Lloyd's Name, Yorke Order?

Trusts Discussion
1

I am dealing with the administration of an estate where the deceased was a Name, having ceased trading in the 1990s.

Lloyd’s pointed out in response to my enquiry that the estate can never be 100% free of the contingent liability and that the best advice is that a Yorke Order might be obtained to permit the executors to distribute the estate.

All of that I accept but my question is this: in the present case the executors are also the residuary beneficiaries. What purpose will a Yorke order serve in permitting them to distribute the estate to themselves, and I suppose more to the point are they any better protected by distributing with a Yorke order than without?

It might also be useful to hear from members what their thoughts are in terms of cost/benefit to the estate, particularly in a case like this.

Thank you in advance.
Robert Lynn
Hedges Law.

2

In short, I believe the answer to your question is “no purpose”. The clients would be protected qua PRs but not qua beneficiaries. As I understood it, in respect of contingent claims arising under English law or from within the EEA, the 2006 reinsurance of Equitas has settled that risk. However, claims from outside the EEA, in particular from the US, remain in scope.

Stuart Adams
Mishcon de Reya LLP

3

Stuart - many thanks.