JMW achieves significant settlement for surviving widow
Ian Johnston of JMW’s Private Wealth Disputes team represented a surviving spouse in an Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 claim, where her husband of 47 years left a will making no outright capital provision for her in a £1.4m estate. The will left a will trust which allowed our client to live in the marital home for the rest of her life. However, the will trust gave the trustees the power to appoint the income and capital of the trust to other beneficiaries at their own discretion. The trustees were the children of the Deceased’s previous relationship and were also potential beneficiaries of the trust.
The case was important because the Deceased owned the property in which our client resided and because the client had limited capital of her own, having been wholly reliant upon her husband to provide her with income and capital. She also had significant monthly expenditure needs and children of her own from a previous relationship. Had her claim not been issued, it would have been open to the trustees to immediately following the limitation period:
- Sell the property and not purchase a replacement, leaving the client homeless; or
- Invest the trust assets in such a way that they did not meet the client’s income needs; or
- Appoint the income or capital in the trust to another party.
As such the terms of the will provided no financial stability for our client and did not enable her to meet her key concerns of ensuring long term security of accommodation and sufficient income and capital resources to maintain her for the rest of the life. This caused our client much distress and uncertainty. After issuing the claim, we were able to achieve a significant settlement which met the client’s needs and provided her with the security and reassurance that had been so lacking under the original terms of the will.