Inheritance Act Claims are based upon reasonable financial provision.  Reasonable financial provision is considered according to the following criteria: For civil partners, former spouses (who have not remarried or formed a new civil partnership), children and dependants it is that of ‘such financial provision as it would be reasonable in read more...

Continuing our series of articles about 1975 Act Claims (claims for reasonable financial provision from a deceased person's estate resulting in a maintenance award), I write now to address the topic of funding such a claim. One way to do this is by entering into a conditional fee agreement (CFA). read more...

The role of executor can be a complex one, and we have warned in a previous blog  about the need to think very carefully before appointing friends or family members as executors. The task can be very involved and time consuming. It involves gathering in estate assets, preparing accounts, declaring read more...

In our previous blog , we discussed the position of minor children in bringing claims against the estate of a deceased person. Claims by children generally mean claims against the estate of the deceased’s child or a ‘child of the family’ e.g. stepchildren. This blog discusses the position of adult read more...

Claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependents) Act 1975 – or as they are often called Inheritance Act claims, or 1975 claims – are claims that a deceased person has failed to make reasonable provision for the applicant in their will or that reasonable provision has not been read more...

A recent report by the Times has shown that court cases relating to disputed wills have increased by over 34% since 2017 and by more than 140% in the past decade. However, these figures should be taken with a pinch of salt as this only represents the disputes that end read more...

In our previous blogs we discussed whether professional executors are required, and what the role of executor entails].  In difficult estates i.e. complex, high value estates containing business or foreign assets, where there is a dispute of the estate, estates involving trust structures, or estates where the documents are unclear, read more...

Executors duties The first thing of which you need to be aware is your obligations as an executor. Even if you are a layperson, the position of an executor is a position of a trustee. You are holding money on behalf of someone else and therefore you have certain duties read more...

In the UK, we have the intestacy rules which say what will happen to your estate if you die without  leaving a will.   There is a set order of priority in which people will inherit your estate.  The intestacy rules are complex but in brief: If you die leaving a read more...

If your partner has passed away, you may find yourself wondering what will happen to your living situation.  The answer really depends on a number of factors, including if the house was owned, by whom, and how. This blog considers some scenarios relating to owned property (not rented) and assumes read more...

When engaging in court proceedings, there are a number of different rules and protocols that must be followed. In particular, it is important that you address the Judge correctly when speaking in court as you always want to try and keep them on your side. The Lord Chief Justice and read more...

The position for an executor where a person disputes the validity of a Will is extremely difficult. The job of the executor is to distribute the estate in accordance with the Will and in a reasonable timeframe, however if it is invalid, the estate may need to be distributed differently read more...

We have discussed before in a previous blog post the difficulties in maintaining privilege in documents produced for employment cases within a company. However, there is similar difficulties in maintaining litigation privilege in commercial disputes. But what is privilege? In order to understand privilege, you need to understand the process read more...