From April 2027, unused pension funds and death benefits will become liable to inheritance tax. This is a major change that will affect many people who previously believed pensions were safely outside their estate for inheritance tax purposes. The change will effectively see inheritance tax on top of income tax that has already been paid.

Although the change takes effect in April 2027, the estate planning and reviewing your Will should start now as some of the most effective strategies such as lifetime gifting or restructuring drawdown can take years to bear fruit.

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Standish v Standish is a landmark Supreme Court case that highlights the complexities of asset division in divorce proceedings. The Supreme Court ruled in favour of the husband, dismissing the wife’s appeal and signals a departure from any assumption that transferred wealth becomes part of the couple’s joint assets available for division in the divorce. The husband had worked as a senior executive for UBS bank. The husband had introduced £77.8M of premarital wealth into the marriage, and following professional advice, moved a substantial portion into his wife’s name as part of a tax saving scheme. The court reduced the wife's award from £45M to £25M. The ruling is expected to shape the legal landscape for financial remedies in divorce for years to come.

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Judges will no longer always have to refer to criminal defendants by the gender/pronouns (he/she/they etc) of their choice in an update after the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on transgender.

Rape suspects should not be referred to as female.

The court stated that; “A female rape victim may find it incomprehensible if the judge and others refer to her biologically-male attacker as ‘she’.

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“I don’t have enough assets to need a will”: Many people believe that wills are only necessary for the wealthy however a will isn’t just about assets – it’s about ensuring that your wishes are followed, including appointing guardians for minor children and preventing family disputes.

“I can just use an online template”: online templates don’t provide legal advice or personalisation. Many templates fail to take into account the client’s circumstances, particularly if you don't volunteer all your family information, leading to costly errors down the road.

“I’ll do it later”: Unexpected events can happen at any time and delaying could leave your loved ones unprotected.

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Ambiguous language: Poorly drafted wills often contain vague or contradictory wording, leading to family disputes and potential litigation.

Lack of customisation: Generic templates don’t accommodate unique family dynamics, blended families or complex estates that require careful structuring.

Failure to address tax implications: Without professional advice, clients may unintentionally increase tax liabilities for their beneficiaries.

Increased risk of litigation: DIY wills are more susceptible to being challenged in court, leading to potentially costly and lengthy legal battles.

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Compliance with legal requirements: Lawyers ensure that the will meets all formalities, such as proper witnessing and signing, to avoid disputes.

Minimised risk of disputes: A well-drafted will reduces ambiguity and prevents future conflicts among beneficiaries.

Estate planning expertise: Beyond drafting a will, lawyers provide valuable insights on tax efficiency, trusts and asset protection to maximise inheritance for beneficiaries.

Secure storage and updates: Many legal professionals offer safe storage options and periodic reviews to ensure the will remains valid and relevant as laws and personal circumstances change.

Insurance: All law firms (unlike most Will writers) are regulated and must have professional indemnity insurance in place in order for their solicitors to practise. This can reassure clients that if anything goes wrong – for example if the firm doesn’t draft the will properly – they have some recourse.

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The High Court has issued a warning to UK legal professionals about the dangers of incorporating the use of Artificial Intelligence and ChatGPT into legal practice. This follows a recent court case where the dangers were demonstrated. The case was an £89m damages claim against the Qatar National Bank, where 15 out of the 45 case law citations used were fictitious cases, having been completely made up by AI. The claimant admitted to using publicly available AI tools and their solicitor acknowledged citing the made-up authorities.

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From April 6th 2025 new tax rules came into force for persons non-domiciled in the UK. The old rules were replaced by a new residence based test which includes asking whether the person has been resident in the UK for at least 10 out of the last 20 years. The rules are important in that they govern when non-UK domiciled people are required to declare their foreign income and gains and non-UK interests on their UK tax return.

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In the recent Supreme Court case of Marley v Rawlings the Supreme Court held that certain mistakes in wills could sometimes be "Rectified" by the court after death and that this could include spelling mistakes and other clerical errors. In this case Mr and Mrs Rawling's signed each others wills by mistake and at first the High Court and Court of Appeal said this made the wills invalid. The Supreme court however allowed the mistake to be rectified and the wills were held valid.

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A boy has lost a Family Law case in the High Court that he brought against his own parents after they moved him from London to Ghana to go to boarding school.

The boy aged 14 was described in court as shy, articulate and a keen cook and footballer and he told the court his parents had tricked him into going to Ghana by telling him he was going to visit a sick relative.

The parents however said they were worried about their son's safety and referred to a recent incident where a youth had been stabbed and said they were concerned their son would get involved in criminal activity if he remained in the UK. In what some might consider to be a sad indictment of life in the UK the judge decided it to be in the boys interests to remain at school in Ghana.

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As reported in the Solicitors Journal the family of Mr Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, the former Leicester City Football Club Chairman, has filed the largest fatal accident claim in English history. The legal action, lodged at the High Court, reportedly seeks £2.15 billion in compensation following the tragic helicopter crash in October 2018 in which Mr Vichai died together with four others.

The lawsuit reportedly alleges negligence in the design of the helicopter involved in the crash.

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The rise of digital banking, cloud storage, and the prevalence of social media means that a person's online presence and assets can be just as valuable as their physical belongings. Many individuals fail to consider this when preparing their Will which can mean loved one's have problems accessing photographs and other digital media after the death of the testator.

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A number of changes were introduced in the budget which will affect inheritance tax planning including;

Main rates of capital gains tax increases with immediate effect to 18% for non and basic rate taxpayers and 24% for higher and additional rate taxpayers.

Inheritance tax (IHT) business and agricultural reliefs will be capped at a total of £1 million from April 2026.

Unused pension funds and death benefits will be included as part of an individual’s estate for IHT purposes from April 2027.

Inheritance tax thresholds frozen.

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Making it a requirement to provide upfront information will improve the home buying and selling process according to conveyancing industry bodies giving evidence to MPs recently.

The House of Commons levelling up, housing and communities committee held its first evidence session as part of a major inquiry on the home buying and selling process.

As reported in the Gazette Kate Faulkner, co-chair of the Home Buying and Selling Group, said mandating upfront information would ‘revolutionise’ the process, ‘so that when an offer is made, then that offer is made based on all the information they know and there’s no second guessing, which happens afterwards, which typically collapses 25%-30% [of transactions]’.

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10,409 challenges to probate were made via the Courts & Tribunals Service Centres and on GOV.UK in 2023, up by more than a quarter 43% since 2019 (7,268), according to data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. These are applications (known as caveats) to block probate being granted on estates.

Mistakes in home made wills made during COVID and increased property prices have contributed to the increase in families challenging wills.

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The death certification system in England and Wales is overdue for reform - it has remained largely unchanged for over 50 years. Introducing a robust system in England and Wales whereby all deaths would be subject to either a medical examiner’s scrutiny or a coroner’s investigation has been an ambition of successive governments and ministers.

It has long been established that, following a death, the case will either follow the path of medical certification by a medical practitioner or investigation by a coroner. This will remain the case in the new system, but with important differences.
Under the medical examiners regulations, medical examiners provide independent scrutiny of causes of death and will be a contact for bereaved people who wish to ask questions or raise concerns.

The main change currently due to be implemented in September 2024 is that attending practitioners must share the proposed cause of death with a medical examiner, who will scrutinise these before submission to the registrar.

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The Law Society Gazzette reports that a mass court observation project which sat in on more than 1,100 hearings has reported that magistrates’ courts ‘often fall short’, with courtwatchers ‘shocked by what they perceived to be inefficiency’.

Drawing on the findings of its CourtWatch London project, Transform Justice has produced recommendations for the Ministry of Justice, judiciary, Sentencing Council, HM Courts & Tribunal Service and Crown Prosecution Service.

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What if you live in England and Wales and have done an English lasting Power of Attorney here but you also have assets in a foreign country such as a bank account or a holiday home?

Whether an England and Wales lasting Power of Attorney will be accepted abroad is entirely up to the law of that foreign country since England and Wales has yet to ratify the relevant part of the Hague Convention. Advice should therefore be sought as it may be better to have a separate Lasting Power of Attorney (or the foreign equivalent) in that country. Specialist advice should be obtained.

Alternatively what if you live in a foreign country outside of England and Wales and have done a lasting Power of Attorney in that country but you also have some assets in England and Wales?

A Lasting Power of Attorney done validly in a foreign country should in theory be recognised in England and Wales under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 in some cases unless for example it is deemed manifestly contrary to public policy. In practical terms however there still may be difficulties in using it in England and Wales in terms of banks and other organisations here accepting it (especially if it is not in English or the attorney's don't have UK addresses). An application can be made to the court here for a declaration that the foreign Lasting Power of Attorney is to be recognised in England and Wales however seeking a declaration from the court would likely be expensive.

In practical terms therefore it may be quicker and cheaper to have a separate Lasting Power of Attorney in England and Wales for use here.

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In the General Court of the European Union.

Roberto Escobar brother of the late Colombian Pablo Escobar had sought to register the family name as an EU trade mark for "goods and services". The application was rejected on appeal on the ground that it was contrary to public policy and to accepted principles of morality based largely on the judge's view that the average Spaniard would associate the name with drug trafficking and narco-terrorism.

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Millions of UK pension pots are considered "Lost" often due to employees having changed employment many times over their working life. Many people may be unsure of where or how to find their lost pensions.

The Government’s Pension Tracing Service is a good place to start; all you usually need to do is enter the name of your employer or pension provider to get started. https://www.gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details

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A grandfather who died in 2000 who was upset that his grandchildren didn’t visit him when he was in hospital three times with a lung condition was entitled to leave them just £50 each in his will according to the decision in a recent High Court case.

Frederick Ward a retired soldier left his estate of over £500,000 to his two surviving children but left nothing to the five daughter's of his late son who claimed they were entitled to a third of their late grandfather's estate.

The judge stated that it the decision not to include the five grand daughter's in the will was "entirely rational" and that they had not seen much of their grand father.

The judge also added; "Some may take the view that, as a general proposition, when a testator’s child has predeceased him, he generally ought to leave an equal share of his residue to that child’s issue. However, the decision not to do so and to split the residue and thus the bulk of the estate between his surviving children can hardly be said to be provision which no reasonable testator could make."

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The High Court has ruled in the Law Society’s favour in a judicial review against the Ministry of Justice. Evidence from the legal profession members showed “the system is slowly coming apart at the seams”. Now, the government must rethink its irrational decision on criminal legal aid funding before the system collapses after decades of cuts.

The judges said: “In short, the evidence from solicitors working at grass-roots level is that the system is slowly coming apart at the seams".

“Unless there are significant injections of funding in the relatively near future, any prediction along the lines that the system will arrive in due course at a point of collapse is not overly pessimistic.”

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As reported by the BBC former rugby players diagnosed with brain injuries could get millions of pounds from the game's governing bodies to pay for their care. More than 295 ex-players have accused rugby governing bodies of failing to protect them against brain injuries. Some well known ex-players claim that they have early onset dementia as a result. Legal experts said the claims against the organisations could exceed £300m.

Whilst rugby may not be considered a dangerous activity compared to sports like mountaineering or motor racing the repetitive head impacts involved in rugby have prompted calls for better safety measures and increased awareness about the risks faced by players. As the game continues, addressing brain injury concerns remains a critical priority and a question mark remains over how the issues may be addressed with the game in it's current form and in relation to issues of safety and the duty to protect participant's in sport's generally.

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According to the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners the value of HMRC tax penalties has increased by 25 per cent in the last year, according to official data. The total rose from GBP681 million in the year from November 2021 to October 2022 to GBP851 million between November 2022 and October 2023, the highest on record. Penalties can include those for late or incorrect filing of information on tax returns including amongst other things Inheritance Tax accounts, Capital Gains Tax and Income Tax returns and the rate of interest charged by HMRC on late payments is also very high at the moment based on the current base rate.

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The House of Commons justice committee recently said that it would set up an inquiry after noting that waiting times for probate applications to be processed by the Probate Registry (coinciding with the introduction of a new computer portal) had effectively doubled from April 2022 to April 2023. It was also noted that it was taking more than 11 months in many cases for the probate registry to process applications.

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It is important when making a will or planning your estate for consideration to be given about modern assets and accounts that may only exist in computers or smartphone type devices. Consideration should be given to preparing inventories of your cloud accounts and reference for example to a separate secure location where any passwords needed for access by your executors may be found. Consideration may also need to be given as to whether your executors will be allowed under the terms and conditions of the provider to use your details to obtain access after your death or whether other arrangements may need to be made with the provider after your death to operate the accounts. In the case of some Crypto assets such as crypto currencies like Bitcoin a "private key" consisting of a series of numbers and letters is required to control the "tokens" and loss of the private key will prevent any transfer of the "tokens" and a replacement cannot be obtained meaning the assets can be lost forever.

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Nearly half of unmarried couples do not know they lack certain legal rights should they split up, according to a survey by family law group Resolution, which has today published a blueprint for the future of family justice.

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Inheritance Tax is a tax on the estate (the property, money and possessions) of someone who’s died. The usual rate of inheritance tax is 40% which is charged on the value of your estate above any available threshold.

However there’s normally no Inheritance Tax to pay if either:

the value of your estate is below the £325,000 threshold
you leave everything above the £325,000 threshold to your spouse, civil partner, a charity

If you give away your home to your children (including adopted, foster or stepchildren) or grandchildren your threshold can increase by £175,000 in some cases (the residence nil rate band) to £500,000 however conditions apply including a tapered reduction on this additional relief if your total estate is valued over £2,000,000 for inheritance tax purposes.

If you’re married or in a civil partnership and your estate is worth less than your threshold, any unused threshold can be added to your partner’s threshold when you die.

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Social media platforms will be expected to:

remove illegal content quickly or prevent it from appearing in the first place, including content promoting self-harm

prevent children from accessing harmful and age-inappropriate content

enforce age limits and age-checking measures

ensure the risks and dangers posed to children on the largest social media platforms are more transparent, including by publishing risk assessments

provide parents and children with clear and accessible ways to report problems online when they do arise

It remains to be seen how well the controversial law will operate in practice and some tech companies have raised concerns. There are powers in the act that could be used to compel messaging services like Watts App to examine the content of encrypted messages. Ofcom will be involved in the regulation of the new law.

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The Government plans to bring forward a Leasehold Reform Bill in the King's Speech on 7 November to make the process of owning a leasehold property more straightforward and less costly. Exactly what reforms are planned is not known. The Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022 already introduced legislation to make some changes such as banning "ground rents" charged on new leases however there are a number of other issues still to be dealt with including banning the creation of new leasehold houses and abolishing the ‘marriage value’ which is sometimes added to the amount requested by the landlord to extend the length of a lease that has fallen below 80 years.

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His Majesty The King has approved the appointment of Dame Sue Carr as the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales from 1 October 2023. This appointment follows the retirement of The Rt Hon. the Lord Burnett of Maldon on 30 September 2023.

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The Solicitors Regulation Authority recently reported on work done by a sample of solicitors dealing with this area of work stating:

"We were broadly satisfied with our review of the firms in this area. Reassuringly, we found that firms with roles in managing LPAs or deputyships did so diligently. And there was no evidence of any abuse of the trust placed in them by what are often very vulnerable clients.

Firms took their training, supervision and record keeping responsibilities seriously and we did not find deficiencies in the drafting of LPAs. However, neither we nor the profession can afford to be complacent because the impact of poor work for such vulnerable clients is high".

This highlights the importance of choosing the right person(s) to act as your Lasting Power of Attorney and to ensure that they are drafted correctly by a competent solicitor dealing in this area of work.

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Established 25 years.

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People make a will or set up a trust for their own, and their loved ones’, peace of mind. They need to be confident that they are getting sound advice for such an important decision.

Otherwise, grieving families have to deal with the financial and emotional consequences of bad advice, which can be devastating.

STEP (Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners) has long been concerned that unqualified or incompetent advisors in the UK are taking advantage of their clients or letting them down because they lack specialist skills and knowledge.

STEP regularly hear from people whose loved ones have inadvertently chosen wills that mean that substantial parts of their estate are spent on legal fees or unnecessary tax bills.

In May 2023, STEP sent out a new survey to STEP’s UK members. The report found that:

79% have come across cases of wills with errors.
Over half (54%) highlighted their concerns about rogue firms making false claims about wills leading to increased tax bills.
The majority of respondents (63%) have come across cases where a will writing company has quoted a fee for writing a will but then charged additional costs not covered within the terms of business.
Just over half of those surveyed (54%) have come across firms making false claims about the wills they are selling to clients. Of those, 71 people mentioned that advisors had wrongly told their clients that they could avoid care home fees by putting their home and other assets into a trust during their lifetime. Some clients have been advised to gift their house during their lifetime. Both of these are considered to be deliberate deprivation of assets and are ineffective for care assessment in most cases, which can lead to serious problems.

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Capital Gains Tax relief for divorcing couples

The Finance Act 2023 (No. 2) extends the "no-gain no-loss" period for separating couples where there is a disposal of a house or flat which might otherwise incur a gain for capital gains tax purposes. Disposals will still benefit from the relief if they occur on or before the day that a court order is made or the last day of the third tax year after the couple stops living together. There is also no time limit for disposals under a formal separation agreement.

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The Competition and Markets Authority has announced an investigation into provision of Will writing, Divorce and Probate Services by non-solicitor ("unregulated") companies amid growing concerns about the quality of services they provide and possibly misleading advertising.

The three main 'areas of concern' are will-writing, pre-paid probate plans and online divorce.

Will-writing concerns include misleading advertising over fees and potentially unfair contract terms. Pre-paid probate plans are a new development in the market, said the CMA, which is concerned that elderly and vulnerable people are being pressured into buying unnecessary or inadequate plans. Concerns about online divorce services include misleading claims about the simplicity of the process and prices, and poor service quality.

Law Society president Lubna Shuja welcomed the CMA's investigation.

She said: '...When writing your own will, it is recommended that you get it checked by a solicitor to make sure it is valid.'

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Married or Civil Partners can sometimes inherit under the "rules of intestacy". These are the rules which govern what can happen to a person's money and estate if they die without leaving a valid will. If there are surviving children, grandchildren or great grandchildren of the person who died and the estate is valued at more than £270,000, the partner will inherit:

all the personal property and belongings of the person who has died, and

the first £270,000 of the estate (but this is due to increase to £322,000 from 26 July 2023), and

half of the remaining estate.

Cohabiting partners (sometimes wrongly called 'common-law' partners) who were neither married nor in a civil partnership can't inherit under the rules of intestacy. This is why it is very important to consider making a will if you are not married or in a civil partnership.

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IHT is a huge source of revenue for HMRC. Between April and December 2022, the tax collector collected an extra £700mn compared to 2021, totalling £5.3bn. HM Revenue & Customs has seen its inheritance tax collections rise in recent years, due to a long-term freeze on the tax band thresholds and rising property values across the UK. In the three years following the pandemic, house prices rose around 20 per cent on average. Meanwhile, frozen tax bands mean more and more properties are falling into inheritance tax brackets. The main IHT tax free allowance - or ‘nil rate band’ - of £325,000 has not increased since 2009. This is likely to result in another record year for inheritance tax collection by HMRC. There are sometimes simple steps that can be taken to help mitigate against inheritance tax.

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The Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act (2020), represents the biggest shake up in divorce law for more than half a century. It ends completely the need for separating couples to apportion blame for the breakdown of their marriage, helping them to instead focus on key practical decisions involving children or their finances and look to the future.Previously, one spouse was forced to make accusations about the other’s conduct, such as ‘unreasonable behaviour’ or adultery, or face years of separation before a divorce could be granted. This was regardless of whether a couple had made a mutual decision to separate.The changes mean that a spouse, or a couple jointly, can now apply for divorce by stating their marriage has broken down irretrievably. It removes unnecessary finger-pointing and acrimony at a time where emotions are already running high, and spares children from witnessing their parents mudslinging.Importantly, it stops one partner from vindictively contesting a divorce and locking their spouse into an unhappy marriage. In some cases, domestic abusers can use their ability to challenge the process to further harm their victims or to trap them in the relationship. It is hoped the reforms now in force will put an end to this behaviour.

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An elderly widow Mrs Kaur whose husband Mr Singh left her out of his will has won a High Court claim under the Inheritance Act 1975 for a 50% share of her husband's estate worth over £1,000,000. Mr Justice Peel the presiding judge in the High Court case explained; “The claimant and the deceased married in 1955, so that by the time of his death they had been married for about 66 years...The family had run a clothing business". The judge went on to explain that Mr Singh had left everything to his two son's in his will and nothing to his wife or daughter's as he had "wished to leave his estate solely down the male line...The reason why the will was crafted in these terms, excluding the claimant and the other four siblings, was because the deceased wished to leave his estate solely down the male line...It seems to me that this is the clearest possible case entitling me to conclude that reasonable provision has not been made for the claimant. It is hard to see how any other conclusion can be reached. After a marriage of 66 years, to which she made a full and equal contribution, and during which all the assets accrued, she is left with next to nothing.”
The judge decided that the wife should receive 50% of the net value of the estate.

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One weapon in the environmental armoury is green leases. Green leases contain a series of additional provisions that impose an obligation on the landlord and tenant to manage and reduce the environmental impact of a property by way of improvements. Green leases tend to only relate to commercial properties rather than residential. A softer alternative to green leases is a memorandum of understanding. This is an agreement entered into between the landlord and tenant that dictates how the environmental impact of the property should be managed. A memorandum of understanding not legally binding in nature and is more easily updated and amended than a lease. For this reason, it’s usually a quicker way to agree environmental objectives between the parties. When considering the environmental impact of a property, the buildings’ energy efficiency rating is often one of the most common considerations.

However, the environmental impact of a property goes beyond its energy efficiency rating and includes:

1. energy and water consumption
2. waste generation
3. travel to and from the buildings and the materials used in the fit out
4. refurbishment and alterations of the property

The obligations contained in green leases and memorandum of association can go beyond simply ensuring that the property has a higher energy efficiency rating. Concerns about the significant contribution of buildings to greenhouse gas emissions has led to an increased appetite to address energy efficiency issues in property. New-build properties can address these concerns at the point of construction but, as most of UK property stock already exists, it needs to be made more energy efficient retrospectively.

While there is no requirement in the UK to enter into a green lease, there are pieces of legislation that impose energy efficient requirements, as well as policies such as the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES) regime. Minor energy efficiency works do not need to be costly – a landlord may simply require that their tenant turns off the lights at the end of the day or use energy efficient light bulbs. However, the more recent instability of energy supplies and higher prices presents another incentive for landlords to reduce costs by ensuring that their properties have as little energy wastage as possible and to rely less on insecure supplies.

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