Elizabeth Short

Elizabeth Short is a partner in our leading Wills, Probate, Tax & Trusts team and advises clients from our Reading, Henley-on-Thames and Wokingham offices, as well as remotely.

She specialises in the preparation of Wills, estate and Inheritance Tax planning, probate and estate administration and drafting lasting powers of attorney (LPAs). Elizabeth is also responsible for managing the firm's programme for trainee solicitors. 

Elizabeth studied History at the University of East Anglia in Norwich. She then spent two years working for a global management consultancy firm based in London, before completing her GDL and LPC at the College of Law. Elizabeth joined Blandy & Blandy in 2014, having completed her training contract with a firm in Brighton, and became an associate solicitor in 2018 and a partner in January 2022.

She is a member of the Law Society Private Client Section, the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) and The Association of Lifetime Lawyers (formerly Solicitors for the Elderly), an independent, national organisation of lawyers (solicitors, barristers and legal executives) who provide specialist legal advice for older and vulnerable people, their families and carers. She is also a trained Dementia Friend, an Alzheimer's Society initiative, and is recommended in The Legal 500 and Chambers HNW.

Examples of recent work

• Acting on behalf of executors where a beneficiary could not be located and subsequently arranging for funds to be paid into court under s63 of the Trustee Act 1925.
• Obtaining a Grant ad Colligenda Bona following an order made under s116 of the Administration of Estates Act 1925 in circumstances where the deceased’s family could not be located and his property was falling into a state of disrepair.
• Obtaining a grant of representation for the use and benefit of a minor.
• Advising in relation to an estate facing multiple claims from the deceased’s former spouse and children under the provisions of the Inheritance (Provision for Family & Dependants) Act 1975 and working in conjunction with our Dispute Resolution team in relation to this.
• Advising executors on an estate where the structure of the will was such that the residence nil rate band would otherwise have been denied and making use of s144 of the Inheritance Tax Act 1984 to maximise the available allowances accordingly.
• Acting in the administration of an estate with holdings in several limited companies and working with our Commercial team and the family accountant in order to maximise the availability of business property relief.
• Advising on the structure of tax efficient wills in circumstances where both spouses had previously been widowed and accordingly, with the benefit of an appropriate structure, four nil rate bands could be utilised.