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Musings From Manchester: It’s better to give

Geoffrey Shindler looks at charitable donations for tax purposes ‘Back in the olden days it was a matter of governmental testosterone that a government had the courage to enact its own proposals, especially its Budget proposals.’Like the poor, with whom it is intimately connected, charity is always with us. Never more so than just now. …
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Financial Provision: Big money, short marriage

In Lilleyman the divorce cross-check was applied to a claim for reasonable financial provision for a widow, as Martin Holdsworth and Louise Tatton relate ‘Equality of treatment may not necessarily lead to equality of outcome.’ The recently reported cases of Lilleyman v Lilleyman [2012] and Lilleyman v Lilleyman (costs) [2012] concerned a widow’s application for …
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Court Orders: Revoking the rule

Setting aside court orders concerning payment from one party to another can be risky, as David de Ferrars explains ‘Mrs Morris’ counsel sought to argue that the receipt of the £1.481m by Mrs Morris as a purchaser for value without notice continued to govern her title to those monies, notwithstanding the subsequent rescission of the …
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Musings From Manchester: Risky business

Geoffrey Shindler advocates a common sense approach to risk ‘Is it really the case that there is such a threat to the national economy and our own professional economy from fraud, which is a species of risk?’ If there is one small English word that has come to dominate our lives in a manner inconceivable …
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Equity: Gifts made good

Curtis v Pulbrook clarifies how the court treats imperfect gifts, as Tracey Angus reports ‘It is not open to the court to find that a donor intended to create a trust when he clearly intended to make a gift but failed to do so.’ The decision of Briggs J in Curtis v Pulbrook [2011] clears …
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Execution By Beneficiary: Confusing signs

Emily Exton and Katherine Harper provide an update on the Court of Appeal decision in Barrett v Bem ‘Where a testator is not capable of personally signing their will and decides to direct some other person to sign it, it is crucial that the testator should make some positive and discernible communication that they wish …
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Wills: Care and share

Michael Waterworth analyses a case that has lessons for those litigating over the validity of wills ‘In the course of the trial in the case of Mrs Blofield it emerged that one view of the facts – a view favoured by the judge – was that she had used her will to encourage Mr Cranfield …
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Tax: Pause for thought?

James Radcliffe explains how Pawson has changed tax treatment for furnished holiday lettings ‘Whether or not accommodation is qualifying holiday accommodation under the FHL rules is not a determining factor in assessing the availability of business property relief (BPR) for the purposes of inheritance tax.’ The taxation of furnished holding letting accommodation (FHLs) has evolved …
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Probate: Jarndyce revisited

Khan v Crossland reveals flaws in the current method of passing over executors, as Michael O’Sullivan discusses ‘HHJ Behrens rejected the submission made by the defendants’ counsel that the executors needed to disentitle themselves to a grant before an order under s116 SCA could be made.’ The decision in Khan v Crossland was made by …
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Intestacy And Family Provision: A welcome update

In her second article, Catherine Paget looks at the consequences for family provision claims of the Law Commission’s recent report ‘A child of the deceased and the surviving spouse could not claim at all if at least two thirds of the income of the estate had been left to the surviving spouse.’ Part 1: ‘Welcome …
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