To suggest that if you have been disinherited

[Beedance]

You should consult a lawyer.

Eh?

I should have been clear that I’m talking about England (and Wales?) - another poster has rightly called out that it’s different in Scotland!

I have French family & its hard to disinherit dc over there. I believe a new law means any expats who live in France will be subject to their succession laws.

No. It's up to the person whose will it is to decide what to do with their money/property.

It may be worth getting legal advice if there are minors or a risk of coercion/lack of capacity involved.

Unfortunately it is unlikely to result in a positive outcome. By the time anything got to court the estate will have already disappeared (why a fraud was committed in the first place).

IMO the law around the handling of estates needs looking at. Many more people have an estate to leave: home owners, insurance policies, death in service payments. It can add up to a tidy sum.

Badly written or out of date wills can have the opposite effect of that intended. Often this can be rectified if there is goodwill but some people do get £s in their eyes and lose sight of fairness.

I don't think this is either good advice or morally right. If someone has freely chosen to disinherent you, irrespective of the reason, they don't want to leave you their money/property so you have no right to it.

The only exception would be if there is evidence of coercion.

Are you a lawyer by any chance, OP?

Really depends on the situation. If you suspect the party who is benefitting has manipulated the deceased or there's something dodgy, why not.

Why? It's not a legal right.

My parents have reduced my share of their will down to just a thousand pound. My brothers are getting hundreds of thousands. They did it after my husband and I moved to our "country pile" (false, their words, it's an ordinary 4 bed house). They were jealous of what we had achieved. But they told me that they just thought I "didn't need it".

I am my mother's child from her first marriage and adopted by my dad (her second husband). My brothers are their biological children.
They abused me for years. They're sadistic, controlling, enmeshed assholes.
They wanted to disinherit me, because they don't love me and they never have.

I won't be consulting a solicitor. To hell with them and their dirty money.

When my mum dies I will only be inheriting 1/5th of the estate she has worked her entire like to build up (with no help from family and as a single parent) instead of the half I should have and would have gotten up until last year.
That’s because my mum decided to marry a man she has only known for a few years who has no estate at all, but does have three children he barely sees who he wants to inherit half of ‘what is now half his’.

I’m sad that everything my mum worked her whole adult life for is mostly going to strangers she doesn’t know, but it is her decision, and it’s her money and assets to leave how she wants.

You can contest a will up to two years after the persons death there is a strict time limit - a number of wealthy mps did this on their estates I think milliband!

NC for this.
I don't think I would. My MIL proved herself to be what I'd always thought she was - a spiteful , nasty liar by what she did to my dh and dcs in her will. My dh was devastated by her actions and I don't think he will ever truly get over it. The saddest thing is that he has had his memories destroyed by it and he now hates her. He was a good son - really looked out for her, so really doesn't understand why she did what she did and worse, why she told lies to justify it to another family member.

@TrashyPanda

Oh, and in Scotland you have up to 20 years after death of the testator to lodge a claim for legal rights.

What happens if you challenge it so far on and it's all long-since spent?

I'd like to see Scots law rolled out across the UK just to see spiteful parents' noses put out of joint, but equally it's wise not to expect an inheritance because of the possibility of hefty care costs.

My mum was disinherited by her stepdad, who was very wealthy - he left everything to his biological daughters and their kids got a medium lump sum each. This despite the fact that my mum had been the one caring for him at the end of his life.

Fortunately my aunts were brilliant and redistributed the inheritance so that my mum, my sister and I were all included. Took a lot of work with clever tax lawyers, but it got done.

My mum ended up falling out with her siblings when they jointly contested and won their dispute against the other sibling.

Only now none of them are talking, and most of the money was unreclaimable and went on lawyers.

I can acquire money in plenty of ways that don't damage my mental health or that of others. But then I think that about a lot of MN threads where people wind up the OP to pursue what is right, mindless to the damage that they cause in the process.

@Itsbackagain

No. It's up to the person whose will it is to decide what to do with their money/property.

You would think so but sadly not always the case. When my surviving parent died they left my only sibling a small legacy as they had been completely estranged for over 20 years (sibling's choice, I cannot go into details, too outing). Sibling contested the will which cost me and them a small fortune. It went to mediation and we agreed to 10%. They were after 70% on several completely spurious grounds. Going to a full court hearing could have easily swallowed up 30-40%. I am still furious. The law is definitely sometimes an ass!

Why not.

I’ve never known someone disinherited but I’ve seen family being threatened with it by older relatives when they “step out of line”, pure manipulation.

My DH's dad has made it very clear that my H will not inherit anything from him. I'm not sure why this is the case, it was decided before I met DH. I've never asked more about it. There's certainly a lot there, plenty to support his wife and leave something for DH and DSIL and probably the grandchildren too. They all seem to get on but it's none of my business. DH isn't about to pursue it or try to change his mind. We are both of the opinion that inheritance is not an entitlement.

@Beedance

You should consult a lawyer.

YNBU if you actually mean: "You should consult a lawyer if you are a minor or a dependant." (as with the other thread yesterday with the young daughter).

Otherwise, no, if you are a non-dependant adult in England or Wales don't waste your money as there is no right to inheritance.

Well, you could consult one but it doesn't mean anything will change.
If someone has made a will that's excluded you, taking legal action doesn't mean you'll get a share if the person was mentally sound when they did it.
Their decision was probably deliberate and the law would respect that.

If you don't want someone contesting a will give them a smaller inheritance. If you've got £100,000 to split between two give them £10,000 and leave the rest to the other person.

Most judges won't overrule a will if everyone is left something, even if it's not their 'fair' share.

That's advice we've been given by a solicitor.

@LemonViolets

I’m genuinely interested to know why?

Inheritance isn’t guaranteed and there is no legal entitlement to inheritance.
A person can legally leave their entire estate to whomever they please.

There’s a legal entitlement in Scotland

For those who consider it their right (moral if not legal) to be given someone else's money and property when they die, I'm genuinely interested in the thinking behind it. You didn't earn it, its not yours, so why would you think you should receive it against the will of the person it belonged to? I see that there may be a difference if the inheritance is some huge ancestral estate, handed down through generations, which hasn't been earned by any of them, and there is an expectation of custodianship passing down the line; but most of these disputes relate to a house and savings that the deceased has accrued themselves through their lifetime. Truly theirs, to do as they please with. I'm curious as to why their children think they are somehow owed this if the parent doesn't want to give it.

my mum decided to marry a man she has only known for a few years who has no estate at all, but does have three children he barely sees who he wants to inherit half of ‘what is now half his’.

A good argument for why a pre-nup should become legal in UK in my view.

I would never contest a will personally. Makes me feel grubby/grabby.
Of course this just applies to me.

It must be terribly painful to be disinherited, or not equally by your own parents.

As I understand it in England there are only grounds for challenge if you were financially dependent.

In other countries (France, Scotland?) you can't disinherited your children.

Out of interest, does anyone know what children have to do to prove their claim? An unacknowledged child, for example