Henrietta Mason

May 9, 2024 | farrer.co.uk | Henrietta Mason

As we all know, the role of a trustee is fraught with difficult decisions. In some cases, those decisions can be momentous in terms of their impact on beneficiaries. In making such decisions, a trustee may wish for the protection of the court from future claims. In representation of Zedra Trust Company (Suisse) regarding C and D Trusts, the court was asked to bless the decision of the trustees to vary dynastic trusts to include female family members.

Sep 29, 2023 | farrer.co.uk | Henrietta Mason

An estimated one in three families in the UK are “blended”, a term used to describe a combination of parents, new partners, and children from different relationships. In some of these blended families, biological children and stepchildren are truly blended, to the extent that even when it comes to succession on death, parents make no distinction in terms of provision. However, this is usually not the case.

Sep 26, 2023 | farrer.co.uk | Elizabeth Jones |Henrietta Mason |Joseph de Lacey

In this month’s update we consider:What to do when an executor loses capacity,A review of recent cases dealing with mutual wills, andResponses to the ILM / Farrer & Co survey of members on the questions which will be at the heart of the forthcoming supplementary consultation on reforming the law around the making of wills. We hope you find these articles interesting and informative.

Jun 29, 2023 | farrer.co.uk | Henrietta Mason

Stanley died aged 91 in August 2020 in the height of the covid pandemic. The last will that he made was just a few months before his death, in May 2020. This was the sixth will he had made in a decade and his family beneficiaries shifted in and out of inheritance during that decade.  Stanley’s wife, Agnes, with whom he had three children (Ronald, Martin and Jennifer) predeceased him. During his marriage to Agnes there had been a period of separation starting in 1980.

Jun 21, 2023 | farrer.co.uk | Richard McDermott |Henrietta Mason

The legal test for mental capacity to make a Will remains that set out in Banks v Goodfellow 1870. At the time, the average newborn girl was not expected to see her 45th birthday. According to Mortality Insights from the Government’s Actuary Department 2022, the life expectancy of a female born in England in 2022 is projected to be 83 years.