My husband’s uncle died last year, leaving a number of bequests including shares in a family business. However he left the bulk of his estate to a charitable fund. The fund now operates under a different name to the one mentioned in the will, and we have been advised that this part of the will can therefore be contested. What’s the position?
You should obviously take detailed advice on this, but it’s likely that the various name changes of the charitable fund will be incorporated into the trust deed to cover exactly this situation. However even if this hasn’t been done, it’s unlikely that the gift would fail and the money be distributed amongst yourselves. Where the literal execution of a charitable trust becomes impracticable, the court will apply the gift to a charity as near as possible to the original purpose named by the donor.