Blog
Keeping the peace at Christmas – top tips for shared parenting over the festive season
Lauren Evans
20 March 2019
English assets, overseas owner - resealing foreign grants of probate in England and Wales
How do you secure English assets when there is a foreign grant of probate? The English Probate Registry can re-seal a foreign grant provided the deceased was from a current or former commonwealth country. This will give the executor named in the foreign grant the legal power to deal with the English asset.
4 March 2019
What if you’ve been left an inheritance, but not in the way that you want?
On 8 November 2018, almost 17 months out of time, Mary Jane Cowan made an application under Section 4 of the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 for permission to make an application under Section 2 of that Act against the estate of her deceased husband, Michael Anthony Cowan (Cowan v Foreman, [2019] EWHC 349 Fam).
8 February 2019
Act quickly! The new probate fee ‘stealth tax’ moves a step closer
The House of Lords has voted through the proposal which will introduce a new stealth death tax for the middle classes from April 2019. The fees payable to the Probate Registry will be dramatically increased from a flat rate of £155 for a solicitor application or £215 for a personal application for estates above £5,000 to a maximum of £6,000.
23 January 2019
Inheritance Tax Planning: Deeds of Variation and nil rate band discretionary Will trusts - less common but still useful?
2007 was a milestone year in inheritance Tax (IHT) planning for married couples with the introduction of the ‘transferable nil rate band’. Not only did that sound the death knell (almost) for the nil-rate-band-discretionary-will-trust but the traditional use of a deed of variation did an about face.
17 January 2019
New Year’s resolutions for unmarried couples: make Wills, get married, better still, do both?
Over the years, I’ve encountered many couples in a relationship spanning 20 years or more, often with children together, who have never married nor have any intention of doing so. When challenged as to reasons for not marrying, there’s rarely expressed any aversion to marriage in principle. It’s just, “We’re happy as we are; we don’t need a piece of paper to prove the strength of our relationship”.