Ian Macara

Ian Macara

Job Title

Partner

Direct Number

01903 706956

Email Address

Fax

01903 229172

Department/s

Care, Capacity and Court of Protection

Ian Macara

Overview

I am a solicitor with over 25 years experience in Private Client matters and during the past 10 years I have been concentrating on our specialist Care, Capacity and Court of Protection Team.

I am 1 of only 71 solicitors in England and Wales to be appointed by the Court of Protection to be on their Panel of Professional Deputies. I am also only 1 of approximately 10 or so solicitors appointed by the Court of Protection to be on their Panel of Professional Guardians.

Qualifications

LLB (Hons) Law 2:1 degree in 1993

Diploma in Legal Practice, commendation, in 1994

Admitted as a solicitor in 1996

Appointed as a Panel Deputy in 2016

Appointed as a Panel Guardian in 2018

Solicitors for the Elderly (SFE) – full member

Society of Trusts and Estate Practitioners (STEP) – full member

Recent Cases

Mrs C

I was appointed as Deputy for a lady after someone who became an unofficial carer took advantage of her vulnerability, isolated her and appointed himself as Attorney. He even paid untrained carers in alcohol! He then persuaded her to gift him significant funds and rewrote her will to exclude her disabled daughter and leave everything to him.

Social services became involved and removed her to receive appropriate care. The Court then cancelled the Power of Attorney and appointed me as Deputy to investigate the mismanagement/financial abuse and then manage her affairs moving forward.

My team and I were able to secure what funds she had left, support the police in their charges and prosecution. We also pursued an application for the Court to approval of Statutory Will to remove the fraudster as residuary beneficiary and to reinstate her previous wish that her disabled daughter be the sole residuary beneficiary.

While the Court approved a small legacy to the perpetrator as a strategic decision to save her incurring significant legal costs, after my client sadly died, the man was convicted and a costs/compensation order was made in the criminal court so that we did not have to pay the legacy and the daughter received all of her mother’s estate.

 

Miss G

I was appointed Deputy in place of a mother who was the main carer for her daughter who had suffered medical negligence at birth and received a significant six figure settlement.

Sadly, mother was vulnerable at the time due to the toll of her amazing care for her daughter and was subject to financial abuse as well as struggling with complying with the duties and financial responsibilities of being a Deputy.

The Court appointed me as a replacement to her as a Professional Panel Deputy.

I was able to establish a positive working relationship with the mother who was actually relieved at receiving some professional support .

We obtained retrospective approval for some of the decisions that the mother had made, but without authority, and secured a insurance payment for funds that were misapplied so that her daughter had her funds replenished for her future.

We also worked with the mother to secure funding for a specialist residential educational placement and are now looking at the transition from this.

We have now worked closely with a specialist financial advisor over recent years so that both mother and Miss G have confidence and security looking ahead.

Areas of Expertise

Memberships

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Client Testimonials