Last month was the much-anticipated Lifetime Lawyers National Conference “The Best is Yet to Come” which formed part of our 30-year anniversary celebrations.
Once again, the conference took the form of a day long case study exploring the challenges faces by the sandwich generation as Eleanor Rigby, a widow, juggles work, finding love, supporting her 90-year-old mother, and ongoing caring responsibilities for her adult daughter Victoria who has cerebral palsy and learning disabilities.
Professor Lesley King, Alexa Payet, Dr Emma Clare, Caroline Bielanska, Elizabeth Rimmer, and Richard Dew untangled the various issues for Eleanor and her family.
The event took place at The Shaw Theatre, part of the Pullman London St Pancras hotel, a stunning venue in the heart of London.
After the welcome address from our chair Jade Gani, we heard from our Principal Sponsor, Charles Stanley. We then went straight into the first session of the day with Professor Lesley King taking us through the intricacies of mutual will agreements and their impact on future planning.
After a quick break for coffee and some delicious snacks came Alexa Payet’s session on the application of the forfeiture rule in the context of assisted dying. Extremely topical at the moment.
This was followed by our sponsor, Property Ladder Group (PLG), introducing their services and the very popular Grant the Probate Bear! Dr Emma Clare then delivered a thought-provoking session on how we talk about death and dying, including what a good death looks like to us.
We then broke for lunch which gave us the opportunity to network and speak to sponsors in the extensive networking space available to us.
After lunch our CEO Lakshmi Turner hosted the prize draws and walked us through the inspiring history of Lifetime Lawyers covering the key moments of the last 30 years. And as an introduction to our Twilight Awards taking place in November, she also presented our administrator, Sue Carraturo, with a special award recognising decades of outstanding service to our members. My warm congratulations and thanks to Sue for all that you do.
The afternoon continued with Caroline Bielanska’s session on advance decisions and LPAs, the options available to Maria, and the key differences between them. Caroline also looked at lifetime gifting and what gives rise to, and the consequences of, deliberate deprivation.
Afternoon tea was followed by a presentation from Estate Search introducing their international profile searches and why they are important.
We then heard from Elizabeth Rimmer, CEO of LawCare on the importance of wellbeing, human skills, and sustaining a healthy legal practice. The stats from the Life in the Law 2025 report give cause for concern… As a reminder, LawCare offers free, confidential support for anyone working in the legal sector via their helpline, online chat and email: LawCare: Help & support
Our Sponsor, the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), then explained how their legacy service can simplify the administration of charitable legacies in a will.
And in the final session Richard Dew talked us through the tax treatment of compensation payable under the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme, the secondary transfer issue identified by Jade Gani, and the fantastic campaigning work done by Lifetime Lawyers and STEP leading to the announcement by Rachel Reeves In the Autumn Budget 2025 that all payments from the compensation scheme will be exempt from inheritance tax “regardless of the circumstances in which those payments are passed down.”
It was hoped that the statutory instrument to “make provision conferring relief from inheritance tax in respect of infected blood completion payments” provided for in the Finance Act 2026 would have at least been drafted prior to the conference, but work is still ongoing. Details will be shared as soon as they are available.
Bringing the conference to an end there was a drinks reception in the lounge, and it was great to catch up with everybody in person. Many thanks to all our invited guests for joining us. We were delighted to be joined by special guest Mark Evans, President of the Law Society. You may have seen my selfie on LinkedIn!
Feedback about the day has been very positive with many saying it was the best conference so far. So, the pressure is on for next year and planning is already underway. Next year’s conference will take place at the Royal College of Physicians. Save the date for Thursday 24 June 2027 and keep an eye on your emails for further details.
(Author: Kirsty Limacher, Lifetime Lawyers legal consultant)