Estate Planning - 2027 Virtual Conference

Introduction

Estate planning has rarely faced this much change at once. With the biggest reform to the law on wills in almost two hundred years moving through Parliament, alongside growing complexity around incapacitated trustees, cross border succession, contentious probate and family business succession, advisers are having to rethink long standing assumptions about how they plan, draft and defend their clients' affairs. This full day virtual conference sets out what is changing, what remains uncertain and what needs to be considered now, giving delegates a practical grounding to take straight back into client work.

Conference Agenda

This live and interactive 5 hour conference will cover the following:

10am-11am: The Wills Bill: Preparing for the Biggest Reform in Wills Law Since 1837

Helen Forster, HTF Legal

The Law Commission's draft Wills Act, intended to replace the Wills Act 1837, is progressing towards Parliament and will represent the most significant change to the law on making a valid will in almost two hundred years. This session will focus on the substance of the proposed reforms themselves, from electronic wills and a lowered age of testamentary capacity to changes to the effect of marriage and divorce on a will, and what practitioners and advisers need to start considering now regardless of the exact timetable for implementation. The session focuses on the reforms as proposed rather than on contentious probate, negligence claims, or domicile and succession-law conflicts, which are covered elsewhere in the programme.

Learning Outcomes:

• The current status of the Law Commission's draft Wills Act and the likely route to Parliament
• The proposed rules for electronic wills and what will count as a /reliable system/
• The proposed change to the test for testamentary capacity and the reduction in the minimum age to make a will
• The proposed abolition of automatic revocation of a will by marriage, and what it means in practice
• What the reforms could mean for how succession planning documentation is prepared, stored and reviewed, for advisers working alongside tax and legal colleagues

Morning Break

11:10am-12:10pm: How to Deal with Incapacitated Trustees

Holly Chantler, Partner, Morr & Co LLP

Dealing with trustee incapacity can be a difficult issue to deal with. This session will look at how to spot early warning signs, what happens in practice when a trustee loses capacity and the practical and legal steps needed to remove and/or replace the incapacitated trustee.

Learning Outcomes:

• Recognise the early warning signs of trustee incapacity
• Capacity to act as a trustee
• Powers of appointment and removal within the trust deed
• How to deal with matters where the incapacitated trustee does or doesn’t have a beneficial interest where there is or is not a remaining competent trustee or trustees
• Trusts of land
• Where the incapacitated trustee has an attorney
• Applications to the Court of Protection to exercise trustee functions

12:10pm-1:10pm: Cross-Border Estates: Navigating Conflicts of Domicile and Succession Law

Nicholas Le Poidevin KC, New Square Chambers

Where a client has assets, family or connections in more than one jurisdiction, questions of domicile and which country's succession law applies can significantly affect estate planning and administration, quite separately from any tax considerations. This session focuses on the non-tax conflict-of-laws issues that arise in cross-border estates: how domicile is established and challenged, which jurisdiction's succession rules govern different types of asset and how forced heirship regimes in other countries can interact with, or override, an English will. Tax treatment of cross-border estates is deliberately excluded from this session and is picked up elsewhere in the programme.

Learning Outcomes:

• How domicile is determined for succession purposes, and the common grounds on which it is disputed
• The principles used to decide which jurisdiction's law governs succession to movable and immovable property
• How forced heirship rules in other jurisdictions can affect the validity or effect of an English will
• Practical steps for identifying and managing cross-border succession issues at the estate planning stage, before conflicts arise

Break for lunch

2-3pm: Contentious Estates: Professional Negligence Arising from Will Challenges and 1975 Act Claims

Richard Dew, Barrister, Ten Old Square

Challenges to wills and claims under the 1975 Act are often caused - or contributed to - by poor advice or drafting. Even the most successful claimant may find they are worse off than they would have been had proper instructions been taken, proper advice taken or a capacity report obtained. This talk will consider the options for disgruntled beneficiaries before and after a probate dispute.

Learning Outcomes:

• When can claims be brought, by whom and against whom?
• What can be recovered
• When should claims be commenced?
• What form should proceedings take

Afternoon break

3:15-4:15pm: Business Success: Family Wealth Through Ownership Transition

Julie Butler, Butler & Co.

In this session we will be focusing on farms, estates and small businesses. We will be considering the need for a well-considered updated will linked to IHT planning, that could be challenged by different generations and what robust protection can be considered in respect thereof. The subject will be looked at with full succession planning as the overall goal but also lifetime transfer gifts, taking advantage of holdover relief but with gifts with reservations and failed PETS as a consideration. With surviving spouse relief for IHT having survived the recent Labour budgets and the beneficial spouse impact of the transferable £2.5 million IHT threshold, the role of the spouse(s) will be analysed in tax planning terms. The interaction of the maximum utilisation of the 100% BPR and APR up to threshold in the context of lifetime gifting will be reviewed.

Learning Outcomes:

• The need to consider all succession planning “in the round” and not “aspects in dangerous isolation”
• Spotting the traps of not achieving 100% APR/BPR
• The increasing need for tax and legal succession planning working together and supporting each other

Recording of live sessions: Soon after the Learn Live session has taken place you will be able to go back and access the recording - should you wish to revisit the material discussed.