The High Court has examined the circumstances in which a will can be set aside on the basis of fraudulent calumny and/or undue influence. This decision is relevant to those wishing to challenge the validity of wills on the basis they were procured improperly, and to those who are seeking to defend such a challenge. … Read more

In the latest decision to consider the Quincecare duty, the Board of the Privy Council has confirmed that the duty is limited to protecting the customers of a bank, and does not extend to protecting any third party beneficiaries of its customer’s accounts. In doing so, the Board dismissed a claim by an investment fund … Read more

In a recent judgment concerning the doctrine of mistake, Deputy Master Marsh explains the evidential hurdles a claimant will have to overcome before the Court will set aside trusts created as part of a tax avoidance scheme. In this case, the Claimants and their legal advisers failed to overcome those hurdles (and earned a relatively … Read more

Maryam Oghanna, Associate in the firm’s Disputes practice, has won the Young Practitioner of the Year Award at the 15th annual STEP Private Client Awards 2020. The STEP Private Client Awards are seen as the hallmark of quality within the private client industry, and have been described as “…the Oscars of our industry and the one … Read more

The multiplicity of laws to be complied with if trust and company service providers (TCSPs) operate in various jurisdictions, and the ever-changing regulatory landscape more generally can make it difficult for TCSPs to navigate and keep on top of their regulatory compliance obligations. Consistent with this, a clear majority of survey participants cited “general regulatory … Read more

On 8 April 2020, the High Court of New Zealand issued a judgment concluding that cryptocurrencies are a species of intangible personal property capable of being the subject matter of a trust. The judgment summarises recent case law from a number of jurisdictions on the proprietary status of cryptoassets and refers to the UK Jurisdiction … Read more

As part of our recent trust companies survey, we asked the participating trust companies what risk and compliance issues pose the greatest challenges to their business. Reputational risk as a business challenge As we reported in our previous publication on the results of the survey, the respondents identified beneficiary disputes as the least pressing issue. … Read more

In our recent trust company risk and compliance survey we asked trust companies what are the greatest risk and compliance challenges they face. The respondents identified beneficiary disputes, (i.e. disputes between the trustee and one or more of the beneficiaries) as one of the significant challenges trustees face. They nevertheless ranked it as the least … Read more