Laura McDermott, Senior Case Manager at Kings Court Trust, explains the impact of legal aid funding cuts on claims against estates and what you, as a Will writing professional, can do in order to minimise the risks for your clients.

Did you know that on average a deceased person will continue to receive 80 items of direct mail during the year following their death?

Britain said its last goodbye to Margaret Thatcher last month, when she was laid to rest with prayers and ceremony, but her financial legacy is still shrouded in mystery. The Iron Lady, a grocer's daughter who rose to become the country's first female prime minister, passed away peacefully while staying at the world-famous Ritz hotel, owned by her long-time supporters and media businessmen, the Barclay brothers.

People using Google's services will be now able to decide what will happen to their digital assets once they pass away or can no longer handle their accounts, thanks to a new feature called Inactive Account Manager, the search engine said in a recent blog post.

Believe it or not, social media is already bridging the gap between life and death; a controversial new app called LivesOn was recently launched on Twitter, which you can authorise to create a personal digital afterlife.

A High Court judge has ruled that the will of an 80-year-old woman, which left her inheritance to her closest friends, is invalid after concluding that she was mentally unstable when conveying her final wishes, the Daily Mail reported.

Many Wills may have a Trust written into them but there is often confusion surrounding the reasons why it has been included and what it actually means. Jean Massih, Legal Assistant at Kings Court Trust, explains…

While commending the decision of the Legal Services Board (LSB) to recommend to the Lord Chancellor that Will writing should become reserved legal work, the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) has expressed dissatisfaction with the LSB's move to leave estate administration out of regulation.

Starting from 1 April 2013, some local authorities are planning to raise the council tax on empty homes, which will affect beneficiaries who are struggling to sell the properties of their late relatives.