In order to minimise inheritance tax ("IHT") payable by an estate, lifetime transfers are commonly used. These are transfers of an asset, either directly to an individual, or into a trust.#Lifetime transfers are either immediately chargeable at 20% ("LCTs"), or are potentially exempt ("PETs"). If the donor survives the seventh anniversary of the gift, the gift will attract no further IHT. If the donor dies between three and seven years, a proportion of the full rate is taxed. Someone considering making lifetime transfers should realistically think about their chances of surviving seven years. If it is unlikely, then other options should be explored.

The current economic climate has generated much heated discussion amongst experts in the financial sector. The insurance industry is no exception, and the effect will be especially hard felt by those professional services firms who are currently looking to renew their professional indemnity insurance.

Prospects are gloomy for the rest of 2008 and 2009 within the construction industry we are being told. It is expected that the situation will not improve until 2011. Uncertainty and tension due to financial difficulties triggered by the credit crunch results in firms attempting to renegotiate costs and break contracts, hence it is predicted that disputes will soar in the next year. When money is scarce, people become more litigious in an attempt to secure every penny due to them. There has been a noticeable increase since the credit crunch in contractors becoming more aggressive, renegotiation of contracts and the "claims culture".

For the increasing number of companies looking to make redundancies as a consequence of the downturn in the economy, the case of Rolls Royce Plc v Unite the Union [2008] EWHC 2420 will be of interest. This is the first time that the use of length of service as a redundancy selection criterion has been considered in the light of UK age discrimination legislation.

The Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (Secretary of State), will not refer the acquisition of HBOS by Lloyds TSB to the Competition Commission. The decision was made despite the Office of Fair Trading's (OFT) finding that there is a realistic prospect that the anticipated merger will result in substantial lessening of competition in relation to personal current accounts, banking services for small and medium sized businesses and mortgages.

What is the position where a company has suffered a direct loss through fraud perpetrated by one of its agents? Furthermore, what is the position where the company was audited during the relevant period and the fraud went undetected?