Following on from the recent and well publicised Ilott case, the Financial Times reports that the ruling highlights the powers at the disposal of the courts to overrule Wills.

With new Inheritance Tax (IHT) rules having been announced as part of the Government’s summer Budget, estate planning and the way in which assets are managed are in the news once again. IHT should be a prime consideration when planning how your estate is distributed and the recent rule changes are likely to lead to a number of people re-thinking their Wills should their estates be effected.

Barclays are being sued for hundreds of thousands of pounds by a woman who claims the bank’s Will writing service resulted in her losing a stake in her late father’s London home. Although the bank is contesting the reports, Telegraph Money have revealed that when the complaint was assessed by the Financial Ombudsman Service, the bank was found at fault so the complaint has been progressed to the High Court.

We appreciate that Wills are a personal and highly delicate matter, and not something to become subject to tabloid gossip. However, the Wills of numerous people – from the rich and famous to ordinary members of the public – are now available via the public record and have been subject to public scrutiny and intense interest. The Wills of the rich and famous, including Diana, Princess of Wales, Alan Turing and Winston Churchill, as well as the complicated Wills of ordinary members of the public can all be viewed by the general public.

We’re sure you were as equally shocked as we were to hear about this case today. Stuart Herd’s widowed father, William, remarried at 67. His son Stuart was delighted as he’d feared his father would live out the rest of his days alone, after the death of his wife, Freda, in 1986.

Sometimes we get some really unusual cases here at Kings Court Trust; the outcome is sometimes a complete surprise to us. For example, what happens in the event of a will being destroyed?

As reported only yesterday by BBC News, recent changes to inheritance laws are encouraging more adults to make a will or update their existing one. The changes are the first significant ones to effect the Rules of Intestacy since they came into effect in 1925, and now declare that if a person dies without leaving a will and they are in a civil partnership or married, without children or other descendants, then their partner will receive 100% of the estate.

We were very happy to discover recently that Legacy Foresight figures showed its members received a combined income of £1.16 billion in the 12 months leading to June of this year, Third Sector reports. Legacy Foresight are analysts of the legacy and in-memoriam sectors and gather data from 67 charities.

We recently came across an article on Money Observer which discussed the possible reasons behind why the number of will disputes has been steadily rising over the past few years – information we at Kings Court Trust are of course very interested in.