Successful challenge of multiple and foreign wills
The Deceased passed away leaving an English will and 4 previous foreign wills, all made in the space of less than a year.
TSP assists with complicated overseas trusts
Our client was living in a valuable property owned by her employer (‘The Deceased’) and was being paid a reduced salary as she was promised the property upon her employer’s death. The Deceased had substantial wealth including overseas assets. Most of it, including the property our client lived in, were held by various structures under the umbrella of a Lichtenstein Foundation Trust.
Thomson Snell & Passmore assists with removal of a caveat to allow administration of the estate to begin
Our client was one of 12 beneficiaries of their late father’s £600,000 estate, the administration of which (including the sale of a property) was prevented by a surprise caveat lodged by another beneficiary.
Do rules concerning forfeiture of legacies apply equally to trust interest?
A father, in his lifetime, created a trust for the benefit of his wife and then children. The couple had only one child, son, who, when in his 30s murdered his father. A number of years later, the wife and life tenant of the trust passed away of natural causes.
Attorneys beware – good intentions need not be enough!
Our client and her son were appointed attorneys for the financial and property affairs of her husband (the Deceased).
Removing a difficult trustee
Our firm’s trust corporation is one of the trustees of a discretionary trust set up by the settlor, i.e. the person who set up the trust during her lifetime, in favour of her adult children.
Dealing with Difficult Beneficiaries
A case study demonstrating how we can assist Executors to administer the estate when faced with belligerent beneficiaries.
Promises, properties, debts and disappointments
Our client was the widow of the Deceased. The fact of our client’s marriage to the Deceased had the unintended result of invalidating his Will.
Dealing with a lost or missing will
In order to obtain a grant of probate, the deceased’s original will must be lodged at the Probate Registry alongside the probate application. There are occasions when the original will is not available which adds an additional layer of complexity.
Dispute between siblings regarding worldwide estate of property-owing father
We had to carefully consider what the deceased’s worldwide assets comprised of and in particular what would pass under the intestacy rules of England and Wales an advise accordingly.
“Being cut out of a parent’s will”
We advised an adult child of the deceased who had been inadvertently excluded from her father’s will.
Don’t make empty promises…
We recently acted for the wife of a deceased who died in 2012. His last will was signed shortly before his death, and left his entire estate to his wife, our client. The executors of the deceased’s estate were our client, their son and a close family friend.
Marriage revokes a will
We represented a client who had prepared a homemade mirror will with his partner, i.e. they left everything to the survivor when the first partner passed away. They had a long period of cohabiting but never married. However, the female was diagnosed with terminal cancer and the couple, who were in their later life, decided to marry to enjoy the end of their lives as husband and wife. What they were not aware of was the fact that marriage revokes a will. Had the wills been drafted by a solicitor or will-writer, they would have been advised of this and could have then made new mirror wills upon their marriage.
“Common law marriage”
We acted for a lady whose partner died following a short illness. They owned a property together and had been in a relationship spanning 20 years. The couple had never married and always believed that their estates would pass to each other regardless. However, the concept of “common law marriage” is a myth.
