by johnireland | Articles
A Yorkshire farmer made a new Will a few weeks before he died unexpectedly. It left his second wife a £5 million tax-free legacy, the right to live in their home for life, and the contents. Everything else — a farming estate worth tens of millions — went to his son....
by johnireland | Articles
Ask a room full of business owners in their fifties and sixties when they last took a week off sick and you will hear a lot of proud answers. “I never get ill.” “I can’t remember the last time.” “I don’t have time to be...
by johnireland | The Book Shelf
Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2012) asks a simple question of anything you own: does disorder hurt it, leave it unchanged, or make it stronger?Taleb sorts things into fragile (harmed by shocks), robust (unaffected) and antifragile (improved by them).Key tools:...
by johnireland | Legal Spotlight
A High Court case from May 2026 shows how inherited family wealth is treated when a spouse challenges a Will.Thirsk v Thirsk & Ors [2026] EWHC 1501 (Ch): a widow challenged her late husband’s Will under the 1975 Act. The estate was worth around £30 million,...
by johnireland | Articles
Most estate planning advice is written with children in mind. Leave the house to the kids, protect the grandchildren, think about university fees. But a great many of the business owners and property investors we meet have no children at all — some single, some...
