Probate, Wills, Trusts And Lasting Powers Of Attorney Articles
The Law Commission for England and Wales has said that current will writing methods need to be modernised, they have suggested that electronic communications such as text messages and emails could be used as a will in certain circumstances.
Recent surveys have discovered four out of five local authorities do not provide sufficient care for the older generations in their community, with the shortage affecting some of the most vulnerable in society...
Recent statistics show that 32% of British people are adding provisions to their Will to ensure that their social media pages are maintained and updated after they die...
There have been two stories in the media recently which relate to the subject of Wills and Probate – an area which Lawson-West are experts in.
There has been a story is the press recently about a daughter who was written out of her mother's Will. The older lady passed away in 2004 and had been estranged from her daughter since 1978 when they fell out over the daughter’s choice of boyfriend.
Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has lost its bid to charge inheritance tax on farmhouses where the farmland and farmhouse are not owned by the same person...
The Law Society recently announced that it would create an accreditation scheme for firms providing Will-writing, probate and estate administration services in order to differentiate solicitors from other providers...
By the time she died in 2011 at age 104, the daughter of America’s second-richest man, Huguette Clark had lived as a recluse for more than half a century, spending her last 20 years confined to a New York hospital room...
Under current legislation, children and cohabitees who find themselves excluded in someone’s will are unable to contest it if the deceased didn’t live in England or Wales...
Following a theme addressed in popular ITV drama Downton Abbey recently, The Law Society is advising the public about the importance of writing a will...
The Supreme Court has ruled that disputed Wills should be interpreted using the same rules at those that apply to the interpretation of contracts. The judgment was made in a case involving mirror Wills, where the husband and wife had signed each other’s Wills by mistake...
The Law Society has issued controversial guidance to solicitors which may mean they are able to write “Sharia compliant” Islamic wills that deny women an equal share of inheritances and exclude unbelievers altogether...
Figures released recently show that battles in Court where an executor of a Will is accused of mishandling an estate have multiplied threefold in the past 12 months...
Eirian Davies, a farmer's daughter who was nicknamed 'the Cowshed Cinderella', has now won the right to a larger share of her parents' farm following a decision by the Court of Appeal...
A man who swindled his brother out of a share of a £1.5 million inheritance has been found guilty of five counts of fraud...
Following complaints from clients across the country, the Legal Ombudsman has called on the government to consider making will writing a reserved legal activity. Currently, there is no regulatory body covering will writing and the Ombudsman faced over 1000 wills and probate related claims in 2013...
The Law Society has warned that over a million unmarried couples face the threat of inheriting nothing should their partner die without making a Will if they have dependent children. This applies equally to same sex couples who have not married or entered into a civil partnership...
The use of social media in our day to day lives can no longer be ignored. Unfortunately these accounts still need to be monitored after someone passes away...
A lawyer from the Midlands has helped a man to uphold his right to inherit under the will of his partner, the ecologist Elizabeth Walker, following a legal challenge by her daughters...
Families with holiday homes in Europe have been advised to update their Wills following a change to EU succession laws, which now make it easier for British families to bypass prescriptive inheritance laws in countries such as France and Spain...
Leicestershire law firm Lawson-West has received dozens of calls from HSBC customers who are worried about their Wills following the bank’s decision to pull out of probate services...
The worry of what will happen to your children when you pass away is something that concerns most parents. Unfortunately there is no guarantee that your children will be looked after by someone they are close to or indeed who you can trust when you pass away...
In a recent case heard at York Crown Court, a woman stole her sister's £50,000 inheritance by moving money out of their mother's bank account over a period of six years before she died. She is currently waiting to be sentenced for theft, and has been ordered to repay the money within six months...
The widely publicised case of a disinherited woman who successfully contested her mother’s will has led more people to check their own wills, reports a Leicestershire law firm...
One of the most frustrating moments as a probate lawyer is receiving a letter from the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) requesting a schedule of assets and liabilities as they are investigating payments made to the deceased. Often this process is drawn out and incredibly time consuming for all involved...
The well- known rule of forfeiture states that if you are responsible for the murder or manslaughter of a person, you cannot benefit from their estate...
