Trust and Estate Disputes

Specialist Wills, Trust and Estate Dispute Advice

Our specialist trust, estate and inheritance disputes lawyers have extensive experience and are ranked in both Chambers & Partners and The Legal 500 as experts in this field. We were recently shortlisted for the Contentious Trust and Estates Team of the Year for the 2023 Step Private Client Awards and won the title of Contentious Wills and Probate Team of the Year at the 2023 British Wills and Probate Awards.

We act for trustees, executors, personal representatives, protectors, beneficiaries, charities and for individuals in a wide range of disputes involving trusts along with wills and inheritances.

We often advise on complex and cross-jurisdictional issues, and regularly work alongside other intermediaries based offshore.

Court of Protection, Landed Estates and Tax Disputes

We are regularly instructed in relation to contentious matters arising in the Court of Protection and are experienced in advising charities in relation to their potential fraud exposure as well as defending charitable legacies and other such related disputes. We also act often in disputes arising in relation to family farms and landed estates and we have a specialist tax disputes team.

The circumstances of each case are unique, which necessitates a tailored response to the individual needs of our clients. We employ a wide range of methods to help promote early settlement where it is beneficial to our clients. However, if a resolution cannot be found, we engage in and manage litigation as pro-actively, efficiently and cost effectively as possible to ensure the best possible outcome for our clients at trial.

We always give clear advice to our clients about costs and the various options for funding a dispute involving trusts and estates.

For more information, look at our frequently asked questions on trust disputes, as well as wills and inheritance disputes, and read our Need to Know guides for Trustees.

Examples Of Recent Cases

• Acting in a proprietary estoppel claim for our client against his parents in relation to farming land and the family business
• Acting for the beneficiaries in multijurisdictional trust dispute challenging the exercise of the trustees’ discretion to appoint assets out of trust
• Successfully defending a challenge to the validity of an English will on the grounds that the testator could not have known and approved the contents of the will because she did not speak, read or understand English.
• Acting for a client in a highly acrimonious dispute regarding his father’s estate involving allegations of destruction of a will, forgery and the concealment of overseas assets.
• Advising a client in relation to a professional negligence claim against the solicitor who drafted her husband’s will, an application for rectification of that will on the basis of mistake, and a claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975.
• Advising a Guernsey trust company in a cross border investigation into issues surrounding the settlor and main beneficiary of a family trust. The claims included allegations of undue influence and the misappropriation of assets including extremely valuable artwork.
• Assisting a beneficiary of a substantial trust in relation to the disclosure of information about the trust and also advising on allegations of breach of trust and proceedings for removal of the trustees.
• Acting on behalf of a trustee in bankruptcy where the bankrupt had divested himself of assets, including through offshore trust structures before making himself bankrupt in the face of significant tax liabilities due to the failure of aggressive tax avoidance schemes.
• Advising a Panamanian trustee company of a Cayman trust in a complex piece of multi-jurisdictional trust/fraud litigation relating to the transfer of assets from another off-shore trust.
• Acting in relation to a challenge to the validity of three wills made after the deceased’s diagnosis with brain cancer and investigating the misappropriation of assets prior to his death.
• Advising the children of the deceased in relation to a claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, in circumstances where their father had made a death bed will cutting them out of his estate.