Trust, Wills and Probate

The crucial importance of appointing a reliable person to act as your attorney, to manage your affairs should you no longer be able to do so yourself, was illustrated yet...

Everyone knows how fallible memory can be and also how easy it is to come to believe things that are not true. Normally, such aberrations are of little consequence, but...

Charities are well known for taking robust action when they consider that their interests have been impaired. In no case is this more obvious than when a charity discovers that...

A surprising decision by the Court of Appeal will disquiet anyone who wishes to leave a family member out of their will. Heather Ilott had been deliberately excluded from...

Making a verbal family agreement over the distribution of one’s estate and then trusting that everything will be sorted out amicably by the family shows a very considerable degree of...

A high net worth pensioner, who was reluctant to give up control of his fortune and laid down intricate conditions before signing a lasting power of attorney (LPA), has struck...

A recent court case shows the wisdom of ensuring that there is effective supervision of anyone acting under a power of attorney, especially if substantial assets are involved. The...

A surprising decision by the Court of Appeal to award a daughter who had been deliberately excluded from her mother’s will a substantial settlement from her estate will be unwelcome...

A kindly builder, who was rewarded with a £470,000 inheritance after befriending a pensioner and mending his leaking gutters for free, can keep the money after a judge dismissed a...

Although she had separated from her husband more than 20 years previously, a woman who died of a brain tumour in 2010 had not yet completed the settlement of the...