If the true scale of their wealth were revealed, taxpayers might question why they pay so much to fund them
Whether it’s immunity from freedom of information requests or paying estate or corporation tax, the royal family enjoys a panoply of financial privileges denied to the general public. But nothing sets them more apart from the common citizen than their special position over sealed wills and their inherited wealth. This was first brought home last April with Prince Philip’s death and the palace’s high court application to seal his will.
With the publication last Wednesday of a full list of more than 30 sealed royal wills, following a judgment in September – not to mention a legal challenge to the high court by the Guardian – we know more details of what was decided (Philip’s will and those of future deceased royals will be opened only after at least 90 years), and why it was decided (the tradition of sealed royal wills has lasted almost a century and in the court’s view there is no reason to end this practice that legitimately preserves their privacy). The president of the family division of the high court, Sir Andrew McFarlane, ruled that senior members of the royal family had to be exempted from the law requiring the publication of wills. That was “necessary to enhance the protection afforded to the private lives of this unique group of individuals, in order to protect the dignity and standing of the public role of the sovereign and other close members of her family”.
David McClure is the author of The Queen’s True Worth
