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30 March 2017

Three women who faked their elderly neighbour's Will have received custodial sentences following a trial at Cardiff Crown Court. Karen O'Brien was sentenced to four and a half years, Gemma Gauci to four years and Leanne Collins to one year - all for conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation.

The women claimed to have found the Will while cleaning the home of the deceased man, Mr James Wilmot. The faked Will named Karen O'Brien and Gemma Gauci as executors and beneficiaries, and Leanne Collins as another beneficiary. The late Mr Wilmot's estate was worth an estimated £320,000.

24 March 2017

The recent decision from the Court of appeal, which upheld the original judgement by Judge Tolson QC, has created a huge amount of uncertainty for those seeking a divorce. Judge Tolson's original decision to dismiss Tini Owens’ petition for a divorce effectively said to Mrs Owens' that her husband's alleged behaviour was not so severe that she could not be 'reasonably expected to live with [him]'.

The Court of Appeal judgement contained some of the details of the examples used by Mrs Owens in her divorce petition, as well as her later amended petition. What was surprising about the examples was that they were spread over a wide span of time. In some incidents, the alleged behaviour had occurred years previously. The standard legal approach would be to cite an example from the last 6 months of the couple living together as husband and wife, and then to include a dated specific example that demonstrates the effect of the alleged behaviour on the petitioner. This effectively, and to use the words in the CoA judgment, is a good way of 'beefing up' the petition.

15 March 2017

However you want to characterise it, if we are indeed in the post-truth age or the era of "alternative facts" it is likely that it would be, by definition, so confusing a state of affairs that we would be unable to tell. But the sheer brazenness of the government‘s budget announcing a May 1st hike in Grant of Probate "court fee" does feel indicative of a huge disconnect between policy and reality, and as such is couched in suitably misleading language. But make no mistake it is a tax on death that strikes right to the heart of families, their sense of security, their sense of self-worth and their self-reliance. We should not be surprised if ultimately it undermines families, their connection to their land and their legacies.

Currently the probate process is, basically, fair. Probate solicitors have to pay a flat rate of £155 when making probate applications, while personal representatives who manage the process themselves pay a slightly higher £205. But with the new banding fees to be calculated before inheritance tax settlement, estates will soon face bills of thousands of pounds while those worth in excess of £2 million will be saddled with probate fee bills of £20,000.

09 March 2017

Inheritance tax is one of those contentious areas of taxation which is almost impossible to pitch correctly to the electorate. With so many people having different views on the subject – and indeed single individuals capable of possessing seemingly conflicting views – it is very much a "damned if you do and damned if you don't" kind of affair.

Whatever the case, the process of inheritance tax and probate in general presents considerable challenges to the personal representatives of estates, regardless of whether they are executors or administrators.

Against this background, it seems a little disingenuous that the government should have recently proposed to raise probate fees in the way that they have. Gone will be the flat-rate system and instead will appear a tiered system to calculate fees based on the value of an estate – call it an additional inheritance tax by stealth if you like: a death tax per se.

28 February 2017

Over recent years an increasing number of families have been stung by inheritance tax liabilities for which they were unprepared.

The tax liability surprise affects mainly those estates which stand to benefit from transferred pensions schemes when the testator has made the transfer knowing that he or she has reduced life expectancy or has died within two years of making the transfer.

For those falling foul of the HM Revenue and Customs rules there is only limited clarity regarding options when faced with such unexpected liability – indeed, it is a grey area of the law unfamiliar even to many of the UK's probate solicitors.

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