Illegitimate adult child claim on inheritance

[RelativePitch]

My dad had an affair in his first marriage about 60 years ago. A child was born and the mother was paid off by my grandfather (around £250k in today's money). My father had nothing to do with this child and never met him.
My father died last year with a will whereby everything goes to my mother, but his properties go into trust for his 5 children.
My mother's solicitor rang to say that an anonymous woman rang up to say that she was going to make a claim on the estate on behalf of her son. No detail other than that. The Solicitor wouldn't commit to how worried we should be.
I understand that minors should be able to claim against an estate, but a 60 year old man?
Of course it could be another child we don't know about, but as my dad had a vasectomy in 1984, the youngest a child could be is 40.
My dad makes Boris Johnson look like the paragon of virtue!
How worried should we be?

But why is his mum bringing the claim? He’s a grown ass man. He can (and should) do it himself.

@MooseBeTimeForSnow good question. One that we have been mulling over all day. Is it because she is the only one with all the information? is it because he doesn't know? or is he incapacitated in some way?

Why though? I didn't think even legitimate children who had a good relationship with their parents their whole lives could necessarily demand to be included in their will. We are always being told on MN that an inheritance is a privilege, not an automatic entitlement and if a parent chooses to exclude you, or give you less than you expected or give it all to a cat's home then that is their right.

How can anyone not mentioned in the will make a claim on the estate, especially when they had no personal relationship with the deceased during their lifetime?

I would ask for a DNA test with a view to do a deed of variation if DNA is proved. He wasn't supported by your dad in life. I think he should receive something in death. I'd also do copies of pictures of your dad for him so he has them.

Do you know his name? I would be tempted to order a copy of his birth certificate if you have enough details and see who his father is (he won’t know you’ve done it).

obviously your solicitor will know more about this but if you all say you have no idea who this bloke is, you are all named on the will then I just can’t see him having a claim. You don’t have to make provisions to adult children in a will and I can’t imagine a court forcing you to do a dna test?

I’d make contact and see if you can meet. Doesn’t sound like he has a claim though.

I've rung my dad's first cousin, she thinks she has his first name, but it is the kind of name that can be spelled two or three different ways eg kieran, ciaran etc. Apparently my grandfather drew up paperwork when he paid the mother off, but I don't know if the firm will still have it on record.
But as I say, we're all focused on it being this particular child, but it could be another completely from the left field.

Neither your father or this ‘child’ made any attempt to have a relationship with each other for the last 60 years. I’d find ‘creeping out of the wood work’ now that there may be money to inherit extremely distasteful. Deny all knowledge. Your dad probably won’t even be on the birth certificate.

To me, if the person isn’t mentioned in the Will, then you wouldn’t think they’d have a claim. Relatives of mine have fallen out with one of their adult children, they’ve made their so it stipulates their money is to go to ………., …….., and ……… their Solicitor said that’s all that’s needed. Has Probate been sorted and Trusts sorted out, if not I’d get them done asap.

@Baileyqueen yes the optics are not good. What a shame they didn't reach out to us beforehand. I understand they may have been shut down by my dad, but they could have tried with the siblings and we could have paved a way.

Whereas my grandparents were strongly advised to either leave my father a small token amount or to state in their will that they were deliberately choosing to leave him nothing so there was no danger of him challenging on the basis of being accidentally missed out.

He may not have won had he challenged, but it wouldn’t have taken a long battle to run the estate out of money and he would certainly have had a “if I’m getting nothing then neither are they” attitude if there was any glimmer.

The mother was paid off to leave well alone wasn't she?
Also, considering the father had nothing to do with him, I think a share of the inheritance is the least he is owned. In moral terms of course, not legally.

There can be exceptions e.g. when there is a family business. This is not the case here, of course.

Google the Cowshed Cinderella.

Why on earth did your grandfather give her 250k?! It could have been anyone’s. I would have laughed her off the property.

And what if he didn't know he had siblings? Maybe that is why the mother has contacted the solicitors, not him...

There’s no point worrying about it now, let him send in details of his claim and go from there. If he wasn’t dependant and had no contact it’s unlikely he’d get anything in court, and his solicitor will tell him this, but you may want to offer him a small amount to go away.

This is all getting very Barbara Taylor Bradford/JB Priestley.

She was but as this adult child must be 60 years old by now, there has been plenty of opportunity for attempted contact over the years . That neither party bothered in all that time and now a random woman (? His mother) has suddenly contacted the solicitor. How did she even know which solicitor to get in touch with, how did she know he had died unless they live close by, have mutual contacts etc. Which would then make it even stranger that there has been zero contact in all these years. Of course, his father offering 250k for her to ‘disappear’ is awful but … she didn’t have to take the money!

The OP's family is clearly very rich, if the equivalent of £250,000 was given that many years ago. So wouldn't be difficult to track.

What if the child was told their father had died? That they had no siblings? That their father was a completely different person?

There's a lot of victim blaming going on here.

I presume she was given the option of that money or nothing. And she was 16, presuming it's the same mother.
If my father had abandoned me as a child and his father paid off my mother, I'm not sure I'd be interested in getting to know him, but I might think I'd have a part of the will.

How kind.

The gf obviously knew it was likely to be true and didn't want a scandal.

Given how much 250k was in 1964 I’d say you very much need specialist advice given the amounts of money involved. Especially with the mother stating she’d be putting in a claim for her adult son - if there’s any kind of incapacity then it may not be as straightforward.

@Geebray my grandfather was very victorian and in a profession that couldn't afford scandal. He probably had the measure of my dad and thought it very likely. His other son, my uncle, embezzled a firm he was working for and skipped a train fare that ended up being a massive deal weirdly!. My grandfather had enough power and money to make it all go away, paid off everything, but sent my uncle to America for 5 years to let the dust settle. My uncle was also disowned. It was a different time.

Depending on the wording of the £250k settlement at the time , the son may be considered to have had his share already I suppose