Practitioners advising charities and trustees will be interested in new regulatory guidance on paying trustees. The Charity Commission has published what is calls ‘redesigned’ guidance on paying voluntary trustees. Charity trustees, and connected persons, must not be paid by the charity unless it is clearly in the charity’s best interests, the guidance has clarified. It …
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Practitioners should note an important SC ruling upholding the long-standing no-profit rule, clarifying that it applies strictly to trustees and other fiduciaries who profit from their position. Fiduciaries owe a legal duty to act in good faith, and in the best interests of the beneficiaries when dealing with trust assets. Executors and estate administrators holding …
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Secret trusts are uncommon and the law is complex. A secret trust arises when the testator makes a will leaving, on its face, a gift to a beneficiary outright, but where that beneficiary previously agreed with the testator to hold the gift on trust for ultimate beneficiaries. In his will, T left most of his …
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T died in 2022 leaving no surviving spouse or children. Unfortunately, her will dated October 2014 was badly drafted and ambiguous and the PR brought a Part 8 claim for clarification. Under separate proceedings, attempts were being made to remove the executor in favour of the substitute executor named in the will. The judge Cadwallader …
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Reasonable financial provision under the I(PFD) A1975 Act is an objective test, not a subjective test as dictated by what T considers or states is reasonable under the will. In this case, T had built up his wealth in property and left an estate valued at £8.18m. He died aged 87 leaving his wife of …
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Due execution under s9 of the Wills Act must be proved without favourable presumption. T had died in 2022 from cancer aged 65, leaving his surviving wife (C) and his sister (D). Both had cared for T as he was dying and enjoyed a good relationship up to his death. However, their relationship then rapidly …
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