Digital assets and cryptoassets—Wills

Digital assets on incapacity and death

As more and more aspects of our lives move online, digital assets are becoming an increasingly important class of assets and one that poses particular problems for personal representatives.

An individual can help to protect their digital estate by preparing a memorandum of digital assets with emails, usernames and passwords. This memorandum

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Latest Private Client News

Question of the week: Amendments made to the International Tax Compliance Regulations 2015 (2015 regs) by the International Tax Compliance (Amendment) Regulations 2025 have introduced a new mandatory AEOI registration requirement for certain trusts which are 'specified non-reporting financial institutions'. Is registration for AEOI now required in the following circumstances? (i)Trusts with a trust corporation trustee but trust income is not 50% from investments (ii) Trustee-documented trusts without 50% Discretionary Fund Manager managed investments (iii)Trusts with individual lay trustees holding private company shares with substantial dividends.

This Q&A considers recent amendments introducing mandatory AEOI registration for certain trusts. It asks whether registration is required in cases such as: (i)Trusts with a corporate trustee but less than 50% investment income (ii) Trustee-documented trusts without 50% DFM-managed investments and (iii)Trusts with lay trustees holding private company shares with substantial dividends.

The court’s approach to kin inquiries, genealogy and forensic DNA testing (Dorant v Dorant)

Private Client analysis: In Dorant v Dorant, the court was asked to determine which individuals were entitled to share in an intestate estate of c.£2.75m in circumstances where the deceased died unmarried, without issue, and his parents had predeceased him. Prior to this case, the authors were unaware of any kin inquiry having been reported for roughly a century. The case, therefore, provided the court with a rare opportunity to consider and provide guidance on the procedural and evidential approach to kin inquiries in the modern world, including where the burden of proof lies and the hierarchy of often complex and highly technical evidence, including forensic DNA testing. Written by Daniel Burton, barrister and Jessie Barnett-Cox, pupil-barrister of Radcliffe Chambers.

Court of Appeal confirms Martland approach to late appeals (HMRC v MedPro Healthcare)

Tax analysis: In MedPro Healthcare, the Court of Appeal overturned one aspect of the Upper Tribunal (UT) decision, holding that the UT has authority to issue guidance to lower courts giving particular weight to specific issues when exercising statutory powers of discretion. The approach to late appeals given by the UT in Martland, which emphasises adherence to time limits, should be followed, and the First-tier Tax Tribunal (FTT) should only depart from that guidance in special circumstances.

Upper Tribunal cancels inaccuracy penalties (Delphi Derivatives Ltd (in liquidation) v HMRC)

Tax analysis: In Delphi Derivatives Ltd (in liquidation) v HMRC, the Upper Tribunal (UT) allowed the company’s appeals against inaccuracy penalties under Schedule 24 to the Finance Act 2007 (FA 2007). The UT accepted that the inaccuracies were not caused by carelessness, and, in one case, that the inaccuracy was not deliberate.