Back Issue - Amazon Web Services

APRIL 2013In Association With... 53It also meant that the widow didn’t haveenough money to live on and so she endedup having to sue her own children and thewhole case cost around £150,000 to resolve.Although these types of cases are not thatcommon, they do exist all the way down thesocial scale, and it matters not whether it isa £125,000 house in Hartlepool or a £2.5million house in London.has died, and even little things you dowhen handling the case can make all thedifference to the client. One of the things Ioften ask when I am an independentadministrator, is if I can have a look aroundthe house and to see a picture of thedeceased. I want to see who the personwas, what interested them and what madethem tick. I think that this makes you betterat communicating with people, andultimately, to achieve a better outcome forall.Can you tell me a little about yourinvolvement in the Law Society’s Wills andEquity Committee?I am the chairman and have been on thecommittee for around seven years, primarilyrepresenting high street practices. We dohave quite a large gay and lesbian practiceand as a very open and happily married gayman, one of the selling points I made to theLaw Society when I applied was that theneeds of gay and lesbian clients needed tobe looked at, particularly in relation to willsand elderly client issues. We are seeing nowthe first real cohort of gay couples whocould live together legally – it was onlydecriminalised in 1967 – and there arenow quite a lot of elderly gay couples. A lotof my older homosexual clients struggle withthings such as elderly care needs and thefeeling that they should leave money to theirfamily even though their family may haveabandoned them. A lot of them wouldactually prefer to leave money to theirfriends but then worry about what theirfamily will think.In addition, the Law Society’s Wills and EquityCommittee primary role is helping to formLaw Society policy, to look at consultationpapers produced by the government andto promotion of the practice notes of theLaw Society.You mentioned that the Committee looks atpolicy changes; are there any policy orlegislative changes that you feel areneeded and would implement if you had thepower?I certainly think there needs to be a reviewof intestacy provisions. Well over 60% of theUK population do not have a will. In the olddays, it didn’t really matter because in themajority of cases a family consisted of ahusband, wife and two children. Nowadayswe have all sorts of complexities and onesees quite a lot of unfairness.I was involved in a much-publicised caseabout four years ago where a young manhad died. The only asset was the matrimonialhome in Notting Hill, London which wasworth around £2.5 million, but because hehad died intestate his wife only got the first£250,000 and his three year old daughterand one year old son effectively got the rest.The consequence of this was an enormoustax bill because the children weren’t exemptbeneficiaries, meaning the house wouldhave had to have been sold to pay the tax.Another key area I would like looked at is thefact that the law under which wills are madeis governed by the Wills Act 1837. No seriousoverhaul of how wills are put together andthe formalities which go into them havebeen undertaken since that year. I see lotsof occasions now where wills are challengedbecause the person making them may nothave testamentary capacity, which in myeyes raises questions such as to what extentshould the role of the witnesses be beefedup? Should wills be registered to be valid?Even to what extent can we use moderntechnology? LMContact:Richard RobertsTel: 020 3427 5078London Office at Old Bailey or:015395 32313Lake District Office at Grange over SandsEmail: infoOB@gedye.co.ukWebsite: www.gedye.co.ukwww.lawyer-monthly.com