Wealth and trusts quarterly digest

Welcome to our latest Wealth & Trusts digest. Our quarterly digest is specifically tailored for you and aims to provide up to date commentary, analysis and guidance on key sector developments. It is written by our wealth and trusts teams to assist you and your clients in responding to market trends and legal developments.

Feature

Where there’s a will, is there a way of challenging it?

What can someone do if they are left out of a will, dissatisfied with the gifts that are made to them or concerned that the testator was put under pressure when the will was made? The starting point in English law is that if a will is validly executed then it is presumed that the testator intended to leave their estate to those set out in the will. Read more.

News and case reports

NCA can rely on foreign convictions to secure Unexplained Wealth Orders

The High Court has dismissed an application to set aside the first Unexplained Wealth Order (UWO)11. This case hit the headlines recently when it emerged that the UWO had been made against an individual (Mrs Hajiyeva) who had spent over £16 million in Harrods over 10 years. It has subsequently been reported that the National Crime Agency (NCA) has seized £400,000 of Mrs Hajiyeva’s jewellery as part of its investigations. Read more.

Why is litigation funding such an interesting investment option?

Funded litigation has been rapidly growing in popularity in recent years for clients and fund investors alike, more recently even extending to opportunities for individual investors to make investments through crowdfunding platforms. We explain what litigation funding is and why its popularity has grown. Read more.

Hastings-Bass considered in offshore jurisdictions

Two recent decisions indicate that both Guernsey and the British Virgin Islands will adopt the so-called Hastings-Bass12 rule, as clarified by the Supreme Court in Pitt v Holt13. Read more.

Launch of TerraLex Global Asset Tracing Guide

The ability to trace assets across the world is becoming increasingly relevant as disputes cross borders and the assets which are the subject of a dispute may be moved away from the territory in which the dispute is decided. Read more.

HMRC publishes changes to guidance on registering and record keeping for trusts

HMRC has updated its guidance: “Register your client’s trust” and “Records to keep for trusts”. Read more.

Court gives trustees power to transfer trust property to charitable non-beneficiary

In Gelber and another v The Sunderland Foundation and others16 the court gave trustees the power to transfer significant sale proceeds from land owned by the trust to a charity that was not a beneficiary to enable planning permission on the land to be used and its full value to be unlocked. Read more.

Key trends in art – watch this space!

RPC has been involved in some of the most significant art-related disputes in recent years and we will be giving a flavour of RPC’s expertise in this next edition of this digest. Read more.