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Irish Times
22-07-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
My family lives abroad. Does that cause problems with my father's will?
I am an executor on my father's will. He died earlier this year and we are now trying to organise his estate. He did not have much other than his home, so it is not overly complicated. But I am having trouble getting answers to some questions which I need to sort out the tax affairs with Revenue . First, he was a pensioner receiving the State pension and the Revenue form wants a 'personal claim number'. I thought this would be his PPS number, but a quick Google search tells me it is a different number. Also, some of my siblings live abroad and they and their children are named in the will. Does that create any problems? Mr DS READ MORE Getting to grips with a loved one's estate always sounds easier than it turns out to be. Inevitably, there are legacy credit union accounts or prize bonds or tiny, long-forgotten shareholdings to be found and sorted. People think that, because they are close family, they know everything about a parent or sibling. This is rarely the case. That's why most families leave the digging and sorting to a solicitor. First, they're more familiar with what to look for and second, by the nature of their business, they are familiar with what is required in dealings with the Revenue and the Probate Office. Your issue with the personal claim number is a case in point. Everyone in receipt of a social welfare payment – a State pension or anything else – has a personal claim number. This number is required on the Statement of Affairs that must be submitted to the Revenue Commissioners as part of the probate process. It is not something I came across before but it certainly makes sense. Following your query, I did a Google search and it does, rather unhelpfully, state that this personal claim number is distinct and separate from a person's unique Personal Public Service (PPS) number. That is not the case and is just one example of why one should always be careful about the Encyclopaedia of Google. Having contacted the Department of Social Protection , they assure me that a person's PPS number acts as their personal claim number precisely because it is a unique identifier. Your second point is less black and white. As you can imagine, inheritances across borders can get complicated, not least because of the very different approaches to taxing estates and inheritances in different countries, even within the EU. Just because your siblings and their children live abroad, they could have a liability to Irish capital acquisitions tax (inheritance tax) as your dad lived here and his home is physically in the State. Whether they will actually end up having to pay tax in Ireland depends on how much they receive. I'm not going to get into what they owe in whatever country or countries they actually live in, not least because you have not identified them. Revenue will certainly require everyone receiving a benefit valued at more than €12,000 to be identified with a PPS number in the Statement of Affairs. Far anyone living or working in Ireland, this is not a problem. Similarly, if you were born in Ireland since 2000, you will automatically have been assigned a PPS. For anyone else, including children who were born abroad and never worked in Ireland, they will need to apply to the Department of Social Protection's Client Identity Services unit at cis@ They will need proof of identity (a passport), proof of address and a reason why the PPS is required. Stating that it is because of inheritance is valid. You also have to fill in a questionnaire and, if the number is to be sent to a third party, such as an executor, a consent form. Please send your queries to Dominic Coyle, Q&A, The Irish Times, 24-28 Tara Street, Dublin 2, or by email to , with a contact phone number. This column is a reader service and is not intended to replace professional advice
The Sun
02-07-2025
- The Sun
My wife betrayed me by having affair and now she's taking me to the cleaners – she's turned so cruel and cold
DEAR DEIDRE: MY wife betrayed me by having an affair and now she is taking me to the cleaners. I don't recognise the woman she's become. She has turned so cruel and cold. Now I'm set to lose everything — my home, money and my kids — while she lives the life of Riley. I don't know where to turn. I'm 42 and she's 40. We've been married for 15 years and have three children, aged between eight and 12. Earlier this year, I discovered she'd been seeing a man she met online. They were sneaking around, having sex, while I was at work or looking after our children. I was devastated, but told her I'd forgive her. I didn't want to break my family apart. But she wasn't having it, and asked me to leave our house. 'The kids need their mum,' she said. I've had to carry on paying half the mortgage, as well as rent for my own flat — and for all the loans we had taken out together. I'm left with barely enough money to buy food for myself each month. To add insult to injury, a few weeks after I was forced out, she moved her boyfriend in. I don't know what to do. I can't stop paying, as I need to support my kids. She says she'll stop me seeing them if I don't pay my share. And if I get into debt it will ruin my credit rating too. Although I have spoken to a solicitor, I can't afford legal fees, and going to court will take a year. I feel totally destroyed. All I ever did was love her and my kids. How can she get away with this? DEIDRE SAYS: This is a horrible situation and no, it isn't fair. She has treated you appallingly but you are doing well to keep your relationship with your children a priority. In the long term, they will thank you for that. But we have a no-fault divorce system in this country, which means her behaviour – however cruel – has no bearing on financial matters. Moving her boyfriend in, however, could have an impact on what she is entitled to. Painful as it must be, try to stay focused and practical. Talk to Both Parents Matter (0300 0300 363, for advice on your rights and see for information on finances and divorce. My support pack, Thinking Of Divorce, also contains useful contacts and tips. BEST MATE'S UNHEALTHY HABITS SURE TO KILL HIM DEAR DEIDRE: I FEAR my best friend is heading for an early grave due to his unhealthy lifestyle. Worryingly, however many times I tell him he needs to change, he says he's fine. What can I do? My friend and I are both approaching 60. We met 30 years ago. He was a fit, handsome guy then. But now he's overweight, drinks too much and doesn't get enough sleep. He still smokes and he lives on microwave meals and takeaways. His beer gut is so big, it's hard to hug him. I worry that he's a heart attack waiting to happen. When I talk to him about it he gets annoyed and says I shouldn't try to change him. Sometimes, I wonder if he's a bit lonely and depressed. He's been single since his divorce. DEIDRE SAYS: Your best friend is an adult and, sadly, you can't make him change his ways. All you can do is show him you're worried about him, and truly care. It sounds like he's in denial. Rather than nagging him, take practical measures to support him. Invite him round for healthy food and offer to help him give up smoking. Perhaps ask him to join you at the gym or a walking club so you get fit together. If you think he may be depressed, encourage him to see his doctor. My support pack, Help For Your Depression, might also be useful. SEX WITH HUBBY IS PAINFUL AND DULL DEAR DEIDRE: SEX with my husband now feels like just another unpleasant chore, along with the housework or my tax return. So, I've told him I won't be doing it any more. I feel guilty but I don't see why I should have to endure something I don't enjoy, just to make him happy. We're in our late forties and have been married for 20 years. We used to have a healthy sex life, but since perimenopause kicked in for me, it's been downright painful. My husband still wants to have sex at least once a week and says it's important for us to be intimate. But I just don't feel any emotional connection. Sex is purely a physical act, for his pleasure – an obligation. But this issue is starting to affect our marriage. What should I do? DEIDRE SAYS: Sex shouldn't be painful and it shouldn't feel like a chore. You need to work together to find a compromise, which may also help to bring you closer. See your GP about menopause treatments, which should make sex more comfortable, and increase your libido. Work together to find out what feels good. But the onus shouldn't be on you to solve this. He needs to respect your feelings too. Take intercourse off the table while you focus on affection – kissing, cuddling and massaging each other. Think about having couples counselling. My support packs, Reviving A Woman's Sex Drive, and Menopause Problems, should help. HIS MOODINESS UNDERMINES ME DEAR DEIDRE: WHENEVER I try to be intimate with my boyfriend, he pushes me away. But the next minute, he's all over me, telling me how much he loves me and talking about plans for the future. I'm so confused and barely know whether I'm coming or going. We've been seeing each other for two years and are both in our early thirties. At the start, he was the perfect boyfriend – always complimenting me and wanting to take me out and show me off. The sex was amazing, it really felt like he couldn't get enough of me. Things started going awry when I moved in with him. He started causing arguments about nothing. Sometimes, he'll tell me he wasn't sure about us, and perhaps I should move out. The next day, he'll be full of apologies. He also seems to have gone off sex, except when he wants it. If I come on to him, he rejects me. I'm left feeling like I'm walking on eggshells all the time. Whatever I do or say seems to be wrong. I feel so insecure and can't understand what he wants from me. But I don't want to leave him and start all over again. I really thought he was the one. He's made you feel you can no longer be yourself or express what you want. You're dancing to his tune, according to his moods. Perhaps he doesn't know what he wants. But if that's the case, you both need to talk to improve the relationship, or mutually decide to split. Read my support pack, Looking After Your Relationship, and ask him to be honest with you. If nothing changes, it might be best to walk away. Starting again won't be easy but you deserve better than to let a man control and diminish you.
Irish Times
22-06-2025
- General
- Irish Times
Wills and spouses: Why you cannot just cut a wife out of your will
An acquaintance left all his assets, mainly his house which is probably worth about €250,000, to a distant relative. He had been on bad terms with his wife of about 50 years and left her nothing. They had no children and were not legally separated or divorced. Their only income was the contributory old-age pension. Now the relative has told the widow that he wants to take possession of the house to sell it and pay capital acquisitions tax. He has helpfully suggested that she should enter a care home. I know that, by law, the lady is entitled to two-thirds of the value of the house, irrespective of the will but, assuming that the facts are as I've given them: can the will even go to probate? Can the widow continue to live in the house indefinitely given her contribution to the marriage or for some other reason? READ MORE Did the solicitor who drew up the will have an ethical or legal obligation to ask if the man was married? When I made a will recently, the solicitor didn't ask me if I was married. Mr DF Well, this is a bit of a mess, isn't it? There's being on bad terms with a spouse, and then there's trying to cut her out of a will entirely after 50 years of marriage. It must have been some row. The approach of the distant relative to whom the house has been left in the will is also sadly lacking in empathy. What a wonderful pair. There's nothing like a will to show up the worst side of people. More to the point, this will is unsustainable. You simply cannot disinherit a spouse entirely – at least not unless they have been convicted of killing you, trying to kill you or trying to cause you serious harm. If you die without a will, your spouse will automatically inherit your entire estate where there are no children and two-thirds of the estate (by value) where there are children. And in a case like this, where there is a will, a spouse is entitled to what is called a legal right share. That lays down that the spouse is automatically entitled to one-half of the entire estate in a situation like your acquaintance's wife where there are no children. If there had been children, the legal right share would be one-third of the estate. This entitlement ranks ahead of any other beneficiary, regardless of what the will says. Only creditors rank higher – ie, debts left outstanding by the deceased. If she was deliberately left in the dark, I would expect any court to back her right So whatever this distant relative thinks, in an estate where the sole or main asset is the family home, the relative has no absolute right to it until the wife has her share. And the onus is not on the spouse to claim this. It is the legal responsibility of the executor to the estate to notify the spouse that she has the right to half of the estate (in this example), regardless of what the will says. Having said that, they do need to claim the right within six months of being informed by the executor, or one year of the grant of representation (probate) being issued. If she was deliberately left in the dark, I would expect any court to back her right. If they had been legally separated, provision would likely have been made one way or the other in the formal separation for the handling of the legal right share. That's common enough. Divorce would have extinguished it. But neither is the case here. It is also possible for someone to renounce a legal right share but, again, that is a formal scenario and there would be a written record. And if the spouse argues that they were pressured into so doing, or simply did not understand what they were doing, they would be in a strong position to challenge such a renunciation in court. So the idea that a distant relative can wander in and tell her 'Sorry love, I want you out to sell the house. Maybe you can head on to a nursing home' is quite simply deluded. They have no such right. And even in a case like this, where it appears the wife's name is not on the deeds of the property and her legal right share will not be sufficient to secure ownership of the house in its entirety, she is not without options. The first course of action would be to pay the difference between the value of her right share and the balance of the market value of the house. In your scenario, where it appears she would not have the financial resources to do so, she could make a case to a court on hardship grounds. The court can rule in those circumstance that the money does not have to be paid, although it is not obliged to do so. Whatever this distant relative thinks, in an estate where the sole or main asset is the family home, the relative has no absolute right to it until the wife has her share Has the solicitor drawing up the will on behalf of his client the moral or legal duty to inquire whether there is a spouse, and then to notify the client of the legal right share provision? No, not a legal or moral duty, but they certainly have a commonsense one. I cannot imagine a solicitor advising a mature client on their will where no mention is made of a spouse not at least querying whether there are any close family, given they would certainly be aware of the legal right share provision. After all, failure to do so and to make provision is only storing up trouble for the executor, who may well be the same solicitor, when they have to manage probate and the distribution of the estate. Please send your queries to Dominic Coyle, Q&A, The Irish Times, 24-28 Tara Street Dublin 2, or by email to with a contact phone number. This column is a reader service and is not intended to replace professional advice
Irish Times
17-06-2025
- General
- Irish Times
Who should I appoint as an executor in my will?
May I have your advice in regard to appointing an executor to my will. I was thinking of asking my solicitor and one of my nephews to make sure my wishes are carried out. I have no children and only two brothers who are just younger than I and two nephews who will be the beneficiaries. My solicitor has agreed when I was altering my will a couple of years ago and I am now in the position to make some update and make some alterations. Mr M.W. READ MORE It sounds easy, doesn't it, appointing an executor in your will. It's just a name of someone to oversee the process. Except it is not. First of all, the process is legal and that requires precision and organisation. If your estate is complex then that is even more so the case. Get things wrong and the wrong people can get the wrong inheritance or the whole estate can get tied up in legal red tape for years. Not everyone is cut out to be an executor. Many people think the whole process is too stressful for them or they are concerned that they will find themselves out of their depth. Then there is the age factor. We all have close friends or family who we would trust in the role, but if they are close to us in age then it may well be that by the time we die they will be too frail themselves to undertake the role. All of that is why you should take two important steps before redrawing your will. First, think carefully about who among your family and friends you trust to act responsibly, yet empathetically, in the role. Wills by their nature become an issue at times when families are grieving and emotions can be raw. Being organised is all well and good, but if an executor is seen as brusque or unapproachable then it can create more problems than you, your beneficiaries or the executor themselves would wish. Second, when you settle on a name, make a point of checking with them that they are happy to act in the role. You'd be surprised how many people are not comfortable doing so. Anyone can renounce the role – i.e, step away from it. When a person dies, the executor to their will has to accept or renounce the role. They can also reserve their position which means stepping away for the time being with the possibility to becoming active again further down the process. An executor looking to avoid engaging in the role must do so before your formal appointment and before probate. They need to sign a written renunciation witnessed by people who are neither family nor mentioned in the will. That is why many people choose to name more than one executor and, more often than not, ensure that one of them is their solicitor. Given the legal element to the work of getting an estate through probate and distributed to beneficiaries, there is a lot of sense in having someone on board who is familiar with the legal processes involved. Having said that, for most ordinary estates, a lay executor should be well able to manage even if they need to consult a solicitor at some point in the process. It really is a matter of what you are comfortable with. In your case, you have no immediate family and your brothers, as you note, are not much younger than yourself, which makes their appointment impractical at this stage. You could certainly ask one of your nephews, but the important thing is not to appoint someone simply because they are family. If you think one or other of the nephews would be a good fit for the role then that is fine. If you are not sure then maybe think again. The fact that they will be beneficiaries in the will does not in any way disbar them from acting as executors. Most people appoint close family and/or solicitors, so it is more or less inevitable that most executors will also be beneficiaries of a will. And bear in mind that while it is good to have two executors – if, for nothing else, to ensure a backup if one takes ill, emigrates or whatever – it is not obligatory. Your solicitor can certainly carry out the role themselves. In that event, however, you want to make sure that the will is worded so that a backup from the law firm is available if anything happens to your solicitor before you die. As your solicitor has clearly advised, if you are amending the will anyway – and paying to do so – then that is clearly the time to update your executors. One final point: some people stress themselves out hugely about replacing executors in their wills – either because the original executors have become frail, or are likely to do so, or because subsequent events have given pause for thought on their suitability for the role. Don't worry. I have yet to come across anyone who was miffed about not having to act as executor. For most people, it was agreed as a favour for a family member or friend. Having the potential burden lifted is a relief. Please send your queries to Dominic Coyle, Q&A, The Irish Times, 24-28 Tara Street, Dublin 2, or by email to with a contact phone number. This column is a reader service and is not intended to replace professional advice
The Independent
16-06-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Business secretary warned he faces prosecution if he repeats false CV claims
Jonathan Reynolds has been warned he faces prosecution if he repeats previous false claims that he worked as a solicitor. The business secretary has been told by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) that he could be prosecuted if he claims again to have been a solicitor, despite never qualifying. It came after the watchdog closed an investigation into the false claims made by Mr Reynolds, deciding it 'did not consider it proportionate or in the public interest to bring criminal proceedings'. 'However, we have advised that if the behaviour is repeated, we may well reconsider our position,' the watchdog added. A source close to Mr Reynolds told The Daily Telegraph: 'We were happy to engage with the investigation. We're glad it's now concluded. Jonathan can now get on with doing the very important job that we are focused on.' The SRA launched an investigation into the business secretary in February after it emerged he had claimed to be a member of the profession on his CV despite having never qualified. The cabinet minister, who entered parliament before completing his training, claimed on his old constituency website that he was a solicitor at the Manchester branch of the law firm Addleshaw Goddard before becoming an MP. And in a 2014 speech to the House of Commons he said he had 'worked as a solicitor in Manchester city centre'. The SRA decided it would not take any further action, but is understood to have written to him with the warning not to repeat the claims in May. And Sir Keir Starmer accepted an apology from his business secretary over the false claims. At a lunch with journalists in parliament last week, Mr Reynolds said the watchdog had warned him to be 'careful' in future. 'They came back shortly after that media period to say look, always be careful to be accurate, but there's no misleading here, and there's nothing else to look into,' he added. Critics called for Mr Reynolds to be sacked over the claims when they first emerged, with Nigel Farage even announcing plans to privately prosecute the business secretary. The Reform UK leader told a rally in February: "Jonathan Reynolds, who's never had a proper job in his life, who tells us he's a solicitor when he's never been qualified, which is a criminal offence." He added: "I can tell you tonight that there will be a private prosecution brought against Jonathan Reynolds." The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) states that it is a criminal offence for an individual to identify or act as a solicitor without being officially registered on the roll of solicitors. This could include someone 'describing themselves as a solicitor on their social media profiles'. The term 'solicitor' is legally protected and it is an offence for someone to call themselves a solicitor if they are not qualified and registered with the SRA. Labour has previously blamed the reference to Mr Reynolds being a solicitor on LinkedIn to 'human error'.
