News
NEW scientific evidence suggests that William Shakespeare’s famous snub to his wife may in fact have been a tender show of love. The world’s greatest playwright only left Anne Hathaway his “second best bed” in his will. However, on the 400th anniversary of the Bard’s death, X-ray and infra-red analysis by a team from The…
MUCH loved actress Lynda Bellingham died from cancer at the age of 66 in October, 2014. But while the nation was united in grief, a bitter dispute erupted about her will. Lynda – star of ITV’s Loose Women, the BBC’s All Creatures Great and Small and the Oxo adverts in the 1980s and 1990s –…
INDUSTRY experts are furious at Government plans to “increase inheritance tax by the back door”. The Ministry of Justice has announced proposals to raise the cost of a grant of probate, which is required to allow executors named in a will to administer the estate of a dead person. Current court fees are fixed at…
The Government collected £3bn in inheritance tax in 2012/13, the latest year for which figures are available. Although this was a rise of 3%, the proportion of people forced to pay death duties remained static at 6%. HM Revenue and Customs data revealed the average bill rose almost £5,000 in a year to £170,000 across…
Comedian Rik Mayall may have landed his three children with a massive inheritance tax bill. The 56-year-old star, who played scheming MP Alan B’Stard in The New Statesman, died suddenly at his London home after a morning run in June last year. But he failed to have a valid will in place. That could mean…
Facebook users can now leave their page to a friend or relative when they die. A new setting, initially only available in the USA, allows a person to either permanently delete their account after their death or to pass control of it to someone else. Anyone bequeathed an account will be able to write a…
It was a story that the national media lapped up. A 72-year-old woman was sentenced in her absence to three months in prison for breaching a court order that forbade her from contacting her vulnerable granddaughter. Kathleen Danby was arrested at a Ken Dodd show in Liverpool after CCTV caught her cuddling the 18-year-oldgirl. The…
If this can happen WITH a will, imagine the problems of NOT having one. A year after the Oscar-winning actor and comedian Robin Williams committed suicide, his family are still locked in a bitter legal dispute over the wording of his will. The star of Good Morning, Vietnam, Mrs Doubtfire and – perhaps ironically –…
It’s a chilling thought that more than 24,000 children are bereaved of a parent every year in Britain. That’s 65 a day. And yet more than half of the UK population has not made a will. If no will is in place, the rules of intestacy say the spouse or civil partner inherits the first…
Buried in the Chancellor’s 2014 Autumn Statement was a clause that ended a long campaign by members of the armed services and their families. George Osborne righted a wrong by scrapping inheritance tax on military medals. Remarkably, and unfairly, the value of service awards had been included in a person’s wealth when they died. The…