Share and share alike
by Patricia Wass
I am writing this column for PS following the first real weekend of the spring in mid-March. We managed a trip to one of the Devon beaches at the weekend, and there were even some brave souls swimming in the sea! Living in a beautiful part of the country helps to keep ‘lifestyle choices’ high on the agenda in what seem to be gloomy times for the economy as a whole.
There is much to look forward to as a Section in the months ahead. Following the ‘Blue Skies’ day in November, the action plan for the executive committee has now been finalised and some projects are already underway.
We had a very busy meeting in January when we had visits from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and members of the Law Commission. HMRC reported to us on a pilot project it is running over the next 12 months. This is with a view to assisting practitioners with the completion of information regarding capital gains tax in the preparation of trust and estates returns. We have asked them to write a separate article about this for PS as they are looking for a number of volunteer firms to assist with the project.
Professor Elizabeth Cooke and some of her team from the Law Commission talked to us about the consultation for the rules concerning the law of intestacy and family provision. The way that families are constituted has changed so much in the last generation and an overhaul of the present rules is long overdue. If you have any particular real life ‘horror’ stories about how the laws on intestacy or family provision have been applied for your clients, then do let us know and we will pass these examples on to the Law Commission for their consideration.
Invitations
I have invited a member from the Wills and Equity Committee to attend our Section meetings as an observer on a regular basis, and that committee has also asked one of our committee members to attend their meetings. The Wills and Equity Committee deals with many of the technical issues that affect our professional discipline, and they invite our input from a practitioner’s point of view.
I have also arranged to meet Katherine Gibson, the present chair of the Junior Lawyers Division, and have invited a representative or two from her committee to join us at our meetings as well. I want to do as much as I can to encourage younger members of the profession into our area of work, so this will be a positive step towards building relationships with the Junior Lawyers Division and finding out what we can do to assist in spreading the message to their members.
Conference
We are also putting the final touches on the arrangements for the Probate Section Annual Conference, which is due to take place in London on 3 July. We have some great speakers lined up including Martin John, the Public Guardian. We are looking forward to hearing about the future plans he has for the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG). He has not had an easy time after the problems we all experienced with the new Mental Capacity Act. It is certainly fair to say that my firm’s dealings with the OPG are now less fraught than 12 months ago – legal powers of attorney are being registered in a more timely fashion, and deputyship applications are running quite smoothly now we are all getting used to the new forms. I hope your firms are having a similar experience.
I do hope that you have been enjoying the PS seminars that have been put on around the country, and that you have been able to attend one or two. If not, then you could try one of the online seminars we are running instead – I’m sure you will benefit from them. The committee is looking at other ways that we can embrace the new technologies for the benefit of our members. The Law Society is looking at the whole of its website offering and we are making sure that we have input into that for the Section. If you haven’t had a look at the website recently, particularly since its rebranding in February, then do have a look at all that is on offer and let us know if there is anything else that we can add which may be useful to you. Thank you to all those members who do pick up items that they think will be of interest to the Section. The Law Society do pass the emails and queries on, and these are picked up by the committee and actioned as appropriate.