LATER LIFE PLANNING
Libby Holding Legal Services Director APS Legal & Associates
This week , a landmark case
has been admitted to probate following a High Court battle which concluded last year with the judge ruling that a DIY will was invalid , meaning that the testator ’ s earlier will , which left all of his £ 300,000 estate to only one of his five children , was his last will and leaving his daughter now set to inherit the whole amount to herself . William Tibbles had written a will in March 2017 leaving his entire estate to his daughter Terri . He had left a letter of wishes with the will outlining that his other three daughters had been a ‘ disappointment ’ to him , and his son Paul was already financially secure .
Three days following his death in February 2018 however , a handwritten will was produced naming Paul as his executor and dividing the estate equally between the other 4 of his children , excluding Terri completely . Paul claimed that his father had validly signed and executed his will on 6th February 2018 – the day before he was admitted to hospital and five days before he passed away . The will was handwritten on a piece of paper ‘ torn from a notebook ’ and Terri Tibbles had argued that the ‘ DIY will ’ could have been signed by anybody and that there was no reason for her dad to have completely changed his mind about his estate . She said , “ it would have been totally uncharacteristic for him to prepare a DIY will , considering his long history of previous dealing with solicitors ”. A handwriting expert said that there was ‘ moderate to strong evidence ’ that Mr Tibbles had not written or signed the will . Giving his judgement , the judge said there was ‘ insufficient evidence to show due execution of the 2018 will ’ and that there was no evidence presented about who wrote the will and whether it was written at Mr Tibbles ’ direction or dictation , who was present at the time and what his state of mind was at the time . There was also no real explanation for his change of mind as to how his estate should be
distributed . Therefore , all of the evidence and background circumstances pointed heavily against the 2018 will being a valid document . The case serves as a stark reminder that whilst ‘ DIY wills ’ can be written in any format and be valid as long as the formalities are adhered to , it is important to make sure that a will is executed in the proper way and in accordance with the law in order for it stand up to scrutiny , particularly where challenges are likely , as was the case here . In this case , the letter of wishes supporting the reasoning behind the earlier will , along with the evidence presented by Terri as to the background circumstances , the lack of evidence in support of the later will , and the lack of context as to Mr Tibbles ’ purported decision to change his mind about how he wanted to leave his estate , will all have been key considerations for the judge when reaching his decision . If Mr Tibbles really did make the later will , he would have been best placed to use a professional to write his will to ensure that his wishes were properly documented and that his new will would stand up to scrutiny from Terri , as he could have reasonably expected that she may challenge the will given that she was now to be excluded completely . Even if he was poorly and imminently to be admitted to hospital , professionals in this situation can work quickly to complete a will for a client , and most are used to providing ‘ death bed ’ wills at some stage in their career , so his ill-health could not be used as an excuse for not having taken care to ensure his affairs were in order and as he wanted them before he passed away . If , however , as the evidence suggests , the later will was not written by Mr Tibbles and was fraudulently created by someone else , the case serves as a further reminder that a thorough analysis , and ultimately justice , can be achieved by proper use of the courts whenever there is any doubt as to the validity of a will . P
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