The validity of wills can come under challenge and, if you want peace to reign in your family after you are gone, professional drafting and advice make a real difference. That was certainly so in one case in which the High Court ruled that a musician knew his own mind when he cut his son out of his £1.3 million estate.
By the will he signed five months before his death from cancer, aged 81, the man left half his estate to his daughter and the other half to his five grandchildren. There was no bequest to his son, although a non-binding letter of wishes that was attached to the document urged that he be given certain chattels.
In dismissing the son’s challenge to the will, the High Court rejected arguments that the man did not have the legal capacity to execute it. He had known and understood its contents and claims that his daughter had fraudulently poisoned his mind against his son also fell on fallow ground. A critical factor in the Court’s ruling was that the will was rational on its face, properly executed and drafted by a lawyer.