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Pitfalls of Co-Ownership and How To Avoid Them

Date: 23/11/2023 Type: Articles Topic: Private Client | Investment and HNWI’s |
Author: Helena French - Russell Cooke

A key issue that arises across legal disciplines for HNW families and individuals relates to property interests and their protection, as well as disputes that arise when an interest has not been properly protected. Often this occurs when one person is gifting a sum of money or property to another, but also where people are purchasing jointly or providing contributions to a property owned by another.

The Role of Nuptial Agreements in Long Term Planning for HNW Clients

Date: 23/11/2023 Type: Articles Topic: Private Client | Investment and HNWI’s |
Author: Sean Hilton - Stevens & Bolton LLP

Any family law practitioner will be all too familiar with the late call from a prospective client, or indeed one of their advisors, with mere weeks left before a wedding, asking for advice on a nuptial agreement. The wider perception of nuptial agreements is certainly still one of them being a ‘pressure purchase’. All too often they are an afterthought which undermines their complexity but also the thought that needs to go into them from the client’s perspective. This ideology applies not just to the clients themselves, but frequently to professional advisors working in the private client sphere. I would suggest that this is an outdated mindset which fails to recognise the countless scenarios in which a nuptial agreement can assist, and it is a mindset that we as practitioners will need to work to change.

Trusts and the Human Rights Act 1998: The Rights of Children

Date: 23/11/2023 Type: Articles Topic: Private Client | Investment and HNWI’s |
Author: Rosie Taylor & Richard Pike - Womble Bond Dickinson

Picture the terms of a discretionary trust deed. You won't have to dig too far to find an example which includes, in the list of discretionary beneficiaries, the settlor's children, grandchildren and their spouses.

Divorcing Couples, Death, and the Inheritance Act 1975

Date: 22/11/2023 Type: Articles Topic: Private Client | Investment and HNWI’s |
Author: Emily Peacock & Emma Bryson - Michelmores

When a separated couple are going through a divorce, it is good practise for both parties to execute a new Will, in the light of the effect a divorce has on a person's Will.

The timing of the execution of that new Will is likely to vary depending on the circumstances or the advice received at the time. It may be executed prior to the divorce proceedings being formally issued, midway through the process (for example, after a financial settlement has been reached), or on conclusion of the matrimonial proceedings.

Farming Families & Inheritance: Disputing Estates Until The Cows Come Home

Date: 21/11/2023 Type: Articles Topic: Private Client | Investment and HNWI’s |
Author: David McGuire - Weightmans

A family agricultural business is an atypical one in that it is extremely close knit. Landowners, usually parents, will work long hours on the farm with the assistance of their children, who will often make significant sacrifices to do so with little to no remuneration. This is often on the basis or understanding that one day, they will inherit the farm.

Natural Capital and Private Wealth

Date: 21/11/2023 Type: Articles Topic: Private Client | Investment and HNWI’s |
Author: Kevin Kennedy - Burges Salmon

Natural Capital is a catch-all phrase for a range of different actions and approaches, all of which have at their heart the idea of improving the natural environment.

In the UK, the most well-known example of this is the rewilding that has taken place at the Knepp Estate in West Sussex. While rewilding has captured many of the headlines, tree planting, seeding flower meadows, de-intensification, organic conversion and the re-wetting of land are all elements of a Natural Capital approach.

Claims For Reasonable Financial Provision Beyond The Grave

Date: 20/11/2023 Type: Articles Topic: Private Client | Investment and HNWI’s |
Author: Jennifer Doggett - Charles Russell Speechlys

This case provides important guidance on: when a claimant’s requirement for reasonable financial provision ends, the high bar a son/ daughter-in-law needs to reach to prove that they have been treated as a “child of the family” for the purposes of a 1975 Act claim, and when the court may exercise its discretion to allow a 1975 Act claim to be brought out of time.

A Shared History and Legal System

Date: 14/11/2023 Type: Articles Topic: Private Client | Investment and HNWI’s |
Author: Andrew Miller - Bedell Cristin (Cayman)

One of the greatest advantages of the Cayman Islands and the other British Overseas Territories ("BOTs") and Crown Dependencies ("CDs") is how much shared history they have with the commonwealth nations and one of the best examples of this is the depth of the connections to the British legal system.

Much of the Cayman Islands' statutory law was originally enacted from equivalent law in the United Kingdom, albeit that it has often departed from the original source significantly over the decades.