Private Client

Cohabitees should consider making a Will It is common these days for couples to cohabit for several years before getting married or entering into a civil partnership. Unfortunately many people who live with their partner, rather than marry or become civil...

Give a thought to appointing a Guardian in your Will The recent Kings Court Trust report 'Changing family structures: The Will writing industry in 2018' revealed that only 26% of parents with children under the age of four years old have a Will...

Property transfer to son set aside by High Court The recent case of Paull v Paull [2018] EWHC 2520 (Ch) involved undue influence and a property transfer from an elderly father to his son. Neville Paull lived in his property with his partner, Linda. In...

Be careful about inheritance promises In Moore (by his litigation friend) v Moore and another  [2018] EWCA Civ 2669, the Court of Appeal (“CoA”) referred a proprietary estoppel case back to the High Court (the “Court”) for...

Attorney able to act as Personal Representative to apply for Grant of Letters of Administration. In the recent case of Whittaker v Hancock & Ors [2018] EWHC 3478 (Ch), the High Court held that an Attorney acting under a Lasting Power of Attorney for...

Top 10 Private Client New Year’s Resolutions It's that time of year again to make a fresh start and sort out everything you were avoiding in December. Here are our 10 top tips for getting your affairs in order in 2019: Make or review your Will ...

First-Tier Tribunal considers ‘living’ at a property for Capital Gains Tax purposes In the recent case of Hezi Yechiel v HMRC [2018] TC06829 , the First-Tier Tribunal (FTT) found that a property owner did not prove a sufficient quality...

The  Wills & Probate Consumer Research Report 2018 , undertaken by IRN Research  and Orchard Reports, recently found that six out of ten people who use the services of Will-writers do not know that their work is unregulated. Whilst using the...

Business Property Relief (BPR) reduces the value of a business or its assets for the purposes of calculating Inheritance Tax (IHT). You may be able to claim BPR at a rate of either 50 or 100% on certain business assets of an estate. However, according...

A Lasting Power of Attorney (“LPA”) is a legal document that lets you appoint one or more people as your attorneys to help you make decisions or to make decisions on your behalf. It is a very powerful and wide-reaching document. There are two...