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Offshore trusts: A taxing business

A successful taxpayer appeal against HMRC has lessons on how the courts will interpret legislation on the transfer of assets abroad. Remi Aiyela explains ‘Even though Mr Rialas orchestrated the purchase side of the transaction as HMRC claimed, it was stretching the meaning of the word “procure” beyond breaking point to suggest that the fact …
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Trusts: The complete picture

Sean Hilton highlights the importance of identifying trust issues at the outset of a case and ascertaining the willingness of trustees to make distributions from such assets ‘Had the court in Wodehouse been fully appraised of the nature of the trusts, and had the trustees been properly questioned, the judge may have reached a different …
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Musings from Manchester: Taking it on trust?

Geoffrey Shindler has some questions for prospective MPs on the 5th Anti-Money Laundering Directive ‘5AMLD now brings the settlor back in as a beneficial owner when basic trust law, in this country at least, shows that they are divested of beneficial ownership.’ I hate to approach Christmas with a warning but according to the pernicious …
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The 1975 Act: Compelling communication

Laura Abbott provides an update from the Court of Appeal on whether parties in Inheritance Act 1975 cases can be compelled to undertake ADR ‘Moylan J reasoned that in his experience, FDRs often achieve a great deal, even if the parties are resistant or actively hostile to them.’ In the September 2019 issue of TELTJ …
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Will drafting: When to challenge

Barbara Stratton QC, Sarah Huot and Hong Feng examine the impact of Canadian case Mawhinney v Scobie on no contest clauses in the UK ‘If a will includes a properly drafted and enforceable no contest clause, and a beneficiary unsuccessfully challenges that will, then the beneficiary forfeits their bequest by operation of the no contest …
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Musings from Manchester: May you live in interesting times

After the Supreme Court’s decision declaring the prorogation of Parliament unlawful, Geoffrey Shindler considers the functions of Parliament ‘The Supreme Court made it clear that, in its view anyway (not one shared by Her Majesty’s government of the day), Parliament is supreme and the government is subordinate to it.’ On the assumption that constitutional law …
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Costs: The cost of obstinacy

Emma Holland and Luca del Panta look at an international family dispute which has lessons for trustees and PRs defending removal claims ‘At the costs hearing, the widow and daughter argued that the same general rule should apply on the basis that they had been “successful”, particularly as Dr Neupert had effectively abandoned his counterclaim, …
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Trustees: First in time, first in line?

Adam Carvalho and Joseph de Lacey examine the priority of trustee indemnities ‘The original trustee argued that a pari passu approach was wrong in law, and that its claim had priority over the other creditors of the Z II Trust.’ Readers will of course know that trustees have a right to be indemnified for costs …
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Trusts: Striking an artful balance

Timothy Sherwin explores the unanimity principle, and the position of trustees managing art and cultural property ‘Strangers need only examine the trust instrument and satisfy themselves that the relevant power can be validly exercised by only some of the trustees, and they can then assume that the actual exercise by some of the trustees is …
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Wills: Deeds not words

Partnership arrangements can be problematic upon death. Katie Alsop discusses with reference to Kingsley v Kingsley ‘Had the partners signed the partnership agreement, properly recorded the ownership – both legal and beneficial – of the farm land, documented the terms on which land outside the farm land was occupied, and engaged in some element of …
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