News & Resources
Intestacy Rules Mean…
We should talk about what intestacy rules mean because there is a big hoo-ha every year. Every summer, you’ll hear it when you turn on the newspaper and when you open the television. Every year with the certainty with which the mushrooms follow the rain, there is a...
Inheritance Tax Reform?
The caterwauling about inheritance tax reform was predictable.Didn’t you hear?The Chancellor of the Exchequer wrote to the heads of the Office for Tax Simplification (OTS) requesting a review of the inheritance tax regime. I’ve seen the letter: it’s seven sentences,...
What Happens Without Power of Attorney
The sad tale of the policeman Paul Briggs demonstrates what happens without power of attorney. Generally, Court of Protection cases are private. In ordinary circumstances, you or I would never have heard of Paul Briggs. Meet Mr Briggs Mr Briggs joined the army at 16;...
Small Gift Exemption to Inheritance Tax
Many don’t understand the gifting rules to inheritance tax. Here’s a brief guide…
Cost of Updating Your Will
Zero, the cost of updating your will.
Assisted Suicide and Inheritance
I'd like to ask about Assisted Suicide and Inheritance. My mother is terminally ill – she has one of those nasty neurological diseases that I can’t pronounce. Bob, her husband of 21 years, has agreed to take her to Belgium (cheaper than Switzerland) so she may die in...
To Write Your Own Will, Is it Wise?
Will writing, can you write your own will, can you write a DIY will? Of course, you can, but… Should you? Let’s see why it isn't so wise to write your own will. https://youtu.be/xgywkD_K14o The Harm of DIY There are five main reasons not to write your own will, but...
Handling a Bankrupt Beneficiary
Q:My brother, after many years building his business was just starting to make money worthy of the sacrifice. And then this COVID19 thing started, he sees no option to bankruptcy. He's a would thus be a bankrupt beneficiary. My parents worry my brother’s...
Letter of Wishes
The Letter of Wishes Imagine you got an invitation to a party, and that the invitation included a map to the venue. Your host'd hardly care if you followed the route map, if you attended the bacchanal. With that image in mind, we should now look at the statement or...
Disinheriting Someone
Questions on Disinheriting Someone Q I have a question about disinheriting someone.My daughter is a faithful viewer of the TV show: Love Island.One of the contestants, Ollie Williams, was told by his father that if he had sex on the show, he would lose his...
Joint Wills and Mutual Wills
On my 25th birthday, Lorna Thompson took me to the cinema. We saw Die Hard II. It was the seventh highest grossing moving picture of that year. It was by that rating just ahead of Presumed Innocent. So, we need to talk about joint wills, and mutual wills. Mirror...
Where to Store Your Will
Keeping Your Will Safe A common query among interviewers of minor talent runs something like: ‘What is the most interesting thing you’ve encountered in your working life?’.Questioners be they journalists or personnel officers, who trot out this shop-worn enquiry...
Common Law Marriage & Inheritance
Common law marriage and inheritance In short: there’s no such concept [not in the sense that you understand it]. The common law wife. The common law husband. Common law marriage and inheritance - a phrase that occurs in the context of intestacy Certain intestacy...
Transferable Nil Rate Band
The Transferable Nil Rate Band The transferable nil rate band (NRB) solved a problem. We say phone instead of smartphone, similarly, except in the rare instance it’s not specifically so, the transferability of the NRB is implied. Hence, we hardly hear of the TNRB. The...
Books & Publications
Maximum Inheritance
Especially with estate planning articles, life’s work is simple: to help you keep the fruit of your life’s work in your family forever. You’ve lots of estate planning articles in my book, Maximum Inheritance….
….is an easy-to-read collection of estate planning articles, of thumbnail sketches of cases – both those I’ve handled personally and those in the public domain.
Reading this book would put you in the driving seat in planning your inheritance. You would be well appraised of the points to be aware of and questions to ask when planning your inheritance
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