Hayley specialises in private wealth disputes, advising clients on all aspects of contentious trusts and estates. Hayley has experience advising on will validity challenges, claims under the Inheritance Act 1975, disputes between executors and beneficiaries and breach of trust claims.
Hayley joined Stevens & Bolton in 2020 having trained at a local Guildford law firm where she qualified in 2019.
Hayley acts primarily for private clients, advising them in their capacity as executors, trustees and beneficiaries. She also advises potential beneficiaries who may be eligible to bring a claim for financial provision against an estate under the Inheritance Act. Clients also include charitable organisations and companies providing advice to private clients such as other law firms and pension providers.
- Advising a litigation friend acting on behalf of one of his children in a successful claim to establish a constructive trust in the child’s favour
- Advising an adult claimant on her claim under the Inheritance Act 1975 for financial provision from her estranged father’s estate
- Acting for the beneficiaries of a family trust in an application to remove the incumbent trustees
- Acting for the executor of an estate in which the beneficiaries were in dispute about lifetime gifts, chattels and estate debts
- Acting for the sole beneficiary of his mother’s estate in defending a will validity claim being brought by his siblings
- Advising beneficiaries on the merits of their will validity challenge on the basis of undue influence and lack of testamentary capacity
- Acting for the beneficiary and executor of his father’s estate and successfully bringing a claim for the revocation of letters of administration issued in error to the deceased’s ex-wife
- Advising the beneficiary of a discretionary trust on his claim in rectification and agreeing a variation to the terms of the trust with the residuary beneficiaries
Hayley is recommended as a key lawyer in The Legal 500.
Hayley is a member of the Association of Contentious Trusts and Probate Specialists (ACTAPS).