Trusts & Estates Disputes

Our Trusts & Estates Disputes team specialises in contentious trust and estate litigation arising in the UK and overseas. Led by Andrew Child, our Global Head of Trusts and Estates Disputes, this is a highly technical area of the law and we provide the very best in specialist advice and representation. 

CANDEY acted  for Italian businessman, Matteo Volpi, in one of the largest global trusts dispute afoot, a multi-billion dollar Bahamas-seated arbitration against his father, Gabriele Volpi, and a trustee company, Delanson Services Limited. The arbitration concerned unlawful transfers of the assets in three family trusts settled by Gabriele to himself following a family fall-out. The arbitral tribunal, including former President of the UK Supreme Court Lord Neuberger, found that these transfers were in breach of trust, done for an improper purpose and a fraud on the power, rendering them void. The subsequent appeals to the Bahamian Court of Appeal and Privy Council have all failed. The assets within the trusts chiefly related to Nigeria-linked oil & gas, logistics, ports and property.

The quantum phase of the arbitration  commenced in October 2025 to complete in February 2026, after the CANDEY team together with Bahamian counsel  successfully defeated an application by Gabriele to stay the arbitral hearing pending the outcome of his application to the Supreme Court of the Bahamas to remove the tribunal.

Andrew Child is a barrister (formerly at Wilberforce Chambers and 3 Stone Buildings) who has been in practice for 25 years and has been involved with many of the major trusts and estates cases here and around the globe.  He has a wealth of experience of not only the Courts of England and Wales, where he was Counsel in many important reported cases, but many of the major offshore law centres also, having been involved in numerous substantial and important cases spanning Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, the BVI, the Channel Islands, the USA and Hong Kong.

Experience  includes: Multi-billion dollar Bahamas-seated arbitration commenced by the son of an Italian billionaire against his father for unlawfully distributing assets in three family trusts to himself following a family falling-out; high-value Hong Kong trust case involving a family dispute over trust interests in a USD3.55 billion company; Guernsey trusts dispute acting for beneficiary seeking a partition of her interests from high value settlements; cross border case concerning the validity and proper construction of a Jersey Trust; second round of litigation in Bermuda concerning the administration of an extremely high value trust; trial in the Cayman Islands concerning the proper distribution of trust property between the competing beneficiaries; very high value claim between two Russian businessmen; attempts by prominent Qatari family to recover the highly valuable contents of a safety deposit box held by a bank in London; Bermuda proceedings concerning a civil law Foundation; Longleat Estate litigation instructed by Lord Bath in proceedings concerning the administration of the Longleat Estate; Re Jack Dellal deceased concerning the proper distribution of Black Jack Dellal’s estate and Re Wizard Settlement advising the son of rock star Mark Bolan on how to ensure proper financial provision was made for him out of the offshore trust structures set up by his father before his untimely death.

With our BVI office in Road Town, Tortola and our international reach we are able to provide a one stop shop for those seeking English and BVI law advice from the firm’s solicitors and barristers.

Trusts and estates disputes are not just legally complex but also often sensitive, given that opposing parties can be in the same family, and proceedings can take place against the backdrop of a death or a divorce or other high impact family event. 

Trusts can arise in many differing forms whether they arise by way of a formal settlement or by operation of law. Fiduciary duties subsist and trustees and fiduciaries face exacting duties to act properly within the terms of the trust.

We represent trustees, whether corporate or family, professional or lay, in defending breach of trust cases against them.  We also represent trustees in taking proactive steps in litigation, such as seeking directions or the blessing of the Court in sanctioning specific action.

We represent beneficiaries in ensuring that their interests are properly balanced and administered in their trusts and where necessary in taking breach of trust action against trustees who have failed to act properly in accordance with their duties.

Estate litigation gives rise often not only to trust issues but also issues as to whether Wills are properly valid documents or rather void for want of testamentary capacity, want of knowledge and approval, undue influence, forgery or fraud.  We specialise in all forms of proceedings challenging wills.

We also assist with actions brought under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 in claims for reasonable financial provision where it is claimed insufficient provision has been made for the applicant by the Deceased as well as actions by way of proprietary estoppel where indications by the Deceased during their lifetime which the applicant has relied upon to their detriment have not been honoured.