Wills and Probate | Certainty UK Will Register Blog

Published: 4 October 2009 Source: Julian Knight and Chiara Cavaglieri, Independent

Enticing offers of discount or even free will-writing services may sound harmless enough, but many families who take this route risk paying dearly when it comes to sorting out the eventual estate. Will-writing companies, banks and solicitors may be taking consumers for a ride by appointing themselves as executors in the will and charging over the odds for taking an estate through probate.

Some banks and will-writers can offer their services as a loss leader; they can recoup their money tenfold by ensuring they are included in the will as executors, then levying bumper fees when the testator passes away. After death, it is difficult to remove executors from a will; as a result, estates can be hit with unspecified charges of as much as 4.5 per cent, or £22,500 on a £500,000 estate.

“Wills are now also being written by unqualified people who have no professional ethics whatsoever,” says Adam Walker, the director of Final Duties, an independent probate broker.

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Published: Oct 19 2009 Source: Madeleine Brindley, South Wales Echo

CARDIFF residents have left £2.4m to Cancer Research UK in their wills over the last year, figures reveal.

The charity said that local supporters are playing a vital role in Cancer Research UK’s vision to beat cancer by helping to fund its life-saving research.

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Published: Sep 26 2009 Source: Stephen Womack, Daily Mail

Families are being urged to take prompt action to cut potential inheritance tax bills amid fears that the precarious state of the country’s public finances could mean an end to generous thresholds. Inheritance tax (IHT) is charged at 40 per cent on legacies, though bequests to a spouse or charity are free of tax and the first £325,000 of any other bequest is tax-free.

Growing public resentment over the increasing number of people forced to pay inheritance tax has pushed the tax up the political agenda. In October 2007, the Conservative party pledged to raise the threshold at which the tax kicks in to £1million, allowing a couple to pass on £2million of wealth between them.

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Published: Oct 14 2009 Source: Graeme Brown, Birmingham Post

A Midland lawyer who specialises in services for the elderly has warned that some unqualified will writing services are the equivalent of cowboy operators in the building trade.

Fiona Barnes, a partner at Shropshire-based MFG Solicitors and head of the firm’s private client division, warns that dying without a will is bad enough but a badly written or out of date will could be just as dangerous.

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Source: Money Talk, BBC
By Edward Chivers
Buss Murton solicitors

Last week Christine Gill successfully challenged her mother’s Will which had left more than £2m to the RSPCA.

This court challenge is likely to result in an appeal by the animal charity.

But it is just the latest in a long line of high profile, and often bitter, disputes surrounding the estates of deceased family members.

Challenging a Will is an expensive undertaking, both in terms of time, money and emotional effort.

Accusations fly, families squabble, charities huff and puff, and someone has to pick up the tab.

Yet it does not seem to deter an increasing number of individuals from challenging the Wills of deceased family members.

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