Addington Chambers

This Q&A considers the scope, drafting and effectiveness of non-solicitation clauses.

This Q&A considers whether, where a deed of confirmation of a previous (now missing) deed of retirement and appointment of trustees has misspelled the name of the trust by mistake (by adding an extra letter in the middle of the name), does the deed of confirmation need to be corrected by a formal rectification application to court.

This Q&A deals with the situation where a grant of representation has been granted to the attorney of an executor appointed under a Will and considers whether the grant of attorney can be revoked by the attorney or by the donor and if so, what the procedure is for doing so.

This Q&A considers the situation where a married couple jointly own property as tenants in common and both die within a short period of time. Each leaves their property according to their respective Wills. The question is, what is the position once the property has been sold in relation to the executor’s year and interest?

This Q&A deals with the situation where a residuary beneficiary is entitled to a share of the estate and wishes chattels to be appropriated to them in respect of that share. In particular, it considers whether all the other residuary beneficiaries have to agree to this when the Will is silent on appropriation.

This Q&A considers termination clauses and the meaning of ‘ceases to carry on business’ in relation to both statutory provisions and commercial contracts.

This Q&A considers whether a separate English and French Wills should be made where a testator has assets in the UK and real property in France and wishes English law to apply to their worldwide estate.

This Q&A considers the extent to which a trustee is able to recover expenses and costs incurred in the performance of their duties as trustee from the trust fund and the extent to which they are personally liable for excessive expenses.

This Q&A deals with the position of a fund manager of an internally managed closed ended company under the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Regulations 2013.

This Q&A considers the powers of an attorney executor to apply to reseal an English grant overseas.

This Q&A considers whether rental income from a tenanted commercial property comprised in a deceased’s estate should be paid into the estate or whether it can be paid directly to the beneficiary to whom the property has been devised under the will.

This Q&A considers the validity of a grant issued to an attorney acting on behalf of an executor under a general power of attorney where the executor subsequently loses mental capacity.

This Q&A considers an executor’s liability for a decision of a co-executor with which they disagreed but reluctantly went along with.

This Q&A considers the legal status of a solely owned property where the owner dies intestate and the estate remains unadministered and the rights of the surviving spouse to treat the property as their own while registered in the name of the deceased.

This Q&A considers how to make a conditional gift to an ex-spouse in a Will, as required in a court order.

This Q&A deals with the factual situation where an individual signed a deed of gift which transferred a real property to their children. The property was sold before legal title had been transferred to the children. The individual then signed cheques representing the proceeds of sale five months later. The question is were the gifts complete and, if so, when—on the execution of the deed of gift or on the signing of the cheques representing the proceeds? The deceased died more than seven years after signing the deed of gift but less than seven years after signing the cheques.

The Q&A considers whether an appointed legal guardian has the right to access estate accounts on behalf of the minor beneficiary.

This Q&A considers whether a spouse can wait until a minor beneficiary of the intestate estate reaches the age of 18 before applying for letters of administration on their own without a second administrator.

This Q&A deals with the situation where the donor of a registered property and financial affairs lasting power of attorney (LPA) has lost capacity. The question is whether their attorney needs to apply for approval from the Court of Protection to transfer assets to a bare Personal Injury trust of which the donor of the LPA is the sole beneficiary.

This Q&A considers who has power to appoint new trustees of a trust where the sole surviving trustee has lost capacity and there is nobody else with the power to appoint new trustees.