Wills & Trusts Law Reports | March 2016 #157Taylor Wessing LLP (TW) are the London solicitors of Grampian Trust Company Limited (the trustee), a company resident and incorporated in the Bahamas. The trustee is trustee of a discretionary settlement known as the Glenfinnan settlement, settled in 1992 and governed by Bahamian law. The Glenfinnan settlement was a resettlement of certain funds from an earlier Bahamian settlement (the 1973 settlement). The first claimant is a beneficiary of the Glenfinnan settlement. The second and third claimants, her children, are not beneficiaries. In 2006 and 2009 the trustee made substantial appoin...
Paul Newman QC examines claims for trust documents under the Data Protection Act 1998, with reference to Dawson-Damer v Taylor Wessing LLP [2016] ‘The critical difference between the disclosure of trust documents and privilege is that the need to maintain confidentiality in the trust document may be overridden by the exercise of the court’s discretion.’ …
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Keith Robinson discusses a case concerning the disclosure of information to beneficiaries and the role of the protector ‘The Court of Appeal pointed out that the decision of whether or not to make disclosure under clause 9.2 is that of the trustees and not the protector (who only has a power of consent).’It is now …
Continue reading "Trusts: Following in the footsteps of Schmidt"
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Wills & Trusts Law Reports | July/August 2015 #151By a trust deed dated 24 December 1987 (trust deed) Edoarda Crociani (settlor) settled a promissory note on herself and others for the benefit of her daughters, Cristiana Crociani (Cristiana) and Princess Camilla de Bourbon des Deux Siciles. The trust deed conferred extensive powers on the trustees in respect of both capital and income, including power to pay the whole or any part of the trust funds to another trust. Originally, it was provided that the forum for the administration of the trust and its construction should be governed by the law of the Bahamas. Clause 12(6), howe...
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | July/August 2015 #151The claimant (K) and second defendant (A) are brother and sister. They are the children of George Kousouros (D) who died in Cyprus in March 2007 leaving a large house in Islington (the property) where he had lived with K prior to returning to Cyprus in 2000 and which also provided a rental income. According to K, who still lives there and takes the rental income, D transferred the property to him in 2001 on terms which included a payment to A of £50,000 and pursuant on the oral terms his parents executed a deed of transfer of the registered title to the property in form TR1 which A was a...
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | July/August 2015 #151Roythorne & Co (Roythornes), a firm of solicitors, acted for Mr & Mrs Dring and, following his death on 28 September 2008, the executors of Mr Dring, Mr Pola and Mr Doubleday. Roythorne & Co (Roythornes), a firm of solicitors, acted for Mr & Mrs Dring and, following his death on 28 September 2008, the executors of Mr Dring, Mr Pola and Mr Doubleday. Mr & Mrs Dring were the only shareholders of Dring Bros Limited, which had acquired Manor Farm to enable Mrs Dring’s brother and sister in law (Mrs Cooke), who were the tenant farmers, to continue to live there. Roythornes...
The risks of acting for executor and beneficiary are clear in Kousouros v O’Halloran & Aresti [2014]. Gerald Wilson explains ‘Legal advice privilege is not to be weighed against any other public interest, whether that is in establishing the truth or the proper supervision of estates.’When you act for a beneficiary under a will, what …
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Wills & Trusts Law Reports | May 2015 #149This was an appeal from a judgment of the Chief Justice dated 12 March 2013 and his subsequent order of 24 April 2013 which required the trustees of a trust to produce financial information to a beneficiary of the trust who was interested in 35% of the trust fund (the minor beneficiary). This appeal was brought by the appointed protector of the trust who was also the principal beneficiary of the trust.
The trust deed contained an information control mechanism (clause 9.2 of the trust deed) which prevented the disclosure of financial information to a beneficiary unless the prot...
Zoe Bloom and Hed Amitai examine potential pitfalls for international families and protective measures including nuptial agreements ‘To start divorce proceedings in England and Wales it is only necessary to show habitual residence here. This means that couples moving to England […] are fully exposed to family law in this jurisdiction.’ International mobility is now …
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Wills & Trusts Law Reports | September 2013 #132MF Global UK (MFG UK) went into administration and, as a result, all client funds were pooled and needed to be rateably returned to MFG UK’s clients. This had to be done in a timely fashion. There were a significant number of client claims which the administrators had rejected either in full or partially. There were also likely to be a significant number of clients whose details did not appear among MFG UK’s records but who would also have a valid claim. These difficulties meant that any distributions from the pooled trust monies could result in an over-distribution and the a...
