Wills and the Administration of Estates
Valid wills
Wills Act 1837 s 9: signed by the testator (or by someone in their presence and at their direction), in the presence of two witnesses present at the same time, who attest and sign. Lack of capacity (Banks v Goodfellow), knowledge and approval, undue influence and fraudulent calumny are the standard challenges. Section 33 Wills Act: a gift to a child who predeceases the testator passes to that child's issue unless a contrary intention appears.
Intestacy (Administration of Estates Act 1925 s 46)
Surviving spouse or civil partner with issue takes personal chattels, the statutory legacy (£322,000), half the residue absolutely, and a life interest in the other half, with the remainder to issue on the statutory trusts. Without issue the spouse takes everything. Thereafter the order runs: issue, parents, siblings of the whole blood, siblings of the half blood, grandparents, uncles and aunts, then the Crown as bona vacantia.
Probate and administration
Executors named in the will take a grant of probate; administrators take letters of administration. Duties include collecting assets, paying debts and inheritance tax (with instalment options for land), and distributing. An executor's year is the conventional period before distribution.
Inheritance tax
Nil rate band £325,000; residence nil rate band up to £175,000; death rate 40%, reduced to 36% where at least 10% of the net estate goes to charity. Transfers between spouses are exempt. A deed of variation within two years (s 142 IHTA 1984) rewrites the disposition for tax purposes.
Trap: the statutory legacy figure must be checked as it is uprated; and a spouse's life interest means the children wait.