Women in Wills was pleased to host a virtual webinar on Wills in Different Jurisdictions. Chair of Women in Wills Paige Gouldthorpe hosted a panel of 5 speakers who represented English, Scottish, French, Spanish and Islamic Wills:

  • Lucy Cresswell, Solicitor, JMW Solicitors (English Wills)
  • Julia Whytock, Retired Solicitor & Professional Will writer (Scottish Wills)
  • Lea Maynard, Senior French Executive Buckles Solicitor LLP (French Wills)
  • Roser Coller, Founding Partner, Temis & Co (Spanish Wills)
  • Yasmin Hoque, Partner, AL-HQ Law & More (Islamic Wills)

The panellist outlined the validity and execution of wills and outlined the intestacy rules in their jurisdiction. Please see the video below to revisit the webinar. It was interesting to hear the key differences and important considerations for each jurisdiction.

For example, when discussing capacity to make a will, the age for a valid will varied between jurisdiction. 12 in Scotland, 14 in Spain and 18 in England and Wales.

Lea Maynard discussed how unlike in England and Wales, the French do not commonly rely on Wills. However the Hague Convention saw French Wills as valid in all other Party States (including the UK). There are various types of Wills in France (and Spain):

  • Holographic Wills
  • Authentic
  • Mystic
  • International

Roser Coller advised that clients should create a will referred to Spanish assets only separate to their English Wills and to add a clause to state that one wills (English / Spanish) will not revoke the other, they’re respected.

As French wills are not very common, almost 90% of French Estates are Administered on the basis of intestacy rules.

When discussing Intestacy Rules, Julia Whytock explained that there is an Order of Division when managing the deceased estate (Scottish Wills):

  • Payment of Debts
  • Prior Rights of Surviving Spouses or Civil Partners (this includes rights to dwelling house, furniture and plenishing and a cash lump sum of £50,000 when there are also children and £87,000 when there are no children)
  • Legal Rights (rights to moveable property; surviving spouses are entitled to half of this but it reduces to 1/3 if there are children)

Interestingly, with Islamic Wills, Payment of Debts also refers to unfulfilled duties (prayer or fasting, obligatory charity gifts and marital gifts).

 

This webinar was extremely interesting and provided useful advice for legal practitioners. We recommend that viewers watch the Q+A session at the end for a valuable comparison of the different jurisdictions when managing common challenges such as Trusts.

 

Thank you to Paige Gouldthorpe for chairing this webinar and our fantastic panel for their time.