Our Blog
Is Mediation Future Focused?
Mediation, in regard to solving problems, has a strong emphasis on the future. But in practice, people will nearly always have to travel along a road that takes them from the past to the present, to gain an insight into how tomorrow can be different. The origins of...
A Fixed Point of View? – How Mediation Can Change Perspectives
I was listening to a Barclays’ podcast (Word on the Street # 218 - 8.6.23) on the behaviour of investors. Maya Wheland argued that people make their minds up about a situation really quickly, then are reluctant to change. With regard to investors - they become...
Mediation and Confidentiality
‘Mediation thrives on confidentiality…’ (Freedman & Prigoff 1986) Mediation is confidential, which means that nobody other than the people involved in the mediation should know the content of what’s being discussed. Why is confidentially so important? In a...
Is Mediation Really Voluntary?
This post follows on from my earlier post 'Four Characteristics of Mediation', which is availabale at: https://wp.me/p4doqK-2jT Mediation is a process that people enter into voluntarily. The people involved in a dispute decide to consider mediation as a way to...
Lasting Power of Attorney Dispute? – How Mediation Can Help Find A Way Forward
A Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) is a legal agreement between a donor (the person making the LPA) and their nominated attorney. This agreement enables the attorney to act for the donor and make decisions, when the donor can no longer do this for themselves. There...
Compulsory Mediation In Family Law – Could Private Client Disputes Be Next?
In March 2023, the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) published a recent consultation paper on taking the compulsory element of private family law mediation a stage further . At present, people involved in a family dispute must attend an individual Mediation Information and...
Four Characteristics of Mediation
Mediation, whether wills and probate or any other type of mediation, has four main characteristics: Mediation is voluntary – the parties involved in mediation engage under their own free will. Mediation is self-determined – the mediator brings people together and...
Problems with Trusts – What has mediation got to do with it?
Trusts are deceptively simple. The legal owner of an asset, transfers its ownership to a willing third party (a trustee), for the benefit of another person (a beneficiary). But there are a complex set of rules governing trusts, that can make disputes very difficult...
Values
There’s been a lot of talk about values in the press, on the run up to the King’s Coronation. Will the new monarch lead to a reinstatement of national values, are the old one’s obsolete, has our world changed so much since the coronation of Elizabeth II that we need...
Trust
At some time in our life we are going to be conned. No matter how careful we are, how many cross checks we make, no matter how many reviews we read, someone is going to get the better of us. Whether it’s a holiday company selling us short on the experience of a...
Problems with Probate – What has mediation got to do with it?
Most executors, who take on the responsibility of carrying out the final wishes of a deceased friend colleague or family member, complete their obligation without any problems. But some hit unexpected issues, leaving them uncertain about how to resolve seemingly...
Choosing Executors – HR’s Role In Advising Business Owners on Inheritance
Following the death of a business owner, an executor will be nominated (in the will) to manage the administration of their estate (probate). People will often ask friends or relatives to act as executors for their will, but for business owners the implications of...
Taxation – HR’s Role In Advising Business Owners on Inheritance Issues
"Tax doesn’t have to be taxing’ ran the HMRC’s old ad campaign, encouraging us to fill in our tax return on time. But when it comes to taxes that are due on the death of business owners, the statement simply does not hold true – they’re complex, convoluted...
Succession or Sale? – HR’s Role In Advising Business Owners On Inheritance Issues
This second post explores the opportunity for human resource consultants to advise small business owners on the future of their business, after their deaths. We’ll look at the important question of succession or sale after the owner’s death. It’s a rather long post,...
Dying to Do Business? – HR’s Role In Advising Business Owners On Inheritance Issues
Businesses spend a great deal of time analysing risk, but when it comes to the potential for people who lead companies to unexpected die, business owners will often prefer to avoid a discussion about their own mortality. This is a particular issue for small...
Trusting in Trusts –Protecting Your Home with A Property Protection Trust (Part 2)
Continuing from our last blog, which identified why giving your home to your children (in order to avoid the cost of care and tax) may not be such a good idea, we’ll spend a little more time on two solutions to the problem – writing a will and setting up a trust....
Giving It All Away ? – Why Gifting Your Home to Your Children May Not Be Such A Good Idea
When considering the impending burden of inheritance tax and the cost of care, many parents feel that giving their home to their children could be a very attractive option. Their plan is to continue to live in the home, but pass the legal ownership to their children....
Death in Service Benefits – The Importance of Reviewing Nominations
Many employees are entitled to a death in service benefit from their employer. The figure can vary considerably from a very small sum to over ten times an employee’s annual salary. The benefit is usually linked to the staff pension scheme and will be free of...
The Trouble with Children – Problems Defining Offspring for Inheritance
It’s very natural for parents to pass on all their worldly goods to their children, and for those who die without a will the probate rules will ensure that they are the first in line (along with any spouse) for the assets from your estate. But although the...
When Gifts Fail –Legacies That Don’t Turn Out Exactly as Expected
Wills are an extremely efficient way of passing on your estate, after death, to those who you loved and cared for in your lifetime. Gifts (as the law calls them) can be money, personal property, land or businesses. However, there are a number of traps for the unwary...
Last in Line – Why Beneficiaries Are the Last to Receive Property from a Will
When a friend or family member dies, the beneficiaries of a will are the last in line to receive any share of the estate. The current publicity concerning the estate of the late Boris Berezovsky, the billionaire Russian oligarch who died in Ascot in 2013, highlights...