LATEST NEWS

The older you are when you make or change your will, the greater the risk that your loved ones will become embroiled in dispute after you are gone. The point was proved by a case in which the onset of dementia very nearly thwarted a retired nurse's wish to divide her estate equally between her four children. The woman was in her 80s and in frail health when she signed her final will, by which she bequeathed her estate – which was worth up to £900,000 – in equal parts...

Landowners who neglect or fail to make use of their properties put themselves at risk of losing them to squatters. In a recent case on this subject, a woman faced a neighbour's claim that he was entitled to her field, having cut the grass for years. The neighbour alleged that he first entered the field in 2002 in order to pick fruit, and swiftly formed the intention of taking possession of it. He said that he thereafter treated the field as his own. He and his nephew cut down scrub...

Establishing a company to act as an intermediary between yourself and the clients to whom you provide your services can have substantial tax advantages. As a case involving a broadcast journalist showed, however, such arrangements are pointless if the underlying relationship is, in substance, one of employment. Via her personal service company, the journalist entered into a seven-year contract with a national broadcaster. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) took the view that Income Tax and National Insurance Contributions should have been deducted from her income at source. That was on...

Amidst the emotional and financial destruction that can arise from divorce, keeping a sense of proportion is crucial. The Court of Appeal made that point in lamenting a former couple's expenditure of more than £500,000 in legal costs fighting over an asset worth less than £300,000. At the start of the couple's 12-year marriage, during which they had two children, they both had highly paid jobs. However, by the time of their separation, their circumstances were greatly reduced and the only asset that was potentially available for division between them...