Royalty and your cash

But, John, you play into my hands when you write “swelling the already bloated coffers of a redundant feudal relic that has little relevance to our much reduced national state ?” – such a morsel is irresistible!:D

Your argument for the estate to be granted to a “non-contentious…charity” certainly has merit. Although I suppose whatever you and I might find non-contentious, such as the example you cite, might not be seen so by others. I have no quarrel with improving the system, although you would still have to preserve the ability for people to make claims for grants from the estate.

Charlie

By all means feed your appetite with the morsels that most appeal – if you will. My ‘bone of contention’ is primarily the Will making process supported by the iniquity and inequity of what happens to your cash if you do not make a Will.

Why isn’t there a presumption in favour of a non contentious, nationally appealing charity or good cause such as Gt. Ormond St. should one die intestate and without kin, rather than swelling the already bloated coffers of a redundant feudal relic that has little relevance to our much reduced national state ?

QED

In wasn’t being disingenuous. “Royals” is a vacuous term, since the discussion is about intestate estates being taken by the Crown, which are managed by the Treasury Solicitor on behalf of the Crown Estates. The Crown and the Duchy of Cornwall are separate entities. The fact that the Duke of Cornwall is a member of the Royal Family is, in this context, irrelevant.

But this is clearly your real bone of contention: “To my mind this system smacks of feudalism and privilege and given the current circumstances of this Nation and her people, archaic and grossly disproportionate and in much need of reform.”

#13

The Duchy has everything to do with the ‘Royals’. The Duchy is owned by Prince Charles, who is a ‘Royal’ and the Duke of Cornwall. The Duchy was given to his ancestors by Edward 3rd to provide the eldest son of the current Monarch with his income. Don’t be disingenuous.

Give a multi billionaire your money by all means; better still to make a Will and give it to Gt Ormond St.

Can’t argue with that! And these days most of us won’t have much, if anything, to leave anyway….:(

I can’t see it matters where it goes–you’re dead–so you won’t need it.
I intend to spend anything I have to the point where the state has to pay to dispose of my remnants.

I’d much rather my money went to the crown than the politicians.

The ‘Royals’ do in fact get your money. The Duchy of Cornwall is a vast area of South West England (in excess of 100,000 acres) including many, many properties of all shapes, sizes and values all the income of which, derived from rents, leases and sales goes into the pocket of Prince Charles.

Yesterday afternoon I was fortunate to be with a group of aviation enthusiasts who visited amongst other places the RAF Scampton Museum and this now includes the freshly refurbished Guy Gibson’s Office. 🙂

The before and after photographs were amazing and all credit to the various members of the Prince’s Trust who undertook a large part of the work; gaining valuable ‘life-skills’ in the process! 🙂

So by your analogy HRH is supporting aviation – top move by my reckoning; I wonder if VOC have made an approach? :diablo:

Charliehunt

Please properly read my comments. If you die intestate and there is not traceable issue and you live within the boundaries of either of the Duchies, your estate will be grabbed by the appropriate Duchy.

If, all is as above, except that you do not live within a Duchy, your estate will go to the Crown.

Read slowly and accurately my first comment. The clues are there. I have no axe to grind other than underline the importance of making a Will. Read the first comment.

If, as you infer, I am trying to “make more of this” than actually exists, I assure you, you would know.

What is it with this Forum that makes its contributors so eager to “score points”?

No point scoring from my side, I assure you. Since the Duchy of Cornwall has nothing to do with the “Royals” to use yoiur meaningless term, then your original statement is not wholly correct. I also pointed out that although your estate reverts to the Crown, the “Royals” do not automatically get your money. Anyone can through the Treasury Solicitor, who manages intestate estates, make a claim for grant from the estate. And the majority of these are met.

The ‘Royals’ do in fact get your money. The Duchy of Cornwall is a vast area of South West England (in excess of 100,000 acres) including many, many properties of all shapes, sizes and values all the income of which, derived from rents, leases and sales goes into the pocket of Prince Charles.

Who has spent a lot of his time and the Duchy’s money encouraging business and employment in this quite economically poor area of the country, as well as across the country through his work with young entrepreneurs.

I’d still rather that’s where the money went – staying in Cornwall – than disappearing into the government coffers.

I have a lot of time for Charles. He’s distinctly odd, but he does seem to mean well.

Moggy

A simple Google search with link would have saved a lot of time and effort.

Who gets your cash

Charliehunt

Please properly read my comments. If you die intestate and there is not traceable issue and you live within the boundaries of either of the Duchies, your estate will be grabbed by the appropriate Duchy.

If, all is as above, except that you do not live within a Duchy, your estate will go to the Crown.

Read slowly and accurately my first comment. The clues are there. I have no axe to grind other than underline the importance of making a Will. Read the first comment.

If, as you infer, I am trying to “make more of this” than actually exists, I assure you, you would know.

What is it with this Forum that makes its contributors so eager to “score points”?

But the intestate estate passes to the Crown, not to either of the Dukedoms, and is dealt with as described above. If you die intestate but with living relatives the estate will not get anywhere near the Crown because it will be divided between the living relatives. I’m afraid you are trying to make more of this than there actually is.:(

Ahem !

The ‘Royals’ do in fact get your money. The Duchy of Cornwall is a vast area of South West England (in excess of 100,000 acres) including many, many properties of all shapes, sizes and values all the income of which, derived from rents, leases and sales goes into the pocket of Prince Charles.

The Duchy of Lancaster is the private fiefdom of the Monarch, the income of which goes into her private pocket. This convenient arrangement goes back to the time of Edward III in the early part of the 14th Century. Its origins however, lie even further back in time; the 11th Century and one of the most despicable tyrants ever to wreak mayhem on a largely innocent English population – William of Normandy or, as he was more accurately known throughout his life; William The *******.

To my mind this system smacks of feudalism and privilege and given the current circumstances of this Nation and her people, archaic and grossly disproportionate and in much need of reform.

However. Make a Will. If you then live in one of the two Duchies, they won’t get your cash

But, as been pointed out, the royals don’t get the money!!

In a twist on this subject…. since the royals get your money if you die without making a will……..then should not (in fairness) the royals be made to cover poor folks debt upon death, and, cover unpaid funeral costs??..seems only fair to have two way traffic!

It’s not been ‘kept quiet’

Dying intestate has always been a very bad idea.

Would you rather the government kept it all and spent it on lesbian single-parent black whales in Hackney?

The people who constitute the monarchy don’t actually ‘own’ anything. You don’t think the Queen could sell off Windsor Castle to Travelodge to fund a coke habit do you? We, the people of Britain, own all that stuff at the end of the day

Moggy

What’s that got to do with intestacy?

It’s all been kept quiet until recently, when a tribunal ruled that a Duchy wasn’t exempt from releasing information on their financial affairs to anyone requesting it through the Freedom of Information act.
About time all of these archaic feudal rights were completely abolished. The last two houses I owned have both been inside different ‘sporting’ estates which were owned by wealthy landowners, who thought they could do as they please.
The first tried to tell me I wasn’t allowed to keep caravans or motorboats on my own land, and wanted a payment of £5000 just for the privilage of buying a house that just happened to be on her estate.
In my current house, the local landowner tried to use a part of my land to develop more private homes, and the Land Registry were quite happy to sign it over to them on spec, without even consulting me.
Both estates retained all mineral rights on MY land, and all the access rights, so that any excess land I wanted to sell to anyone else would be worthless….

That is the absolute final resort. Very few people have no next of kin whatsoever and lawyers will spend years if necessary seeking relatives who in order of relationship to the deceased will be beneficiaries. If no surviving realtives are found the estate passes to the Crown where the Treasury Solicitor is responsible for dealing with it and making grants. Anyone can apply for a grant but need to prove why they feel they should be so entitled based on friendship or business dealings or other relatrionships with the deceased. In any case the Duke of York would not benefit, so don’t worry. But, of course, do make a will!!