Avery Associates

This article is about assets in England and Wales that are your legal entitlement. You can only bequeath things that you truly own. Because if you try to include anything else, the rightful owner could challenge your will and even overturn it completely. You should ponder carefully before deciding who gets the proceeds of your English and Welsh assets when you die. Specialist Advice from the Pen of Jeffrey Avery Jeffrey Avery is a specialist valuer of movable collectables. His work takes him into homes of deceased estates, where survivors ask him to arrange home clearances of unwanted items. They tell him they prefer to pay his slightly higher, yet still reasonable rates. Rather than take chances with fly-by-night tippers, and find the items dumped on open land alongside abandoned household waste. General Principles of Ownership and Wills Ownership is a state whereby a person, or legal entity has exclusive rights and control over an asset. Assets could be land, improvements, intellec...

Disputes over contents of wills are quite common. Especially during COVID that limits contact between family members. Some testators change their minds quite frequently. Long COVID can affect mental ability in the short term. Hence more people may be asking how to access medical records of deceased persons than before. Disputing a Last Will and Testament – An Overview A person making a will has few restrictions over their decisions. That’s provided the assets they mention are legally theirs, and they have a right to dispose of them. Claiming they were not of sound mind, and lacked sufficient mental capacity is a potential way around challenging such decisions. Especially since the deceased is no longer available for psychometric tests. Many such claims reason in terms Hawes versus Burgess (2013). This was a case where a sister appealed against a bequest that disinherited her brother. She won, although the legal costs absorbed the entire value of the estate. The core judgement ...