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Stephen Alexander asks when a trustee can charge fixed fees The reasonableness (and therefore recoverability) of the fixed fee will vary according to the size of the trust fund, the complexity of the situation, and the risks and responsibilities in relation to the trust. Individual trustees will usually charge by reference to time spent. Corporate …
Continue reading "Trustees: What is reasonable?"
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Joseph de Lacey and Rowan Cope update practitioners on the High Court’s current approach to interpreting testamentary capacity It is striking that what appeared to be settled conclusions by respected professionals made contemporaneously with the execution of the disputed will… could be partially displaced by a misunderstanding as to the scale of the difference between …
Continue reading "Testamentary capacity: When capacity fluctuates"
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Geoffrey Shindler examines the government’s vision for a streamlined future tax administration system Will HMRC blame me if my tax return is wrong but the information which has been put into it by HMRC is supplied by somebody else who has made the mistake? A corporate report from HMRC and HM Treasury tells us that …
Continue reading "Musings from Manchester: Who is responsible?"
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A challenge to a will on the grounds of want of knowledge and approval where a compos mentis testator has read a professionally prepared will may seem doomed. Daisy Brown analyses a rare successful case A testator who has waited 24 years to change his will and then inexplicably gives two sets of contradictory instructions …
Continue reading "Testamentary intentions: Presuming too much"
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Caroline Doyle reviews STEP’s recent report on trusts and its findings STEP reports that is clear that the perception in the UK is that trusts are the purview of the rich and famous. It is suggested that this is in part due to many people being introduced to the concept of trusts through literature focusing …
Continue reading "Trusts: Perception vs reality"
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Clare Dixon QC and Nicholas Broomfield consider the Supreme Court’s decision in Matthew v Sedman and whether it represents a departure from the established rule of limitation ‘Midnight deadline’ cases such as Gelmini and Matthew are distinct from cases where the cause of action accrues part way through a day and different principles apply. For …
Continue reading "Conduct of proceedings: What a difference a day makes"
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Will cases involving the allegation of fraud are on the rise. Laura Abbott explores the legal principles behind the latest decision With the ability of experts to detect even the slightest of differences in paper and ink, and the evidence available from technology such as CCTV and social media, as these cases have shown, it …
Continue reading "Will validity: Losing face"
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Tara McInnes reports on a recent decision in the county court that indicates an understanding approach towards an eligible claimant with little provision and financial need The judge was keen to point out that we still have a system of testamentary freedom. To enable the courts to interfere with such freedom, it needs to be …
Continue reading "The 1975 Act: After Ilott"
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Robert Lindley and Wesley O’Brien discuss cases where offshore courts act as auxiliaries to those onshore Generally, for a foreign judgment to be capable of enforcement in an offshore common law jurisdiction such as Cayman or Jersey, it must be final and conclusive, for the payment of a sum of money and made by a …
Continue reading "Offshore: What is appropriate?"
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Geoffrey Shindler examines the scope of the Law Commission’s latest project I am sure none of us will object to a wholesale review of trust law so long as it is done on the basis that there are problems which need to be resolved. What we do not need is reform, ie change, for its …
Continue reading "Musings from Manchester: Updating trusts"
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