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Led but not driven: keeping doctrines distinct in Re MacDougall

The recent decision in MacDougall v Thomas and Others (Re MacDougall) [2026] EWHC 1142 (Ch) will not be read quickly. Nicola Rushton KC, sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge, took 143 pages and over 500 paragraphs to dispose of nine transactions or groups of transactions across some 15 years, traversing testamentary capacity, knowledge and approval, testamentary and lifetime undue influence, proprietary estoppel, the duties of attorneys and ademption. Yet a dominant theme emerges: where the law of wills and general equity principles governing lifetime gifts collide, the two bodies of law must be kept distinct, so that a relationship raising presumed undue influence for a lifetime gift may fall short of the coercion required to invalidate a will.

Wills and Estates, Family Issues, Formalities and Amendment, From the Courts

George v Townsend: a narrow escape on a 1975 Act claim

George v Townsend and Another [2026] EWHC 1507 (Fam) is a useful reminder – if one were needed – that issuing some sort of claim within six months of a grant of representation is not the same thing as issuing a claim pursuant to the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 (the “1975 Act”) correctly, using the right claim form, supported by the right evidence and serving it properly.

Wills and Estates, Construction and Validity, From the Courts, Legal Practice
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IHT – When does the seven-year period start?

One of the most basic Inheritance Tax mitigation strategies is to make a Potentially Exempt Transfer  and to survive for seven years. It is generally well understood that if there is a reservation of benefit, the seven-year survival period will not start running until the reservation of benefit is removed.

Taxation, IHT

CGT Investors’ Relief

Briefing, CGT

Challenging the validity of a will

Wills and Estates, Family Issues
Briefing

Court of Protection documents

Court of Protection applications for statutory wills, lifetime gifts, and the appointment and removal of attorneys and deputies are likely to involve consideration of P’s dispositive and testamentary wishes, family relationships and dynamics, capacity, and susceptibility to influence.

Briefing, Construction and Validity, Formalities and Amendment, From the Courts, Legal Practice

Procedural concerns for trust accounting

This article considers two recent judgments given after the taking of trust accounts. The first is Master Marsh’s decision in Hubbard v Hubbard [2025] EWHC 855 (Ch). The second, Master McQuail’s judgment in Walker v Somboonsarn [2025] EWHC 1643 (Ch). These judgments offer rare guidance into the practice on the taking of an account.

Briefing, Family Issues, Trusts, Trustee Powers, Duties and Management
Wills and Estates

The birth of the acquisition constructive trust

Practitioners advising on disputes concerning the beneficial ownership of land will frequently encounter a familiar difficulty. There may be situations where clients will assert that there was a clear family agreement that they would have an interest in one or more properties. However, they are not on the legal title, there is no trust deed or will in their favour, and critically, at least some of them cannot demonstrate any detrimental reliance on the agreement that was made. How, in these situations, can a trust be established?

Wills and Estates, Construction and Validity, Family Issues, From the Courts, Legal Practice

When good conduct counts

Adult-child claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 occupy an uneasy place in the law of family provision. Following Re Coventry [1980] Ch 461 and the Supreme Court’s decision in Ilott v The Blue Cross [2017] UKSC 17, it is well settled that an adult child of working age who is capable of earning their own living must show something beyond mere blood relation and necessitous circumstances before the court will interfere with the deceased’s dispositions. Quite what that additional “something” must be remains the elusive question in virtually every adult-child claim. Might the additional “something” be found as much in the claimant’s conduct and the quality of their relationship with the deceased, as in any conduct on the deceased’s part? The recent decision of Caroline Shea KC, sitting as a judge of the High Court, in McDaniel v Talbot [2026] EWHC 928 (Ch) adds helpfully to the existing body of authority in illustrating what might constitute that additional “something”.

Wills and Estates, Family Issues
Trusts

The Tax Consequences of Protectors with the “Wider Role”

A great deal has been written about the consequences for protector powers after the decision of the Privy Council in A and 6 Others v C and 13 Others [2026] UKPC 11. This article, is about something which has so far garnered less attention but may turn out to be just as consequential: the potential tax issues the decision raises.

Trusts, Trustee Powers, Duties and Management

Settlements by or on behalf of incapacitated settlors

For the usual reasons that apply to capacitous settlors – asset protection, tax efficiency, providing for spendthrifts, etc – it is often advantageous for the assets of those lacking mental capacity to be settled onto trust. Such persons often (suddenly) become wealthy by reason of legal awards. In addition, settling the assets of an incapacitous minor onto trust is a way to avoid undesirable succession consequences on their death under the intestacy rules (such as inheritance by an absent or even abusive parent) in circumstances where they cannot make a will nor have a statutory will made for them by the Court of Protection.

Construction and Validity, Family Issues, Formalities and Amendment, Trusts
Taxation

Anti-avoidance in estates and trusts

Courts do not look fondly on those who attempt to frustrate legitimate claims by dissipating assets. The principles are illustrated by Teixeira v Moaven and Others [2026] EWHC 1215 (Ch). The defendant, like others finding their routes to success narrowing, was ingenious in his attempts to avoid the court’s anti-avoidance jurisdiction.

Taxation, IHT

Secret trusts and tax avoidance

The recent decision of the Court of Appeal in Lorenz v Caruana and Others [2025] EWCA Civ 606 offers an opportunity to discuss secret trusts in the particular context of attempted tax avoidance using the spousal exemption for Inheritance Tax.

Taxation, IHT, CGT, Wills and Estates, Construction and Validity, Family Issues, Formalities and Amendment, From the Courts
From the Courts

The X Trusts and the “wider” implications for the trusts industry

On 19 March 2026 the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in A and 6 Others v C and 13 Others (Bermuda) [2026] UKPC 11 (“Re the X Trusts”) handed down its decision on appeal from the Court of Appeal of Bermuda. The appeal settled a question that had divided practitioners, commentators and courts for the better part of two decades: where a trust instrument requires the consent of a protector before the trustees may exercise a power, but says nothing about how the protector is to decide whether to consent, what is the protector’s default role?

Trusts, Trustee Powers, Duties and Management, From the Courts, Legal Practice

Executor and trustee costs in removal claims

There have been a number of recent decisions on the principles applicable to the costs of executor or trustee removal cases: non-exhaustively, Hanson v Coleman [2025] EWHC 116 (Ch), the memorably named Shufflebotham v Shuff-Wentzel [2025] EWHC 3321 (Ch), and Smith v Campbell [2026] EWHC 144 (Ch). They offer a convenient opportunity to provide a reminder of the general principles and how they have been applied.

Wills and Estates, Construction and Validity, Family Issues, Formalities and Amendment, Trusts, Trustee Powers, Duties and Management, From the Courts, Legal Practice
Real Estate

Promises and contracts

Several recent decisions have considered the potential effect of partnership agreements on proprietary estoppel claims made in the context of family farming partnerships. This article seeks to summarise those decisions and briefly consider whether they establish any principles of general application.

Wills and Estates, Construction and Validity, Family Issues, Formalities and Amendment, Real Estate, Ownership Arrangements, From the Courts

Signed, sealed and delivered

Canarapen v Gauchenot [2025] EWHC 2728 (Ch) concerns a deed of variation that gifted a share in a property. The party making the gift under the deed later regretted their decision and sought to revoke it. The decision examines both the formal and substantive requirements for a deed to be valid.

Real Estate, Ownership Arrangements, From the Courts, Legal Practice