Fiduciary duties: A third way?

John Machell QC and Jennifer Haywood examine the remedy of forfeiture of trustees‘ remuneration ‘A trustee who places themselves in a position of conflict, accepts a secret profit or completely abrogates their duty to protect the trust assets may be at risk of having to repay their remuneration/fees.‘ Case law provides us with examples of …
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Probate: When to distribute

Case management can be tricky when the forfeiture rule may be invoked. Natasha Dzameh reports ‘As a matter of principle, neither the inquest nor the civil proceedings should take precedence over the other, bearing in mind that the question of forfeiture lay at the centre of the civil proceedings but could not be determined by …
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SDLT: A solid investment?

Marilyn McKeever explains common issues that arise for trustees when dealing with land ‘An individual will be subject to the higher rates if they already own a residential property on the day when they acquire one or more additional properties.‘ In the current political and economic climate, trustees have a lot to think about. Despite …
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Charity: Good governance

Simrun Garcha gives the lowdown on the Charity Governance Code ‘The introduction of the new Code highlights the increased emphasis on ensuring charities adhere to robust governance standards with a greater focus on openness and transparency.‘ The new Charity Governance Code (the Code), which was published on 13 July 2017, sets out a plethora of …
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Trustees: Setting the scope of relief

Mathew Newman and Abby Lund review Guernsey‘s first written judgment on the rule in Hastings-Bass ‘The court ultimately held that any breach of duty by a trustee was capable of being treated as enabling the court to intervene and exercise the Hastings-Bass jurisdiction to set aside the relevant act or transaction, if the court was …
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Musings from Manchester: Choose your method of payment

Geoffrey Shindler considers the merits of simplifying IHT for the practitioner ‘Which way do you prefer to have your money extracted from you – when you are alive and write out your own cheque or when you are dead leaving your executors to do that for you?‘ This could be an exciting year for those …
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Statutory wills: Standing in the testator‘s shoes

Denzil Lush makes the case for the return of substituted judgment ‘Exercising substituted judgment – whereby I sought to stand in the testator‘s shoes and authorise the execution of the will that they would make, if they had testamentary capacity – seemed a more realistic, relevant and reverential process than my experiences under the Mental …
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Inheritance tax: The net widens

Mary Ashley discusses the pros and cons of the new inheritance tax hallmark ‘While the introduction of a narrower hallmark than the Draft Regulations suggested is a welcome development, it is still very wide.‘ For a few years now, the government has been seeking to widen the Disclosure of Tax Avoidance Schemes (DOTAS) hallmark for …
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