TOLATA stands for The Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996. It is a law in England and Wales that regulates the relationship between owners of property and those benefitting from that property who are not legal owners

Update Your Will Week (3–9 March) highlights the importance of keeping your will up to date - ensuring your loved ones and chosen charities benefit as you intend. Legacy donations are vital for charities, and a well-structured will guarantees your wishes are fulfilled while offering potential tax benefits. If you haven’t reviewed your will in five years or after a major life event, now is the time.

Even before the Coronavirus outbreak, you may have wondered “Do I need a Will?” or “I’m too young to write a Will”. Although most people writing Wills in the UK are older than 50, you could write a Will from the age of 18.

In a recent case of ours, we were successful in applying to vary a joint lives maintenance order made almost 10 years ago, with payments covering the next few months being capitalised and there being a clean break of income claims. Bearing in mind our client could have continued having to make these monthly payments for the rest of his life this was an excellent result and got us thinking - is now the time to think about challenging the status quo and apply for joint lives orders to be varied?

Martin Oliver, Partner in our Contentious Probate team, answers the question; is contesting a will ever successful?

We review three farming-related proprietary estoppel cases that resulted in trial before a court in 2023 in order for the parties to achieve a resolution - albeit one imposed by the respective judges.

While trusts are often associated with inheritance planning, they are also an invaluable tool for managing wealth during your lifetime.

Getting – or being – divorced, or ending a civil partnership, is a timely reminder that your will is a living document that, without regular review, can quickly go out of date and give rise to many unintended consequences. If you have will and have left all, or even just some of, your assets to your spouse, that will remains valid throughout the process of divorcing even if you have separated and are living apart. This means that if you die, your spouse will receive whatever assets you have bequeathed them under the terms of your will.

Proprietary estoppel is a legal remedy that permits people who, having been promised land, property or a combination of both (usually a farm) and relied on that promise to their detriment, to bring a claim if that promise is reneged on.

Immigration was a key topic in 2016’s EU Referendum debate, and became a major selling point for the Leave campaign. Claims that European Courts were ‘attacking our borders’ and that the system was ‘out of control’ played to a view of an EU-driven UK immigration problem that leaving would solve.