Fifty, or even thirty years ago, if you had asked a school classroom to draw a picture of the typical British family, chances are the pupils would have drawn a picture of a husband and wife and one or two children. Yes, statistically it is likely that there would have been a few single-parent families in the representations, but ideas of the nuclear, heteronormative family were, back then, entrenched and largely unchallenged.
Today, more and more children belong to families made up of single parents, co-habiting parents, same-sex couples, step-families, and mixed families living across different households. Inevitably, the changing structure of "family" has had to be recognised in family and probate law and, on occasion, makes the related legal processes more challenging.
Read more: Complex Cohabiting Partner Contested Probate Case
The Central County Court contentious probate decision in Blyth v Estate of Charles Caudle has shown the importance of having a convincing body of evidence when contesting a Will, particularly if the claim is being brought in estoppel.
London has long been the capital of so-called 'divorce tourism'. In most cases this is because women with cross-jurisdictional interests who are getting divorced from their husbands believe that the English and Welsh family law courts are likely to award them a more favourable financial settlement than in most other jurisdictions while also offering greater rights in relation to their children.
This background helps explain why during the summer of 2019, Princess Haya bint al-Hussein of Jordan made a number of applications before the High Court of England and Wales in relation to herself and her children. And now, Princess Haya has returned to the High Court for the latest hearing in the child law case relating to her children and her estranged husband, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai.
Read more: Princess Haya of Jordan and Sheikh Mohammed in High Court in London
Lloyds Bank is in hot water over an embarrassing failure to disclose the Wills of 9,000 deceased customers, a bungle which has – in a probate solicitor’s worst nightmare – led to hundreds of estates potentially being distributed incorrectly.
The Wills were stored as part of the bank’s now defunct “safe custody” service for Wills. In an attempt to seemingly downplay the error, Lloyds has said that the “vast majority” of estates concerned were unaffected, either because the stored Will had been superseded by a new document or because a duplicate had been successfully stored in another location.
Read more: Lloyds Storage Error: a High Street Safe Custody Service Warning
It is a sign of great trust to be named the executor of an estate in a Will, but it is also an onerous responsibility that not everyone will have the time and the energy to fulfil. The reality is that even the most organised and time-rich of individuals will find the assistance of a professional probate solicitor helpful.
If you are to accept the role of executor, it is vital that you first understand the full ramifications of the position and the inherent responsibilities. This should begin with understanding that executor responsibilities commence almost at the point of death; although registering the death is not the executor’s responsibility per se, in many instances it does become so.
