Contentious probate - A word of warning when considering gifts

When people reach a certain age, many will start to evaluate their personal finances and how they should use the money they have accumulated during their lifetime.  This may be for the purposes of limiting tax that they have to pay on their estate and making gifts to their family or simply enjoying their final few years with their families and loosening the purse strings by spending on the niceties of life.   They may also give more careful consideration of how they want their estate to be divided when they die.  So, when does this cause problems?  Claire Darby, who deals with many contested probate cases discusses this below.

Money can cause real issues in families, especially when it comes to someone’s estate once they have died.  Unfortunately, family tensions that have often developed and brewed for years can often blow up once someone has died and a family member or members have not been left anything, or as much as they were expecting.  Unfortunately, not leaving someone something in a Will can often feel to the person as the deceased caring for, or loving them, less.  This is clearly not the case in most instances.  However, if someone is left out, it can often feel very personal.  This leads them to wonder why.

Sometimes the reason someone has been left out, or given less, can be for genuine reasons –

• The person is wealthy enough in the eyes of the deceased and does not need their money;
• Other family members are in greater need of support;
• Other members of the family or friends have given them care during their life and they want to say thank you in monetary terms;
• A member of the family has already received gifts during their lifetime, and they want to equalise matters by leaving them less in their Will.

However, sometimes the reasons do not appear genuine or easily explained and concerns arise about whether the deceased was unduly influenced by someone into making that decision.  It is then left to family members, friends or acquaintances of the deceased to piece together the circumstances surrounding the gifts, or the Will being made. 

As a lawyer specialising in this area, our job is to try to help piece together the jigsaw.  This might be by making enquiries with the solicitor who prepared the deceased’s Will or by taking statements from acquaintances of the person.  We also try to understand the nature of the relationships with the deceased and the affected parties to understand whether the decision was genuinely their own or not.  Only once all of the information is collated can we establish whether there is enough to raise suspicion or not or to defend an allegation that has been made.  Ultimately this is not an easy task and one which would only be made easier if the person was still alive.  So, the moto of the story?  If you are planning to favour one person over others, or leave someone out of your Will, please have the conversation before you pass or leave clear instructions at the time of making the Will.  This will avoid a lot of questions after you pass and could avoid the destruction of family relations.

At Pearson Hards, we have extensive experience of helping clients with this complex area of law. For more information, please contact Claire Darby on cdarby@pearsonhards.co.uk or by calling us on 020 8949 9500.