Many individuals include gifts in their wills that require an event to happen or an action to take place prior to a beneficiary inheriting (this is called a contingent gift). For example, a will may state that £10,000 is paid to every grandchild on attaining 21 years – which means that if a grandchild does not survive to his/her 21st birthday the gift will lapse (fail). The problem with contingent gifts is that they add complexity to wills and, sometimes, create difficult if not impossible conditions for potential beneficiaries to meet.

There has recently been a re-emergence of back and forth Copyright cases in the news involving musicians such as Katy Perry, Robin Thicke, Led Zeppelin and Ed Sheeran to name but a few.

For those unfamiliar with Copyright, this is a particular form of legal protection used to stop individuals from copying, performing, distributing, selling, publishing or licensing a person’s intellectual property (I.e. music, books, artwork etc.) without their permission.

This week the High Court gave judgement on a probate dispute involving a battle between two step sisters. The court…

Cowan v Foreman [2019] EWCA Civ 1336 For those unaware, earlier on this year a case was brought before Justice…

With distrustful spouses and threats of divorce, it is all too common a question as to how can someone protect any family inheritance from reaching the hands of a divorced spouse? Whilst a Financial Order may be able to resolve this issue by agreeing asset division upon divorce, a Discretionary Trust is the next best solution…