Mutual wills: a warning

In the case of Legg and others v Burton and others [2017] EWHC 2088 (Ch) the claimants, children of Mrs Clark, successfully established a constructive trust under the doctrine of mutual wills. This had the effect of making invalid the 13 subsequent wills the deceased made between 2004 and 2014, after her husband died. It was held by His Honour Judge Matthews in the Chancery Division of the Bristol District Registry that the wills Mrs Clark made with her husband in mirror terms in 2000 were mutual wills and as such there was a binding agreement with her husband, which she could not go back on after his death.

Mutual wills are not usually recommended by professionals, not least because the future consequences cannot easily be predicted at the time of drafting. They most commonly arise where the testators perceive the complexity and running costs of a trust as being too much of a burden, and there is a desire for certainty in the way the testator's estate is disposed of.

Read the full article here.