The Hidden Risk of Informal Estate Planning
A long-running inheritance dispute currently before the courts highlights a growing issue in modern estate planning: the gap between personal relationships, informal understandings, and legally structured planning.
The case involves the former partner of fashion designer Chris Liu, who died in 2017 leaving an estate reportedly worth over £1 million. Although the couple lived together and operated a business jointly, much of the estate passed under the terms of a will to family members overseas, leading to a seven-year legal battle involving claims under the Inheritance Act and arguments around constructive trust principles.
At the centre of the dispute are familiar themes we increasingly see in practice:
Long-term partners not properly reflected in formal planning;
Property ownership differing from the parties’ real intentions;
Dependence on verbal understandings rather than structured agreements;
Estates becoming consumed by legal costs and conflict;
Professional executors being brought into prolonged disputes between beneficiaries and family members.
Cases like this are rarely just about money. They are usually the result of planning that failed to evolve alongside real life circumstances.
At iTrust121, we believe modern estate planning must go beyond simply producing a will. Proper structuring should consider relationships, business interests, property ownership, future dependency, and how assets are intended to be controlled and protected over time.
As Senior Counsel to iTrust121, one of the most common issues I encounter is clients assuming that informal family understandings or basic will drafting will automatically produce the outcome they intended. Unfortunately, where planning lacks structure and clarity, disputes often emerge precisely when families are at their most vulnerable.
The purpose of structured planning is not simply tax efficiency. It is to reduce uncertainty, preserve intentions, and help avoid the type of conflict and litigation now unfolding in this case.
James Berkeley
Senior Counsel
iTrust121