Inheritance Wars · No. 30 · Developing case · Estate administration · Executors and trustees · 8 min read
A real inheritance dispute — and the question of whether there was another way.
Inheritance Wars: £10 Million, Eight Years — and an Estate Still Waiting to Be Distributed
Paul Samuel died in a mountaineering accident in 2018. His estate was intended broadly to benefit his widow and daughter equally. More than eight years later, the administration is still unfinished and the parties are back in the High Court.
Peter Causton · 26 September 2026 · 8 min read
c. £10m
Reported value of the estate — a press figure, not a judicial valuation
2
Principal beneficiaries, reportedly intended to benefit broadly equally
8+ years
Since Paul Samuel’s death in June 2018
Adjourned
The September 2026 application has not yet been determined
Paul Samuel climbed mountains. Everest was among them.
In June 2018, aged 55, the businessman, author and explorer was climbing Alpamayo in the Peruvian Andes when an avalanche killed him and two fellow climbers.
He left an estate reported to be worth around £10 million. And, at first sight, the broad destination of that wealth does not appear to have been particularly mysterious: his widow, Ana Lesiak Samuel, and his daughter from a previous relationship, Kate Samuel, were broadly intended to benefit equally.
Paul died more than eight years ago. His estate is still not fully distributed.
That makes this a rather different Inheritance War. There is no reported dispute about whether Paul had testamentary capacity. There is no reported allegation that his will was forged. The central problem is now the administration itself.
Sometimes the inheritance war isn’t about the will. It’s about what happens afterwards.
What was supposed to happen?
Reporting of the current High Court proceedings describes Paul’s estate as worth approximately £10 million. That is a reported figure, not a judicial valuation.
Most of his wealth was placed into trust, and the reporting states that Ana and Kate were to benefit equally. Some substantial distributions have already occurred: Kate is reported to have received £1 million, and Ana is reported to have received Bank Farm near Whitchurch and another property.
But the administration has not been completed.
The first High Court proceedings
By 2023 disagreements concerning estate assets and their division had already reached the High Court. Ana unsuccessfully sought the removal of lawyer Anna Unett and Paul’s father, who was then also a trustee. The court subsequently gave directions concerning the division of assets. The reported objective was effectively to achieve a clean break between Ana and Kate.
Yet approximately three further years passed. The estate remained unfinished.
Back to court
In September 2026 the estate returned to the High Court before Master Francesca Kaye. This time Ms Unett, supported by Kate, seeks Ana’s removal as executor and co-trustee. Ana opposes the application.
- Kate and Ms Unett contend that Ana’s conduct has delayed and complicated the administration and caused unnecessary expense.
- Ana denies responsibility for the delay. Her case is that she was Paul’s chosen executor, that there is no proper basis for removing her, and that difficulties have instead been caused by Ms Unett withholding documents and information needed to complete the administration.
These are competing allegations. The court has not yet determined them. After a half-day hearing the matter was adjourned and is due to return to court.
The cost of eight years
There is no verified published figure for the total legal costs of the estate dispute, and the parties themselves disagree about responsibility for costs and delay. But the chronology is striking.
Simplified visual explainer
Eight years and counting
- 1
June 2018 — Paul Samuel dies on Alpamayo, aged 55
- 2
2023 — disagreements about estate assets and their division reach the High Court
- 3
September 2026 — back in the High Court before Master Francesca Kaye
- 4
The application is adjourned — the estate is still not fully distributed
Legal fees are not the only cost of an inheritance dispute. There may also be professional administration costs; trustee and executor expense; valuation costs; time spent dealing with disputes; delay in beneficiaries receiving assets; and the personal cost of remaining connected through litigation.
The cost of an inheritance war is not always found on a solicitor’s bill.
What could mediation actually do?
Mediation cannot force an executor to retire. It cannot make a binding judicial finding about misconduct. And there will be cases where a court ruling on removal is genuinely required. But where the real objective is to complete an estate administration, probate mediation can potentially deal with the machinery of getting there.
1. Identify what is actually outstanding. Which assets remain to be distributed? Which documents are required? Which valuations remain disputed? What decisions still need to be made?
2. Agree who does what. Who obtains information, instructs valuers, signs documents and deals with tax or professional advisers? Who has responsibility for each remaining step?
3. Put dates against it. Documents by one date. Valuations by another. Transfers by another. Final accounts by another.
4. Resolve valuation disputes. A single independent valuer, or a mechanism for selecting one; how valuation assumptions will be determined; and what happens if a valuation remains disputed.
5. Control future costs. Which professional work is genuinely necessary, who may authorise it, how costs are allocated, and what happens before further substantial expense is incurred.
6. Change the people or the process. If people can no longer work together, mediation can explore consensual retirement, replacement, appointment of an independent professional, allocation of particular tasks, or another practical structure — subject always to any necessary legal or court requirements.
7. Create a real clean break. Assets, documents, costs, implementation, deadlines, future communication — and what happens if something goes wrong.
A court and a mediator ask different questions
The court asks: Should an executor or trustee be removed? Has the estate been properly administered? Who should administer it? What order should be made? Who pays the costs?
The mediator asks: What remains to be done? Why hasn’t it happened? Who needs what information? Can disputed valuations be resolved? Can responsibilities be divided? Can future costs be controlled? Can a timetable be agreed? Can we get this estate finished?
The clean break that wasn’t
The division of the will trusts was reportedly intended to achieve a clean break between Ana and Kate. Yet approximately three years after the earlier proceedings, the administration is still incomplete.
Agreeing who gets what may not be enough. A settlement may also need to answer: who? what? when? how? — and what happens if something goes wrong?
An agreement to divide an estate is only as good as the machinery for actually dividing it.
Could this case have been mediated?
Perhaps. We do not know whether mediation has previously been attempted. A judicial determination may now be required if the parties genuinely cannot agree who should administer the estate.
But the reported history suggests that the practical objective is one which both sides say they want: completion of the estate administration. That is exactly the sort of objective around which mediation can be structured. The mediator does not have to decide who has been to blame for every year of delay. The parties can instead ask: what has to happen now?
Eight years later
Paul Samuel appears to have lived an extraordinary life. He crossed seas, trekked through jungles and climbed some of the world’s great mountains. His final expedition ended tragically on Alpamayo in June 2018.
More than eight years later, the administration of the estate he left behind is still unfinished. The High Court may now have to decide who should be responsible for completing it.
But there is a wider lesson. Sometimes the problem is not who should inherit? Everybody may already know the answer. The problem is how do we actually get there? That is where mediation can have a very practical role.
Sometimes mediation isn’t about compromising the inheritance. It’s about finding a way to deliver it.
Related reading
Cases referred to & sources
The price of the war
There is no verified published figure for the total legal costs of this estate dispute, and none should be inferred; the parties disagree about responsibility for costs and delay. The chronology speaks for itself: Paul Samuel died in June 2018, the estate was in the High Court in 2023, and it returned in September 2026 — with the administration still unfinished and the current application adjourned.
What could a mediated settlement have looked like?
These are examples of settlement structures which mediation could have explored. They are not outcomes which actually occurred, and the legal, tax and practical consequences of any settlement require appropriate professional advice.
A completion timetable
An agreed list of outstanding steps, with named responsibility and dates for documents, valuations, transfers and final accounts.
Resolving valuations
A single independent valuer, or an agreed mechanism for selecting one and resolving any remaining disagreement.
Changing the people or process
Consensual retirement, replacement or the appointment of an independent professional, subject to any necessary legal or court requirements.
Controlling future costs
Agreement on which professional work is needed, who authorises it and how costs are allocated. If the parties cannot agree who should administer the estate, a court ruling may still be required.
Inheritance Wars
Four questions
- What did the court have to decide?
- Whether Ana should be removed as executor and co-trustee and what arrangements should govern completion of the estate administration. The current application has not yet been finally determined.
- What did the parties risk?
- Further delay, further professional expense and further litigation over an estate which has already remained under administration for more than eight years.
- What could mediation have done differently?
- Focus on completing the administration: identifying outstanding tasks, allocating responsibility, resolving valuation and information issues, controlling future costs and agreeing an enforceable timetable.
- What should families and advisers learn?
- An inheritance dispute does not necessarily end when everybody knows who is supposed to receive the money. Implementation matters. Where relationships are difficult, the settlement needs a practical route to completion.
Inheritance Wars
Real cases. Real families. Real consequences.
The court can decide who is right. Mediation asks whether there is another way.
Is your dispute beginning to look like an inheritance war?
Inheritance disputes often become harder to resolve as costs increase, positions become entrenched and family relationships deteriorate.
Mediation provides an opportunity to explore settlement before the outcome is left entirely to the court.
ProMediate Inheritance, Probate & Trusts provides specialist mediation for disputes involving wills, estates, trusts, inheritance and family property.
Mediation is voluntary and confidential, subject to the mediation agreement and applicable legal exceptions. The mediator is neutral, does not decide who is right and does not provide legal advice. This article provides general information about mediation and the reported decisions referred to above. It does not constitute legal advice.
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