McLean & ors v McLean [2023] WTLR 1495

Winter 2023 #193

In 2017 a husband and wife executed mirror wills leaving their respective estates to the survivor and the residue to their four children in equal shares. In March 2019 the husband died and the wife inherited his estate. In August 2019 the wife executed a new will leaving her entire estate to one son, the defendant in the proceedings. She died 11 days afterwards. The three remaining children argued that the 2017 wills were mutual and that the wife’s estate was therefore held on trust for them equally. They relied on a conversation between the husband and wife and their solicitor where, in...

Beasant v Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind & ors [2022] WTLR 853

Autumn 2022 #188

By her will (which was drafted by a legal executive of the third defendant), Audrey Thelma Anita Arkell (the testatrix) gave the ‘Nil-Rate Sum’ to the appellant. This was defined as:

‘… the largest sum of cash which could be given on the trusts of this clause without any inheritance tax becoming due in respect of the transfer of the value of my estate which I am deemed to make immediately before my death.’

Subsequent clauses gave her residence, personal chattels and specified shares to the appellant ‘free of inheritance tax’ and her net residuary es...