Trusts and Estates

Will construction – nil rate band legacies and exempt gifts of residue There have recently been two cases considered by the High Court and the Court of Appeal in which the RSPCA have been involved in litigation concerning wills in which they..

IHT charitable exemption and gift aid It is well known that there is an IHT exemption for gifts to charity. For IHT to be an issue, the gift would need to have been made within the seven years before the death of the donor, or of course by his..

Knowledge and approval of contents of wills The case of Gill v Woodall attracted considerable attention when decided a first instance. This was the case which a farmer and his wife had made wills under which each left their property to the survivor..

Mutual wills The mutual wills doctrine might sometimes seem to be a survival from the past. Under the doctrine, two testators agree to make wills in an agreed form. If one of them dies, leaving a will in the agreed form, then the survivor is..

Pre-nuptial and post-nuptial agreements – the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 Pre-nuptial agreements have been in the news recently. Under some systems of law, these are recognised as legally binding. However, under..

Will drafting – husbands, wives and related settlements The changes made by the Finance Act 2006 will have brought many more trusts into the ‘relevant property’ regime, which had previously applied only to discretionary trusts. In..