It was originally believed that Aretha Franklin died without a Will, leaving her multimillion pound estate to the rules of intestacy. However, the lawyers for her estate revealed that three Wills have subsequently been found.

Initially, two handwritten Wills written in 2010 were found locked in a cabinet. These Wills revealed that the singer had named her niece Sabrina Owens and son Theodore White II as Executors of her estate. The third Will discovered under a sofa cushion more recently, was supposedly written in 2014 and names her son Kecalf Franklin as Executor.

The 2014 Will is reportedly difficult to decipher, so it needs to be determined whether it qualifies as valid Will. The Will has words crossed out, notes in the margins and the handwriting is hard to read in places.

Aretha Franklin’s estate is reportedly worth approximately $80 million (£62 million) and it is still unclear as to who will inherit the estate. If a Will is found to be valid then the estate should be distributed as per the wishes set out in the Will. On the other hand, if it’s ruled that the singer died intestate, then under the intestacy rules set out by Michigan state law, Aretha Franklin’s four surviving children would inherit an equal split of her estate.

The importance of leaving a valid Will

The uncertainty around how Aretha Franklin’s estate will be distributed highlights the importance of not only creating a Will but also ensuring that it is legal and stored in a safe place. Regardless of age, health and wealth, it’s crucial that people state their wishes in a Will. This avoids their estate being distributed in the predetermined way dictated by intestacy laws.

To make a Will,  you must be 18 years old or older in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, or 12 years or older in Scotland. You must make it voluntarily, be of sound mind and make it in writing. Additionally, in England and Wales, you are required to sign it in the presence of two witnesses who are both over 18, and your two witnesses must sign the Will in your presence. However, in Scotland, you are one required to sign it in the presence of one witness that is over the age of 16. You can’t name the witnesses or their married partners as beneficiaries in the Will.

You should also consider where you store the Will. The best approach to ensure your Will is found when the time comes, is to inform your Executor(s) of where the Will is stored.

Secure and safe storage of your Will(s) is crucial if they are to be found in a pristine condition when needed and hence not contested.  It is crucial they are found when needed otherwise you are considered to have died intestate i.e. not having a Will at all.  This is why we always talk about our storage facility and the importance of storing your Wills outside your home.

When we set up our Will writing division some 12 years ago, we needed to find a secure means of storing the Wills we write and we looked at all the options available

At the time banks used to store Wills, which they no longer do, so we needed to look for alternatives as storing Wills at home is extremely risky and something we strongly advise against.

Once securely stored with us, we provide you with a storage certificate to keep and we also provide copies to give to your Executors and friends.  Our facility is completely secure and offers the following safety features:

• Protection against fire, flooding & water damage
• 24 Hour CCTV Monitoring
• Secure perimeter fencing & electronic access gates

Your Will is then registered on “The National Will Register” free of charge (usually £30 per Will). This is a UK wide database used to record the location of Wills. This is the first place that a legal professional should check if the executors are unable to locate the original document themselves.  Please note “The National Will Register” do not store Wills.

There really are few alternatives.  Banks no longer seem to offer storage facilities for Wills, which means you’d need to rent a safe deposit box.  If you decide on that option, you need to find out how the bank will control the box after your death. Some banks will not allow anyone except a court-appointed administrator to open the box to retrieve the Will. This policy may cause difficulty and delay in settling your Estate. Other banks allow a family member to remove the Will in the presence of bank officials. Whatever their protocol you should make sure the Executor named in your will has access to your safe deposit box after your death.

Banks will make a charge for any storage facility and these charges will escalate over time.  The price you pay when your Will is stored with us stays the same for the duration your Will is stored with us, so the real cost, less than a cup of coffee per month, will diminish over time.  In addition, you can store other documents with us, such as Powers of Attorney, deeds, life policies etc.

We strongly advise against storing your Wills at home but if you do there is no guarantee they will be protected from fire, theft, floods or pests and any marking of the Will, even that made by a paper clip can draw its validity into question and may cause it to be contested.  It also leaves open the risk of someone defacing or destroying your Will. The majority of Wills that are destroyed or damaged at home are done so at the hands of the owner whether or not through a simple accident, but it happens with surprising frequency.

If you do decide to store your Wills at home you will need to tell someone you trust where you have put them, so that they can be found when you die.  This is very important because if the original, signed Will is not found, your Estate would normally be treated as if you had died intestate, and your assets might not be distributed as you would have wished.  Relying on others to remember the location of Wills is not wise. Individuals do forget and become confused, particularly at distressing times, so it is sensible to leave a note of their location with your important papers.  If you decide to store them at home, you should really get a fireproof safe and you will need to advise your home and contents provider of this.

Storing your Wills with us is not only safe and secure, but also at £25 per Will per year is remarkably good value.  Having taken the responsible step in getting your Wills written then give yourself the peace of mind to know that they are being properly looked after.  There’s no point in writing your Wills to risk them being lost, damaged or defaced.

If you decide to store your Will outside our storage facility then you accept full responsibility for its safekeeping and it would be worth paying the £30 registration fee to “The National Will Register” to have the location of your Will(s) stored on their database.

The post Aretha’s Handwritten Will Found? appeared first on Enfield Wills.

In the 2018-2019 tax year, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) opened a staggering 5,537 Inheritance Tax (IHT) investigations.  This represents a 3.4% increase in comparison to the previous 2017-2018 tax year. Staggeringly this equates to nearly a quarter (23%) of the 22,000 estates where Inheritance Tax is due. With such an incredibly high proportion of estates affected, it raises concerns about whether those responsible for paying Inheritance Tax are aware of the risks if they make mistakes.

There have been well-publicised cases of lay-Executors having to shell out thousands of pounds of their own money for mistakes they’ve made in the Estate Administration of their loved ones.  One of the worst cases was in 2018, when a lay Executor was held personally liable for a £340,000 IHT bill. Read all about it here

This is an extreme case but employing the services of legal professionals to help you administer the estate can ensure the role is carried out correctly and minimise any personal risk to yourself.

The role of an Executor or Administrator: Risks and responsibilities

Personal Representatives (Executors if there’s a Will or Administrators if there’s no valid Will) are responsible for administering someone’s estate when they pass away. This includes handling all the paperwork and paying the correct amount of Inheritance Tax (IHT), as well as dealing with assets, paying debts, handling Income Tax and transferring the inheritance to beneficiaries.

The role of an Executor or Administrator is not to be taken lightly as they have a legal and financial duty to ensure everything is dealt with correctly and in a timely manner. Among other responsibilities, they’re personally liable for the correct distribution of an estate, responsible for maximising the estate for the beneficiaries, and accountable if there are any errors on the Inheritance Tax return.

Many people are unaware of the risks and responsibilities that come with the role.   It’s easy to walk in to such responsibilities when asked if you can be named as an Executor by a loved one, spouse or sibling, where the typical response is “of course, no problem”.

So if you have taken on such a role, what can you do about it.  Well, you have the right to stand down, in which case others named as Executors can take on the role or you can appoint a professional Executor.

In the Wills we write, we insist that a professional Executor is named in one of three capacities. as the sole Executor, as the joint Executor working with other named Executors, or as a reserve Executor, to be called in only when the named Executors are unable to act.

The professional organisation we work with are Premier Solicitors and you can read about their services here

We believe that Executors and Administrators need to be more aware of their responsibility when it comes to administering an estate. Estate administration can be extremely complex so we advise putting the estate in the hands of experts, preferably someone who will take the legal and financial burden off your shoulders.

Premier Solicitors are one of the UK’s leading estate administration providers and take care of the complicated practicalities after death, so you can focus on life’s important moments.

Before you agree to being an Executor find out what’s REALLY involved. Request our report “The Role of An Executor by clicking here 

The post You’re The Executor So You’re Liable! appeared first on Enfield Wills.

A recent case going through the courts has brought this issue to the fore.  Under common law where two people die at, or very near, the same time, and at least one of them is entitled to part or all of the other’s estate on their death, usually the result of an un-natural death occurring from events such as an accident, a homicide, or a murder-suicide,, the elder of the two is deemed to have died first.

So, in the case of simultaneous death, where you have a Will that leaves everything to your spouse or civil partner the Will of the younger partner will prevail, which may not be what you would have wanted.  Such a situation could mean your children could be disinherited and that for sure would definitely not be what you would want.

A Will should be reviewed regularly anyway, so if this case has you worried, let’s talk through your circumstances and find out what you can do.

In the case currently going through court, the children of an elderly couple found dead at home together are locked in an unusual £300,000 inheritance battle as they ask a judge to decide which parent died first.

John Scarle, 79, and his wife Ann, 69, who each had children from previous marriages, were found dead from hypothermia in their bungalow after police were called by worried neighbours in October 2016.

Under a little used 100-year-old law, the family of whoever dies last stand to inherit the home in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex.

Mrs Cutler’s barrister James Weale said the deaths happened between October 3 or 4 and October 11, 2016, telling the High Court: “The most that one can do is speculate as to what might have happened. None of the experts were able to express any view as to even the approximate date, let alone time of the death of either of John or Ann.”

John Scarle’s daughter, Anna Winter, insists her stepmother, who suffered a stroke and had mobility issues, probably died first, which would mean her father briefly inherited his wife’s share and passed it to Mrs Winter.

But Deborah Cutler, daughter of Ann Scarle, claims the order of deaths cannot be determined and the ‘legal presumption’ is her stepfather, the elder of the couple, died first — meaning she and her brother, Andre Farley, get the house.

Acting for Mrs Winter, barrister Amrik Wahiwala said the evidence showed ‘on the balance of probabilities’, it was Mrs Scarle who died first. But James Weale, acting for Mrs Cutler, said no expert has been able to give an date or time of death for the couple ‘beyond reasonable doubt’.

Judge Phillip Kramer has reserved his ruling until a later date.

Is it time to have your Will reviewed?

A Will should be reviewed regularly anyway, so if this case has you worried, let’s talk through your circumstances and find out what you can do.  You can contact me here

Our Wills are as individual as you are

The post Sometimes It Matters Who Dies First! appeared first on Enfield Wills.

Where a person makes a Will and subsequently divorces, has their marriage annulled or dissolves their civil partnership then their former spouse or civil partner is deemed for the purpose of the testator’s Will to have died on the date that the marriage or civil partnership ended. This is the date on which the decree absolute or decree of dissolution was issued.

So if the former spouse or civil partner has been appointed an executor or trustee under the Will then the appointment will not take effect. Similarly, if the former spouse or civil partner were to receive any benefit under the Will then this gift would fail and any substitute gift provisions would apply. If the former spouse was the only beneficiary and there were no substitute provisions then the estate would be distributed in accordance with the rules of intestacy which is unlikely to be how you would like your estate to be distributed.

It is important to remember that if you are currently separated and going through divorce or dissolution, but the decree absolute or decree of dissolution has not yet been issued then you Will will not prevent any appointments to your spouse or civil partner taking effect.

For this reason you should consider amending your Will even before the divorce or dissolution is completed.

Finally, it is also possible to exclude this happening by stating explicitly in your Will that you want your spouse to benefit evenif divorce takes place.

The post Is A Divorce On The Cards? appeared first on Enfield Wills.

The Executor or the Administrator, has the responsibility for ensuring all debts and taxes due are paid before any money and assets are distributed from the estate. This is a legal requirement and failure to carry out these duties can have serious consequences.

Inheritance Tax(IHT), who pays and how much?

Inheritance Tax is a tax on the value of a deceased’s estate after they die. Formerly these were known ‘death duties’, a redundant term as Inheritance Tax consolidated these multiple duties into a single tax in 1986. Technically, Inheritance Tax is a transfer tax on the net collective value of an estate as it passes from one person i.e. from the deceased to another people.  Like any other tax, it is collected by HMRC and like any other tax, there are requirements governing its payment and penalties for failing to comply.

Each of us is given an allowance of £325,00 below which no IHT is payable, although you will still have to complete the IHT forms to show that the estate has been accurately valued.  However there is no IHT payable regardless of the value of the Estate, if it all left to the spouse and on their death the IHT allowance is £650,000 before IHT kicks in.

Inheritance Tax is levied at a rate of 40% on the net value of the estate i.e the gross value of the Estate, less the allowance and less any debts, such as mortgages, loans and credit card bills and bequests to charities.  The Executor or Administrator is responsible for working out the net value of an Estate. Failure to discharge these duties accurately may leave them  personally liable for any fines and interest due, particularly if they have subsequently distributed the value of the estate to other beneficiaries as they are under no obligation to provide funds to pay towards any miscalculations.

When does Inheritance Tax have to be paid?

A Grant of Probate is required before any assets can be released form an Estate.  This will not be given until confirmation is received from HMRC that all due Inheritance Tax has been paid. In practical terms that HMRC expects you to pay Inheritance Tax before you do anything else and that means have access to any funds from the Estate to pay this bill. Inheritance Tax should be paid within six months of death and if it is then HMRC will start to charge interest on the overdue sum.

Which other HMRC taxes apply?

This will depend on the deceased person’s circumstances but there may be Income Tax due and a completed a tax return will need to be submitted.  In some cases, Capital Gains Tax may apply if the value of the deceased’s property and any other sold assets has risen since they were valued for probate purposes. Beneficiaries inherit assets at their probate value so if this rises they are liable to pay Capital Gains Tax on the increase.

Our Wills are as individual as you are

The post What You Get Clobbered With When You Die! appeared first on Enfield Wills.

Anyone can now apply for the Grant of Probate online if:

• They have the original death certificate or interim death certificate from the coroner.
• The person who died was domiciled in England or Wales at the time of their death.
• An Inheritance Tax (IHT) form has been filled in.
• The person who died left a Will.
• They have the original Will in their possession.
• They are an Executor of the estate.
• All Executors have the mental capacity to make their own decisions.
• The person applying has their own email address.

The advances in online probate applications are just part of a £1billion programme of court reform. The programme aims to introduce new technology and bring the justice system in line with modern ways of working.

HM Courts & Tribunals Service Chief Executive, Susan Acland-Hood said: “Making probate simpler and more convenient, and removing the need to attend a probate registry and swear an oath in person, helps bereaved people at a very challenging time – those who have tested our new service have told us how much difference it makes. I am delighted we are now able to offer this new, simpler way of doing probate to the public at large. It is part of the work we’re doing to make the justice system easier to navigate for everyone.”

HM Courts & Tribunals Service has stated that they will continue to make improvements and add more features. They already have plans to extend online applications to those dealing with an estate where the deceased did not leave a Will. They are encouraging users of the online service to share their feedback.

Although the online probate application process may have got easier, administering a deceased’s estate can still take a significant amount of time and effort. Applying for the Grant of Probate is just one small part of the estate administration process. The Executor(s) must also deal with all their assets (such as property, shares and personal possessions), paying debts, paying any Inheritance Tax and Income Tax, and transferring inheritance to the beneficiaries of the estate. Estate administration can be extremely complex and is required after every death, whether or not there is a Will.

Executors named in the Will are financially and legally responsible for administering the estate but they are by no means obliged to take on the responsibility. They have a choice of whether or not to accept the role, the right to seek advice from a professional, and can even ask a professional estate administrator to manage the estate on their behalf.

The post New Online Probate Service Helps The Bereaved appeared first on Enfield Wills.

Where there is no Will naming a beneficiary and no next of kin can be found, any unclaimed assets are passed to the crown. Last year the state received £33.5 million from the estates of people who died intestate, up from £17 million the previous year. These unclaimed assets are predominantly smaller estates rather than assets owned by more wealthy people.

This could be a result of people’s completely wrong presumption that the assets they own have an insignificant value and deciding that writing a Will is not essential. Other cases may involve Wills that have not been updated to reflect the real value of a deceased person’s estate, or a lack of knowledge as to where the Will has been stored, assuming there is one. There is also a risk that the people listed as beneficiaries in the Will may have not survived the person writing it.

Data from the Legal Services Commission shows that more than one in six people in Britain die without recording their final wishes – how sad is that.

Research shows that currently 58% of UK adults don’t have a Will, don’t be one of them.  Until your Will is signed and witness, you will die intestate and risk giving everything you’ve worked hard for all your life to the State.

The post Treasury Income From Those Dying Without A Will Doubles In A Year! appeared first on Enfield Wills.

Avicii was best known for his popular song, Wake Me Up, which topped the music charts in 22 countries worldwide. His debut album True also reached the top ten in more than 15 countries, he received two Grammy award nominations in 2012 and 2013, and worked with some of the biggest musical stars including Robbie Williams, David Guetta, Rita Ora, and Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson of ABBA.

Despite his fame and fortune, Avicii did not appear to be motivated by money and was publicly known for his charitable nature. In a 2013 interview, he said: “When you have such an excess of money you don’t need, the most sensible, most human and completely obvious thing is to give to people in need.” And Avicii did just that. He donated all of his proceeds from his 2012 tour to Feeding America, a charity fighting to combat hunger. The following year he donated one million euros to a Swedish hunger aid charity. It’s likely that Avicii gave even more money to people in need out of the media’s spotlight.

Details of Avicii’s estate have now been revealed and it highlights an important lesson for members of the public, especially those of the millennial generation. Tim Bergling had not created a Will before his untimely death, so his estate must now be distributed following Sweden’s intestacy rules. This means that Avicii’s parents will inherit all of his estate, regardless of his wishes. Due to Avicii’s charitable nature, it raises some questions. Would he have wanted to give some or all of his money to the charities closest to his heart? Would he have wanted any other family members or friends to inherit? Although we will never find out the answers to these questions, it highlights how important it is to create a Will to ensure your wishes are heard.

Surprisingly, only 24% of adults under the age of 35 have a Will in comparison to 75% of adults over the age of 55. The statistics evidently prove that many millennials have not yet created a valid Will, meaning that their wishes may not be followed if they were to die intestate. This highlights the importance, regardless of age or wealth, of taking the time to create a Will to ensure assets are in protected in the event of death.

In Avicii’s case, his parents will not be expected to pay a hefty tax bill as Sweden does not have an inheritance or estate tax. However, some estate tax may be due on the assets he owned in the United States of America, including his property.  If he had made a Will Avicii could have avoided any uncertainty surrounding his wishes and maximised the estate value by minimising the tax bill.

Keeping a Will is the only way to ensure you retain control of your decisions and your estate is distributed in a way that reflects your wishes.

The post Avicii, left no plans for his £20 million estate appeared first on Enfield Wills.

David Poole had suffered a motorcycle accident earlier in his life and had been awarded £1 million in damages.  Since 1994, he had been living in the care of Mark Everall under a placement made by Worcestershire County Council.  .

Mr Everall was named as a beneficiary in a Will written by Mr Poole in December 2012.  However, Mr Poole’s brothers, Darren and Sean, challenged the validity of this Will which left nothing to the siblings. Instead, they asked the High Court to declare in favour of a Will written by their brother in February 2012, in which they were both named as beneficiaries.

The Judge in the case argued that Mr Poole was a vulnerable person, prone to suggestibility particularly in relation to dealing with his money. He was satisfied that Mr Poole did have the capacity to make the most recent Will but said that he was not fully aware of the implications of his actions. The evidence suggested that Mr Poole did not understand the Will’s terms and that these in fact came from Mr Everall, who had prepared the Will.

In the High Court, Judge David Cooke said: “I am satisfied that Mr Everall used his relationship with David to isolate David from others, and that his motive in doing so appears to have been to prevent David from being exposed to the influence of those who were, or were perceived by him to be, opposed to or questioning of Mr Everall’s actions. Mr Everall’s response to what he perceived as criticising or calling into question what he had done seems to have been, on a number of occasions, to make accusations or complaints against those he regarded as opposed to him.

He complained to the county council about social workers opposing David’s discharge from hospital, when that discharge was against medical advice. He complained about the same social workers expressing doubts about David’s testamentary capacity, when such doubts were plainly reasonable and when his motivation appeared to be to remove obstacles to making a Will in his favour.”

Cases like this highlight how important it is to ensure your Will explicitly states how you want your estate to be distributed.  By ensuring that your Will is clearly and professionally written, your estate can be dealt with as smoothly as possible and reduces the likelihood of loved ones being unintentionally excluded when it comes to their inheritance. It is important that people understand the benefits of planning ahead, regardless of our age or health.

The post Will Overturned After Brothers Challenge Its Validity appeared first on Enfield Wills.

More and more Wills are being contested in the High Court and last year the number of disputes rose 80% – the highest number of cases since 2007

It is believed booming property prices are the “main motivation” for children and other family members to contest a Will, but that’s not the only reason. Estranged families, divorce and second marriages all add to the mix.

There have been a number of high-profile cases including Dame Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop who left none of her £51m fortune to her daughters, but instead left it to charity.

Before her untimely death in 2007 of a brain haemorrhage, Dame Anita Roddick made it publicly known she was having a “joyful” time giving away around £3 million a year to human rights, social and environmental groups

The most recent case to hit the Press was the case of Illott v  Mitson which after over 10 years of wrangling was finally settled in the Supreme Court in 2017.  In this case the estranged daughter, Mrs Illott , claimed her mother should not have excluded her from benefitting from her £480,000 Estate, which was left to three   animal charities.

I have no idea of the costs of this case, but after 10 years of rattling round the legal system, I doubt there was much of the original £480.000 Estate left.

Avoiding Your Will Being Challenged

Being open about your will while you are writing or updating it can help to prepare children or other beneficiaries for what’s in it hence preventing it becoming a shock or surprise when it is read.  Sometimes there is a perfectly good reason why siblings are treated differently.

To avoid possible claims that you didn’t know what you were doing or were being influenced by others, write your Will in your early years.  It can never be too early to write your Will nor can you be too young once you reach 18.  We also ask you a number of questions to which we record and document the answers.  We ask you to sign the documented answers to confirm these being your answers given freely and without any undue influence of others.  This will protect you and prove your wishes should someone contest your Will.
We are always present at a Will signing, to stop anyone saying it doesn’t fulfil the technical requirements of a Will.  Again, the entire Will process is documented from start to finish with an overriding case of file notes.

If you decide to exclude a spouse, or family member, then we insist you write a Letter of Wishes giving a very detailed explanation of your reasons for doing so.

Claims can also be brought if you promised to leave assets to someone, but fail to do so in your Will. The claimant can say that they have suffered detriment – financial or otherwise – because they relied on the promised inheritance.

The obvious way to avoid these sorts of claims is by not promising assets in the first place and then changing your mind. If circumstances do change, however, and you need to renege, try to do it before the detriment goes too far, or compensate the person at the time.  Again, anything of material significance should be included in your Letter of Wishes.

So when you write your Will with us, you can feel reassured that your wishes will be adhered to and that any challenge to your Will is unlikely to succeed.

The post How To Avoid Your Will Being Contested appeared first on Enfield Wills.