right as Daniel and I look after Daniella whilst Di gets Deborah ready for school, but as she gets more tired she becomes fretful. Di is also resentful at not getting help from me and at me being ill, which she seems to think is my fault. I take breakfast and return to bed for my papers before catching up on yesterday’s journal. By 11.30am, with the birds still not tended, and weak but OK, I rise to get washed and dressed. The architect’s assistant, who had been keen taking house measurements amongst all the crying and confusion, had finished mostly by then. To the office for an hour, after Di’s parents arrive to walk the baby and help with the washing up. A large post with papers from Jill Hills, circulars and a letter from Roger Martin of ICL. Also confirmation of my COMPETA speaking engagement at their first Computer Industry dinner. I concentrate on printing out my investment update for this afternoon’s meeting and manage most of it whilst checking for answering machine messages at the same time. Time only to call Martin Isherwood and agree a television interview date before lunch and preparation to leave. I pick up Roger Britain from New Street, St Neots, and we drive together to Cambridge, briefing him on my latest investment acquisition and letting him read the forestry details and schedules.

We park easily in Lion Yard and walk to Vinters for our meeting with Gerard Chadwick. An hour’s discussion where we establish my wishes and the process of putting them into practice. Individual income and accumulation trusts will be set up for each daughter so that £125,000 (at present values, increased in line with inflation) will be paid to each on their 25th birthday. The house will (when enlarged) be put into a single deed that will be held as tenants in common by Diana and I. Thus, whichever of us outlives the other, inherits the property. Daniel already seems to have most of his £125,000 held on his behalf, but, if he accepts a delayed inheritance at 25, we will arrange for the balance of my estate, including the forests, to be passed on eventually to his care. In the early years the joint death of Diana and I would create a trust to hold the estate along these lines with our wishes noted. Later in life, when sure of Daniel’s ability and judgement, the estate would be entrusted to his safekeeping. This philosophy separates Daniel’s ‘own’ £125,000 (increased in line with inflation) from the family inheritance or estate, which I expect him to protect, develop and pass on. Also Diana and I would no longer give our moneys to each other on death, but to Daniel (or his trust) to be more effective as regards Capital Transfer Tax. We also establish the basis for my year-end tax planning and will agree the details in my meeting with Roger Brittain next week. We drive home and I drop Roger off and get back in time to return phone calls to Roger Martin of ICL (about IBM predatory pricing and public relations) Barry Gamble (about Thormaid development and a new forest at Upton Wood in preference to Archers Wood) and Martin Isherwood (where we agree to speak again tomorrow on the BMMG press statement alterations). Out to feed and put away the ducks and then in for a tea of vegetable soup and cake to follow. A quiet evening watching television and reading as Diana just manages to keep Daniella happy. News tonight of the death of four policemen and the injury of many more as a result of an IRA mortar attack on a police station in Newry. A NUM delegate conference has been called for Sunday as Arthur Scargill claims that NUM offers of negotiation under the NACODS terms had been turned down. The Queen, during a visit to The Times newspaper offices, called the pit dispute ‘sad’ and there was an upset over other reported remarks that she thought that it ‘was all about one man’. An enquiry into phone tapping has been ordered following allegations that CND and Unions had their phones tapped for political reasons, but Kinnock is asking for more specific assurances and a wider investigation. An all-party parliamentary committee has decided that mental patients are being ejected into the community due to spending cuts with the result of patients sleeping rough and some committing suicide.