Wills & Inheritance Disputes

Whilst the starting point is that you can leave your Estate to whomever you wish; there are certain classes of people who are entitled to pursue a claim against your Estate under the Inheritance (Family & Dependants) Act 1975. Such claims can only be made after you have died. You / your Executors cannot prevent such claims being made, but you can take some steps to let your beneficiaries (and the Court if need be) understand why you have made the decision to exclude someone or leave them less than they may feel they are entitled to.

When making your Will it is useful to have your solicitors prepare a Statement explaining in some detail why you have made the choice. That Statement should be reviewed and re-confirmed every few years whilst you are alive and have mental capacity in order to make it clear that your position has not changed.

A Statement made 10 years before you die and never re-confirmed is unlikely to be of much help. A Court might well agree that was your view at the time you made the Statement, but if you die 10 years later, who is to say that remained your view.

Whilst the starting point is that you can leave your Estate to whomever you wish; there are certain classes of people who are entitled to pursue a claim against your Estate under the Inheritance (Family & Dependants) Act 1975. Such claims can only be made after you have died. You / your Executors cannot prevent such claims being made, but you can take some steps to let your beneficiaries (and the Court if need be) understand why you have made the decision to exclude someone or leave them less than they may feel they are entitled to.

When making your Will it is useful to have your solicitors prepare a Statement explaining in some detail why you have made the choice. That Statement should be reviewed and re-confirmed every few years whilst you are alive and have mental capacity in order to make it clear that your position has not changed.

A Statement made 10 years before you die and never re-confirmed is unlikely to be of much help. A Court might well agree that was your view at the time you made the Statement, but if you die 10 years later, who is to say that remained your view.

It depends on the type of error made. The courts only really have the power to rectify an error that is clerical in nature (misspelling of names for example, clear cases of missed words). Errors relating to the thoughts and intentions of the person who made the Will cannot be rectified. For example, if a testator mistakenly leaves out a beneficiary who they intended to benefit in their Will, the Will cannot be altered. If you believe there is an error in a Will and would like to make an application for rectification, please contact us.

This is person appointed in a Will to deal with the Administration and distribution of someone’s estate. In legal terms an executor owns the property of a deceased person for the purposes of giving effect to the terms of the Will.

This is a “longstop” beneficiary, that is someone who is entitled to benefit when everyone else who is entitled to benefit has died. In general, a default beneficiary should never inherit if a trust is properly managed. However, there are often important legal reasons to name someone as a default beneficiary. Curiously the default beneficiary is often one of the main beneficiaries, but he or she is named in a specific way that means that even if he or she has died his or her estate will benefit. In practice this would probably be a nightmare, but it virtually never happens. Alternatively, people often name a charity as the Default Beneficiary.

This is a person who is responsible for dealing with the Estate of a deceased person where there is no Will, or the Will does not appoint an Executor. In the main the duties and responsibilities of an Administrator and an Executor are the same but there are a few, occasionally important, differences between and Executor and Administrator. Very often Administrators are referred to as Executors.

If you are acting as an Executor you do not always need a Grant of probate to gain control of the deceased’s assets. Small Estates (up to the value of £25,000) can usually be dealt with without a grant. Also, assets owned jointly pass to the surviving co-owner automatically, under a concept known as Survivorship. This means that often a married couple who has mostly jointly held assets will not need a grant unless the deceased held assets in their sole name above the value of £25,000. Some banks can be very flexible and allow Executors to sign a small Estates declaration form however every bank and asset holder has different rules and limitations to what can be done without a Grant of Probate.