This was an application by the applicant, PBC, the son and attorney under a lasting power of attorney of the patient, JMA, to authorise various gifts exceeding £7m in value. The purpose of the gifts was to achieve a reduction in inheritance tax (IHT) liability. JMA‘s total assets were estimated to be worth around £18,650,000, held in the form of investments and five paintings.
JMA was 72 years old, suffered from early onset dementia, and required full time care. She was unable to converse and did not recognise PBC or her care staff. It was agreed (and found) that she did not have ...
In 15 separate applications under s23(1) Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA), the Public Guardian (PG) asked the court to determine the effect of language used in lasting powers of attorney which he was asked to register. Some were withdrawn, leaving 11. The common theme was that each instrument expressed an intention that the attorney use the donor ‘s assets to benefit someone other than the donor.
PS: Under the heading ‘Preferences ‘, the donor entered the words ‘The needs of [LS] before anyone else ‘. Under the heading ‘Instructions ‘, she entered the words ...
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Lady Hood was the lessee of the property in Chelsea (‘the property’) pursuant to a lease (‘the head lease’) dated 21 September 1979 and made between (1) Viscount Chelsea (‘the head lessor’) (2) the Chelsea Land & Investment Company Limited (‘Chelsea land”); (3) Cadogan Holdings Company (‘Cadogan’) and (4) Lady Hood. The head lease contained a covenant by the lessee not to transfer underlet or part with possession of part of the demised premises without consent of Cadogan. The head lease also contained a right for the head lessor or the Company to forfeit the head lease for breaches o...
The applicants (the attorneys) were joint attorneys of their parents WP (who had died in 2015) and EP (the parents) under enduring powers of attorney (EPAs). There was a further sibling, S, who was not an attorney. The EPAs were registered in October 2009. The parents had joint income in 2014/15 of £29,077 and expenditure of £21,256. This expenditure included unauthorised payments of £150 per month to each one of their children. Their sister S instigated an investigation by the Office of the Public Guardian, and the Public Guardian requested that the attorneys seek retrospective approval...
This appeal related to an inheritance tax notice of determination dated 22 May 2013 in respect of the estate of Dr Olive Scott (Olive) who died on 4 March 2007. Olive was predeceased by her husband Professor James Scott (James). The appellant, Malcolm Scott (Malcolm), was her surviving son and co-executor. The other executor had been Olive’s son Alistair Scott (Alistair), who died on 7 November 2009. There had been a dispute between Alistair and Malcolm as to the correct inheritance tax position in relation to certain paintings, and this had led to their filing separate IHT400 acco...
This was an application by the deputy of an 11 year-old boy (AK) for a gift of £150,000 to be made by him to his parents from the damages awarded to AK under a settlement of a clinical negligence claim brought by his mother acting as his litigation friend against the local NHS Trust in 2009.
AK was born in October 2002 and suffers from cerebral palsy as a result of a prolonged period of hypoxia at the time of his birth. In 2009, the High Court approved a settlement in his favour of the clinical negligence claim. The settlement included a lump sum payment of £1,050,000 plus the fol...
AB was born in 1932, resides in a care home and has dementia. In June 2007 she signed an EPA appointing her nephews MD and WD to be her attorneys on a joint and several basis. In September 2007 the EPA was registered.
In March 2007 MD and WD bought a property for AB to live in. They charged her rent for the six months that she lived there and she also paid the refurbishment costs of the work carried out by MD.
In January 2013 Brent Council wrote to the OPG expressing concerns about arrears of £23,000 in care home fees.
An investigation by the OPG showed that in Fe...