Trusts, Probate & Estates

ADMINISTRATION OF ESTATES

All sorts of issues can arise in the administration of an estate: caveats, warnings, and summonses may need to be dealt with prior to a grant; the interpretation of the will may be challenged by a beneficiary; potential claims may have been intimated against the estate, preventing a safe distribution without a “put up or shut up” order; or residuary beneficiaries may refuse to approve final estate accounts. Those are just some of the areas in which barristers from Selborne Chambers can help clients to navigate the choppy waters of contentious probate.

APPLICATIONS FOR DIRECTIONS BY PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVES OR TRUSTEES

Personal representatives or trustees will often be faced with decisions in the course of administering an estate or a trust which call for the Court’s consideration or blessing (including whether to bring or defend legal proceedings). Part 64 of the Civil Procedure Rules sets out a procedural code governing these situations. Our barristers can assist in providing guidance on the requirements of CPR Part 64 and its application in practice.

BEDDOE APPLICATIONS

If personal representatives or trustees bring or defend legal proceedings without the Court’s sanction, then, if they are held to have acted unreasonably in bringing or defending the proceedings, they will be personally liable for any adverse costs. Personal representatives and trustees can obtain protection against this risk by seeking the Court’s sanction for the proposed course of action. This is done by making a so-called “Beddoe” application (after the case of Re Beddoe [1893] 1 Ch 547). Such an application, which is typically before a Chancery Master, involves a number of evidential and procedural requirements. Barristers at Selborne Chambers can provide all necessary assistance in securing this crucial reassurance for personal representatives and trustees involved in or contemplating litigation.

TESTAMENTARY CAPACITY

The question of whether someone was legally capable of making a will is perhaps the most common basis upon which the validity of a will is challenged (typically by someone who benefitted under a previous will but was omitted from the purported final will). Resolving the question often requires expert evidence in the field of old age psychiatry, together with the detailed review of contemporaneous medical notes. Barristers at Selborne Chambers have extensive advisory and advocacy experience in this area, and can provide guidance on the law from the leading case of Banks v. Goodfellow (1870) LR 5 QB 548 onwards.

CHALLENGING WILLS

There are numerous grounds for challenging the validity of a will: the will may be formally defective, in light of a failure to comply with the execution rules prescribed by s.9 of the Wills Act 1837; alternatively, the substance of the will may be defective, because it was executed by someone who lacked testamentary capacity, who didn’t know or approve of its contents, or who was subject to undue influence or fraud. Selborne Chambers’ contentious probate team is well versed in bringing and defending claims on all of these grounds.

CONSTRUCTION OF AND RECTIFICATION OF WILLS

INHERITANCE (PROVISION FOR FAMILY AND DEPENDANTS) ACT 1975 CLAIMS

INTERPRETATION OF TRUSTS

PROBATE DISPUTES

PROFESSIONAL NEGLIGENCE IN RELATION TO WILLS, TRUSTS AND ESTATES

TRUSTEES’ POWERS AND DUTIES

TRUSTS IN THE CONTEXT OF DIVORCE/ ANCILLARY RELIEF PROCEEDINGS

VALIDITY OF WILLS

VARIATION OF TRUSTS

Our members can provide expert advice and act in contentious matters arising in relation to the administration of lifetime settlements and will trusts, including the actions of the personal representatives, trustees and protectors, and also advise and act in non-contentious applications under the Variation of Trusts Act 1958, section 57 of the Trustee Act 1925, section 48 of the Administration of Justice Act 1985 and applications by trustees or personal representatives for permission to administer on certain footings.

Proprietary and Other Estoppels

Chambers offers expertise in advising and representing clients on a wide range of complex proprietary estoppel and trusts disputes including those relating to land, companies and partnerships, on matters involving express, resulting and constructive trusts arising in a range of contexts including insolvency proceedings, within financial remedy and in the context of family disputes.

Statuatory Wills

Members of chambers regularly advise and act for deputies and attorneys in the Court of Protection seeking a statutory will where the protected party no longer has the capacity to make or revoke an existing will, including in an emergency context, and for those interested parties seeking to challenge the testamentary dispositions proposed.

Appointment and removal of deputies

Members of chambers can offer expert advice to and accept instructions from deputies, attorneys, the OPG, the Official Solicitor, local authorities and private clients across matters arising in the Court of Protection, both in respect of Property and Finance and also Health and Welfare, including the removal of deputies and attorneys.