Succession in family wealth after the death of the primary provider can be challenging, leading to legal suite. Generally, inheritance is shared according to a family agreement or through a written will by the deceased. The will must satisfy the legal steps to be considered while sharing the properties. For instance, when the individual has a long-term illness, there is a need to draft a will that will be shared with the family members. For instance, in the case provided, the family needs to have that will because the wife could handle all that property. Gurvinder thus had written an email that will help him have his will well managed by his family, his friend serving as a witness. As such, the major of Gurvinder is to protect the family from succession conflicts after his death. The covid-19 pandemic and high risk of cancer will play a significant role in ensuring a legal suit in the future.
When we consider the case presented, the civil partner and her children are alive and thus ahead in the line of inheritance, with the wife being the head in the line of succession. In the case of an invalid will, the wife will take over the inheritance and share it with her two children (Paul & Rai, 2021). An invalid will can happen in the case when the husband never arrived at that point of having the will signed and having the required witness through legal action. As such, the beneficiary will be the wife, who will later decide on how to divide the will with the children based on the agreement that they will make. The primary aim is to create a better succession if the legal owner of the will dies before having the will done. In addition, the will can exist but in an invalid state. Therefore, there will be a need to have the next of kin control the inheritance that will be left behind.
However, before his death, the husband has made a verbal and written will on how he would like the properties to be shared. He made the intentions open by writing a personal email to his long-time friend Satwinder Bains echoing his will to his children to inherit part of his properties. The email will play an essential role because the friend is the only trustee who was left with the information about the will. The friend will ensure that all the information presented in the document has followed the legal process outlined in the inheritance will. The friend will be the major witness of the succession process and will choose to follow the actions outlined in the will. The will’s intentions have to be followed, and the beneficiaries are given everything as outlined in the will.
The email has additional information on the sharing of £40,000 in the bank for the children’s free lunch as charity. All the intended shared properties were mentioned. The written document has clearly outlined what additional information the beneficiaries might lack when doing the succession. The primary aim is to have the best succession at his death. Therefore, outlining the fundamental properties, they don’t know will help ensure that all their property has been shared equally.
In England and Wales, a home-written will is valid if it meets all the legal policies for writing. A will must be written by the owner of the properties voluntarily and be of sound mind. Firstly, while making the promises to his children on inheritance, Panesar was aware of the global pandemic and was of sound mind. Being of sound mind is one of the requirements for a will to be valid. Additionally, he was conscious because he made logical arguments on why he wanted the will to be made earlier by making some of the claims about how the properties will be problematic to his wife.
Secondly, all the properties he wanted to be shared were mentioned and allocated willingly. He initiated the idea of inheritance when he called his children and informed them of the newly acquired properties, which the children might not have been aware and asked them to share equally. Succession can be a challenging process that can create more conflicts in families. To control all such actions, the legal owner of the properties will have to be clear with all the properties they have. Thus, it will be easy to share out at the end when he dies.
Thirdly, Panesar has legal rights to own the properties and hence could decide on how they will be managed in his absence. Mr. Panesar is above 18 years old and thus can own properties individually according to the lows of the UK. Additionally, he bought the properties using his income and has ownership records. In most properties, he is the primary owner and hence entitled to make decisions on management and inheritance.
Fourthly, the will must be of a written form to increase its credibility. Mr. Panesar starts by informing his children of the recent property acquisition orally to gain their consent. Then, he writes the email informing his close friend of his intentions on property sharing and inheritance. The will is made in email form hence valid. Before his death, he had filled in the share transfer form and handed it over to Satwinder. All this critical information is essential in sharing the will. For example, they will help in further solutions if there is a problem in the event of sharing the will. Therefore, Mr. Panesar was very open the all the properties to many of his family and chosen friends as witnesses.
Fifth, the email and filled-in share transfer form were written and signed per the requirement. At the end of both emails and filling in the share transfer form, Mr. Panesar indicates whom he is referring to and signs it, making them the first witness. He further explains that his wife is aware of the deal, and he informs his children as second witnesses. This process is essential because the two witnesses must sign the will. However, due to pandemic restrictions, physical meetings were impossible; thus, virtual meetings were considered to increase their validity. Therefore, the optimal point of trust was recorded based on the agreements signed in the provided documents.
Lastly, the law requires that the two witnesses must sign the will in the presence of the owner. However, in this case, it was not signed because restrictions discouraged physical meetings, especially for those ailing from lifestyle and terminal illnesses. The case of not meeting at times might pose challenges in the event the families disagree on the succession. However, the will must be followed as outlined in the legal documents. Thus, it is understandable that the pandemic restrictions could allow such meetings, particularly for older people.
In England and the UK, there is no forced heirship; hence people could share their properties willingly by waking a list of will and testament. Mr. Panesar filled in the share transfer form and handed it to his friend Satwinder although he had informed him earlier of his plans (Paul & Rai, 2021). Since this is not a forced heirship, the will of Mr. Panesar should be honored. However, the legal suites laws of the UK have to be followed. As a result, the will has to be followed and honored, as Mr. Panesar wrote. Therefore, there will be no open restrictions that will impact Mr. Panesar’s will.
Although the will has a high grade of validity, Jasleen Panesar could disapprove it legally. Firstly, there is no clear information on the property shares in their holdings (Paul & Rai, 2021). Lack of knowledge increases the chances of Mr. Panesar including properties owned by two or more parties in his will as personal. According to the laws governing will and inheritance, one is only supposed to include his shares alone in his will, leaving the partners with their shares. Thus until the relevant authorities give detailed information on ownership of the properties, Jasleen could resist handing over ownership to the parties indicated in the will.
Secondly, the will has not satisfied all the laws required to make it valid. The signing is done in the absence of an adult individual, although they were informed of the signing due to Covid-19 control measures. However, they could have reconsidered their options and made the physical signing for an essential document such as a will. In addition, this exemption might be questioned because other family members interact with their father despite going out and interacting with other people increasing the risks of exposing their father to coronavirus. Hence, it could have been considered that the witnesses to be availed physically for the will signature. Additionally, the two adult witnesses could sign the will per the law to make it valid.
Thirdly, the will is ambiguous and thus should not be considered widely in every sharing. For example, before his death, Mr. Pasner had not fully prepared his will and completed the transfer of properties as he indicated. However, he does not state the exact list of people to manage the free lunch for children funds nor took any additional steps to register the flats in Manvir and Satwinder’s names. Further, Satwinder did not manage to complete the transfers of shares as instructed because Kalwant contracted Corona and was subjected to treatment in hospital, being the last time they met before the death of Mr. Pasner. In such case, the shares are dived between immediate family members.
Considering all the arguments presented, under the condition in which Mr. Pasner prepared his will, it will be considered valid despite his untimely death. Mr. Pasner was observing policies implemented by the government to control the spread of Corona; thus, he could not have a physical meeting to validate the will. Although, he informed all those around him of the will and how he wanted it to be shared before signing it personally despite the absence of witnesses. However, it can be argued that the virtual witnesses, who include his wife, two children, and Satwinder, were vital. Since Mr. Pasner commanded £40,000 to be shared as charity for children’s free lunch, the share should be presented to the public through relevant authorities recommended by the public attorney. Hence, Jasleen is obligated to release the inheritances shown in the will written by her husband.
Reference
Paul, S., & Rai, M. (2021). Inheritance laws.Encyclopedia of Gerontology and Population Aging, 2620-2627. Web.