Lawyers can get it wrong

My father died in 2019 and had left about £20,000 to Christ Church college Oxford. As the estate came to be wound up the solicitor pointed out to me, my brother and sister that by paying a further £140,000 to charities the rate of Inheritance Tax would drop from 40% to 36%. That would cost the three of us just £10,000 and it therefore seemed a good idea. In practice Christ Church got an extra £20,000.

Meanwhile the question then arose as to whether or not the Dean of Ch Ch had put his hand on the bottom of a young woman. This cost £6m in lawyers' bills to resolve. So all the money my father had given was swamped by deliberate waste.

Written by Simon Cawkwell, December 2025