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The son of a wealthy businessman has gone on trial accused of forging his father's £2.5 million will after the dead man's girlfriend questioned why she had been left out.
Pat Powell, 59, became suspicious after learning she had been left nothing by Jimmy Swanston, despite his assurances that she would be "provided for", a court was told on Tuesday.
Prenuptial agreements could become legally binding in England and Wales within a few years, under plans being considered by the Law Commission.
The plans will form part of the commission's latest programme of law reform, unveiled today, which will also consider whether the law on intestacy - inheritance when a person dies leaving no will - should be altered.
"Prenups" are not, at the moment, binding, though judges take them into account if they have been freely entered into and include full disclosure of the assets involved.
How do I find out if my father-in-law left a will? He died in March 2006, leaving three houses and other assets. His widow, who is not the mother of his six children, told them that "their father did not leave anything for them."
You've written that if someone dies without a will in New York State their assets are divided between their surviving spouse and children. We have reason to believe that my father-in-law did not leave a will. But his wife doesn't answer his children's calls or return messages, although they had an excellent relationship before his death. Three of the children want to find out if there was a will, just on principle; the others say just forget about it. How should we proceed? HD via e-mail
Same-sex parents will need to update their wills following the NSW Government’s reforms to recognise two mothers of a child conceived through artificial insemination.
Attorney-General John Hatzistergos warned while presumption of relationship and inheritance was generally retrospective, it did not extend to wills made before the new laws’ commencement.
A High Court Judge heard claims today that "very great suspicion" surrounds a will in which a personal assistant was left millions of pounds by her boss.
Helen Dolores O'Connor, 64, says the will of her former employer Herbert Baer - in which she was given the lion's share of his £3.5m fortune - is genuine.
A DIY pack can provide you with a legally binding will, but may also create problems. If you are overcome by a sense of your own mortality as you buy your local paper, don't panic - you could be in the right place to do something about it. You can now get a DIY 'will pack' in shops across the country, including more than 7,000 newsagents, for less than £5.
Perhaps Smith (pictured) was lucky in having something to fight over. While not everyone has the riches of an oil baron to leave behind, millions of us never get round to the important task of making a last will and testament.
Every day someone in the UK dies alone and intestate. This can prove lucrative for whoever turns out to be the next of kin - and to the probate researchers who inform the lucky individual
On Wednesday evenings, staff at London's probate research offices head home soon after 5pm, as the following morning will, as every week, demand an early start. In the middle of the night, the Government publishes a list of those who have died intestate; that is without a will, and without any close relatives. Most will have been hermits or recluses.
When a loved one dies there are many issues to cope with, both practically and emotionally. Stefanie Ives looks at what has to be done and where to find the help you need
Inheritance tax is not something that is at the forefront of most people's minds. In fact, 27 million Brits have no idea what it is, or how to keep their money out of the chancellor's clutches, according to research from life insurer Friends Provident.
The family drawing room used to be the preferred forum for resolving messy disputes over inheritance. But more and more jealous children and cheated wives are taking acrimonious wrangles to court.
The number of families contesting a relative’s will has risen by 200 per cent since 2004, according to one law firm. And high-profile disputes are being fought in public with increasing regularity. In November, for example, David Thorner, a labourer, inherited a £2.3m farm estate from his cousin following a two-year legal battle. And relatives of Golda Bechal, an 88-year-old widow, went to the High Court to challenge her will after she left most of her £10m fortune to the owners of her favourite restaurant.
She led a colourful life, but Anna Nicole Smith is probably best remembered for the much-publicised court battle over the will of her late husband, J Howard Marshall. The busty blonde fought for more than a decade to make sure she received some of the nonagenarian oil billionaire’s $1.6bn (£800m) fortune.
Perhaps Smith (pictured) was lucky in having something to fight over. While not everyone has the riches of an oil baron to leave behind, millions of us never get round to the important task of making a last will and testament.
The family drawing room used to be the preferred forum for resolving messy disputes over inheritance. But more and more jealous children and cheated wives are taking acrimonious wrangles to court.
The number of families contesting a relative’s will has risen by 200 per cent since 2004, according to one law firm. And high-profile disputes are being fought in public with increasing regularity. In November, for example, David Thorner, a labourer, inherited a £2.3m farm estate from his cousin following a two-year legal battle. And relatives of Golda Bechal, an 88-year-old widow, went to the High Court to challenge her will after she left most of her £10m fortune to the owners of her favourite restaurant.
A dog that inherited £6million has had to go into hiding after being bombarded with death threats.
Trouble the Maltese terrier was enjoying a £145,000-a-year luxury lifestyle of pampering and personalised meal plans. But after two dozen death threats she has been whisked off in a private jet from her home in Connecticut to an undisclosed location with her own 24-hour security team.
The 83-year-old son of Brooke Astor, the New York socialite and philanthropist who died in August, faces the prospect of spending the rest of his life in prison following charges that he took advantage of his dying mother, who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, to change her will and enrich himself by tens of millions of dollars.
Anthony Marshall, hitherto known as a pillar of New York society with a background as a diplomat and a Tony award-winning Broadway theatre producer, found himself being arraigned in court earlier this week on a flurry of charges including falsifying records, scheming to defraud and grand larceny.
It stands to reason, does it not, that all paper records should be put in digital form so that they can be accessed online.
It is simpler, quicker, cheaper and more efficient. Who wants to plough through lots of dusty files when the information can be available at the click of a mouse?
Hundereds of thousands of married couples have good reason to celebrate the Tories' recent rediscovery of the popularity of tax cuts which, perhaps by happy coincidence, came immediately before Labour's sudden decision to change the way inheritance tax (IHT) works.
There are 2.86m widows and 800,000 widowers in England, Scotland and Wales who could all benefit from increased IHT allowances thanks to changes in the rules made by Chancellor Alistair Darling in his pre-budget statement. This year everyone has a £300,000 IHT allowance.
The biggest reason why the middle classes worry about inheritance tax is their children.
Married couples and civil partners with assets worth less than £600,000 may now be confident their children will not inherit a tax bill, but how can those with bigger estates, and unmarried couples, divorcees and single parents with assets worth more than £300,000 maximise the money they leave to their families after they have gone?
Last week the son of a wealthy businessman successfully challenged his father's will, which had left his £8m fortune to the Conservative Party.
It is rare that wills are overturned in court, but this judgment may give hope to children, spouses and partners who feel that they have been unfairly overlooked in the last will and testament of their nearest and dearest.
If you die without leaving a will you have died "intestate". The law dictates who your money will be passed to and this may not match your wishes.
The only exception is where assets are owned jointly. This is the case with many homes owned by married couples - the legal definition is joint tenants rather than tenants in common - and also joint bank and savings accounts.
Hotel billionaire Leona Helmsley left more in her will to her dog, a white Maltese called Trouble, above, than to nearly all of her family put together, lawyers disclosed this week.
While the dog got $12m (£6m), two of her grandchildren got nothing.
As the eldest son of one of Britain's richest aristocrats, Hugh Lowther was in line for a substantial inheritance from his father.
James Lowther, the 7th Earl of Lonsdale, thought differently – and left his successor nothing but a pocket watch. The Earl is said to have disinherited his son on his deathbed.
For a time at least, the glossy advertisements for Helmsley Hotels in the American press featured the chain's infamous owner, Leona Helmsley, smiling regally, accompanied by her dog, a white Maltese bitch.
It seems fitting that in the end this is what Helmsley's life boiled down to: a twin devotion to property and a dog named Trouble.
Every father hopes to leave their son some savings when they die. But when your son is multi-millionaire Rolling Stone singer Sir Mick Jagger it does not seem appropriate.
Instead, Joe Jagger, who died in November last year at the age of 93, left almost everything to Mick's younger brother Chris, 59, whose career as a musician has never hit the same heights.
ABBEY bank has been criticised by Your Money readers for the poor service it is providing to relatives of customers who have died this year.
Abbey handles about 5,000 deceased customers' accounts a month and says it should "ideally" take just 10 working days to close an account and pass money on to the late customer's estate. However, a number of Daily Express readers have reported a wait of up to three months for the funds. David Watts's late mother-in-law had investments of more than £100,000 with Abbey in a current account and a savings bond.
A businessman vows to give away a billion to charity. Another family contests a £8m bequest. The rich are getting richer, and their children all want a slice of the pie. But do wealthy dynasties always make for happy heirs? We offer some cautionary tales
For 150 years, the Hesketh family owned Easton Neston, one of Northamptonshire’s finest stately homes, with an estate that included Towcester racecourse. Then along came Thomas Alexander Fermor-Hesketh ( below). Born in 1950, the rotund Lord Hesketh inherited his title at five, following the early death of his father, and his estate and fortune at 21. By 2004, Easton Neston had to be sold.
'I have never regretted giving away my inheritance - and when jason was told he was dying of cancer at just 30 I knew that he would do the same... '
FOR Annabel Sainsbury, scion of one of Britain's wealthiest dynasties and sister of the former Labour Cabinet minister Lord Sainsbury, the 30th birthday of her eldest son Jason should have been a proud milestone. It was the day when Jason inherited a £2.5million fortune from his grandfather, the late supermarket baron Sir Robert Sainsbury, and an occasion that had prompted much speculation at the family's 400-acre estate in Horsham, West Sussex.
As a direct descendant of political heavyweights, social reformers and writers, expectation was perhaps destined to be a troubling burden for Anthony Ashley-Cooper.
On becoming the 10th Earl of Shaftesbury at the age of 22, he not only inherited the family's 9,000-acre estate in Wimborne, Dorset, but also its proud traditions, defined by the Shaftesbury motto: Live, serve.
It is a tale of sexual intrigue which would not look out of place in the pages of a Barbara Taylor Bradford novel. One illegitimate brother battling another for a share of the family fortune while an eminent doctor is accused of fathering a secret love child.
But this salacious saga is not the plot of a best seller – it is the devastating reality of a High Court case which has ripped a wealthy family apart.
Revealed: Minister used loophole that chancellor has branded 'Tax abuse' to save thousands in death duties.
DAVID MILIBAND is living in a £ 1.5 million London townhouse at the centre of a complex inheritance-tax avoidance scheme Gordon Brown has pledged to ban.
London home buyers are being hit the hardest in a record £3.4 billion rise in stamp duty bills.
Treasury figures show a 40 per cent increase in the property sales tax.
Ex-BA chief's family strike a deal.
He was Mrs Thatcher's favourite businessman, the washerwoman's son who through his sheer dynamism turned British Airways into an international success story.
Businesses and economic experts have pleaded with Gordon Brown to slash taxes in next week's Budget, warning that the UK's competitiveness was plunging and already driving away businesses.
In its Budget submission, delivered to 11 Downing Street this morning, the Institute of Directors urges Mr Brown to cut business taxes and relieve some of the cost pressures faced by UK companies.
Aristocrat says he was disinheited after claiming that his father abused him as a child.
One of Britain's oldest and wealthiest aristocratic families has been driven apart by a bitter feud over a £325 million inheritance.
HOME owners had double cause to celebrate last night. A key report showed prices soaring and interest rates were put on hold.
Fears of a downturn in the market were dispelled as annual price rises hit nearly 10 per cent and experts predicted the upward trend will continue thoughout 2007.
FREEING up cash locked in your home through equity release could help to reduce your future inheritance tax bill and allow you to spend money on yourself or make a gift to your family while you are still around to see them enjoy it.
Most middle-class homeowners have the bulk of their wealth tied up in their property. By unlocking some of it and giving it away at least seven years before you die, your relatives could avoid paying inheritance tax (IHT) on this amount.
THE number of houses worth more than the £300,000 inheritance tax level has doubled in five years, figures show. More than 2.3million people now live in a home which would make them liable for death duties.
In all, 236 postcodes are liable, 11 per cent of all districts, and up from 117 postcodes in 2001.
SET in the midst of a 1,000-acre country estate, it was once a magnificent house befitting its surroundings. But Fir Hill Manor has fallen into rack and ruin after lying empty for 40 years because the owner refuses to claim his inheritance.
The heir to the £5million Cornish estate lives in America, apparently penniless and in illhealth, and is blocking the land and house from being claimed by anyone else.
The chancellor stands to make three times as much in inheritance tax on the savings schemes as he ever gave in tax breaks, writes David Budworth
THOUSANDS of investors who have saved diligently into Peps and Isas to take advantage of the tax perks might be better off just giving the money away - or spending it.
The Treasury last night dismissed claims that nearly half of the country faces the prospect of paying inheritance tax because of Gordon Brown's failure to increase the threshold in line with inflation.
A spokesman condemned as "scaremongering" reports that the number of estates liable for a 40% tax bill had increased significantly in the past year.
A barrister yesterday accused his half- sister of forging a will to fleece him out of a share of his father's £18million estate.
Stephen Supple, 58, was stunned when his father Leonard died, leaving him a 'gift' of a mere £100 a year - to continue until he reached 70.
The booming property market has pushed the total value of Britain's private homes to a record level, according to the country's largest mortgage lender.
The annual housing stock review from the Halifax showed the UK's private housing stock was worth pounds 3.8 trillion in 2006, up by pounds 410bn or 12% from the previous year. The rise is equivalent to four times the total budget for the National Health Service.
Needy Londoners are to benefit from an £870,000 windfall after a court upheld the final wishes of a Roman Cath' nun.
In her last days at Bart's Hospital in March 2003, Sister Joseph Harding executed a handwritten will giving all she had to the Diocese of Westminster 'to hold in trust for the black community of Hackney, Haringey, Islington and Tower Hamlets'.
Legal experts are warning that the proposed legal right for cohabiting couples will not protect inheritance rights.
Last week the Law Commission published a consultation paper proposing to grant rights to live-in couples and homosexual couples who have "married" in civil partnerships.
The inheritance tax debate
From writing a will to gifting your wealth to loved ones,
there are plenty of ways to stay out of the IHT net ...
And many are already taking action
Have you put off making a will because you don't own enough. Or you imagine your spouse will get everything anyway?
You wouldn't be alone. 2 in 3 people have not bothered
with a last testament - but they're making a big mistake.
Inheritance tax now affects us all In the second of our
series on tax, we look at one of the most unfair: IHT or the Revenue's right to grab a share of the wealth you have
built up over a lifetime. And it is the rich who are best
at circumventing it
With the possible exception of council tax, inheritance tax generates the most heated responses from the public.
This is because it is inherently unfair.
Hundreds of millions of pounds in high street bank accounts that have lain dormant for 10 years or more could be passed to charity under plans being drawn up by the Treasury.
After months of negotiations with the financial services industry, the Treasury is believed to be close to an agreement that would re-direct unused money to the voluntary sector.
If you’ve ever moved house and haven’t managed to keep track of information on your financial dealings you could be one of the thousands of people who have money in forgotten accounts.
As much as £15bn is thought to be languishing in forgotten and unclaimed accounts around the UK.
AN ITALIAN who left Sardinia 20 years ago to start a new life in Britain as a waiter has been left a legacy that would make him a millionaire — but lawyers cannot find him to tell him the news.
Angelo Giuseppe Piroddi, who would now be 46, left his home village of Barisardo in the province of Ogliastra, on the eastern coast of Sardinia, as a young man to seek his fortune in Britain.
THOUSANDS of Scottish families are facing financial chaos because so few people make a will before they die.
A survey by the Scottish Consumer Council reveals almost two-thirds of people don't do so.
Legal experts are warning that the proposed legal right for cohabiting couples will not protect inheritance rights.
Last week the Law Commission published a consultation paper proposing to grant rights to live-in couples and homosexual couples who have "married" in civil partnerships.
The Isle of Man government still has no plans to raise money from dormant bank accounts, the Treasury Minister says.
Last year, UK Chancellor Gordon Brown announced plans to release unclaimed cash from bank and building societies to pay for community facilities.
The hectic pace of modern life makes it all too easy for us to focus on the needs of the moment and neglect planning for our belongings after we are gone. Claire Johnson, takes a closer look at how we can manage our financial affairs even after death.
Article on the consequences of not leaving a will and advice concerning this years budget.
Dying isn't something that most of us choose to think about all that often. It's hard enough trying to get through today (Tuesday, 23 May) without imagining what might happen in the distant future.
A hunt has been launched for the descendants of an Edinburgh servant who have been offered a share of a £5m fortune.
James Cullen Colquhoun served in the prominent Dundas household in the 1800s before travelling with his master's son to Canada.
Robert Dundas secured a valuable collection of North American Indian artefacts which are to be auctioned.
The family now wants the faithful servant's family to profit.
Dying without sorting out assets can cause real grief, says Alison Steed.
More than a million people may need to revisit their wills after changes to trust legislation announced in the Budget. Yet millions more have failed to even write a will, despite the havoc this can cause when they die.
The Treasury has come under pressure to drop plans announced in the Budget to change the taxation of trusts.
An alliance of professional bodies such as the Law Societies and the institutes of Chartered Accountants has called for the changes to be postponed.
Representatives of several professions join up to call for delays to trust moves announced in the Budget.
An alliance of major institutes across several professions has united to call for a delay in the government clampdown on trusts.
Work out if IHT is likely to be an issue by adding up the value of all your savings, investments, property and personal possessions. If the total comes to more than £275,000 (£285,000 for the 2006-2007 tax year), then IHT will apply at the rate of 40%.