Legal Resources and News

It is a sad fact of life today that many people find themselves estranged from one or more of their relatives, and when meeting clients to talk to them about their Wills my colleagues and I regularly face the situation where the person drawing up the Will advises us that they want to cut out one or more family member – often one of their children. 

We were quite shocked earlier this week to read that Denzil Lush has declared that he himself will never draw up a Lasting Power of Attorney.

Denzil Lush was the senior Judge in the Court of Protection for some 20 years (the Court of Protection is the Court in England and Wales which is responsible for financial and welfare matters for people who cannot make decisions themselves).

Many people aren’t aware that any existing Will they have will be automatically revoked on marriage, unless it was drafted in a specific way to prevent this from happening.  A lot of people make the incorrect assumption that because they are married, they don’t need a Will, thinking that all will pass to their spouse on their death.

It was Benjamin Franklin who said in 1789 “in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes”.  Recent research suggests that in the UK we are likely to be faced with more deaths and consequently more taxes over the next decade.

We often come across estates with beneficiaries who are proving difficult to trace for a number of reasons. These reasons include family estrangement, death of the beneficiary, and poor drafting of a Will, often by a non-professional person.