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?

@RelativePitch this is all marvellously Catherine Cookson. I predict you’ll recognise your older half-brother immediately by the distinctive streak of white hair you both have.

Any money you share with him will go to his therapy for believing his mum was his older sister for many years - and of course that miracle medical procedure that will save his elderly mother’s eyesight / consumption / insert melodramatic ailment.

(I may have read too many of my mum’s book collection as a teen. I apologise)

No, it is not necessary for an adult child to show they were financially dependent on the parent. The courts will sometimes award something to the child if they are in serious financial difficulties. See Ilott vs The Blue Cross and others. Mrs Ilott's mother had made no provision for her in her will as they had been estranged for 26 years. Mrs Ilott was clearly not financially dependent on her mother. The courts nonetheless decided to award her £50,000 from her mother's estate due to Mrs Ilott's circumstances.

Who knows whether they had a relationship or not? Presumably the family didn’t know about the affair at the time either.

@Librarybooker
The main thing re wills is to get proper advice. That advice will usually tell you that surviving spouse - where there are no previous marriages - get everything and then everything left after the surviving parent dies goes to children equally.

Your post reads like it's a given that everything goes to the surviving spouse and that is simply not true unless the deceased dies intestate and then it depends on the value - think the surviving spouse would inherit the first £320K or £350K (haven't checked the figures).

When a married couple make a Will, they can leave their estate to whomever they choose, unless their property/house and bank accounts are owned as 'joint tenants' because then the property/house & bank accounts WOULD pass to the surviving spouse.

I suppose if the payout was worth today's £250K, it could be argued that the money was already received, by the Mother, it will have improved their lives immensely.

Yes, there are some nasty people on this thread.

Your father was a dirty old dog and the chickens are now coming home to roost. Perhaps there can be a happy ending to this? You get to potentially build a relationship with your estranged sibling?

"You can disinherit your children - that's the whole point of a will to state who you want it to go to otherwise he'd have left it to intestacy laws to take hold."

Well, no, people still make wills in legal systems where you cannot disinherit your children.

We haven't been told that OP's DF acquired all his wealth himself. We know that the grandparents were also wealthy.
As for whom he chooses, yes, he can choose to leave his money to his legitimate children and not the illegitimate ones, but it's not very nice.

You could ask the solicitors to pass a letter on to her/him.

Maybe, but the other children may have been financially supported by their father and then also receiving 200k each so it would still not be fair.

My dad was quite famous in his professional field. So whilst we didn't publish his funeral, the institutions he was affiliated to, posted in memoriams online. So if they have been googling his name from time to time, his passing will have become evident to them. When grant of probate is going through, the person's death has to be posted for a couple of months on a public notice portal in case there are creditors etc..the solicitors' details are on that notice, do it would have been pretty easy to find I guess.

Nobody has a right to inherit anything under English law if they are not named in the will.

I find it strange that people think he should get some money as a ‘payback’ of some sort for his dad not being part of his life.

OP the biggest worry is probably wasting money on legal fees. However, I wouldn’t worry too much about it until you hear from their lawyer - they may find that they are told it’s not realistic and so not bother.

TBH I think your inkling that it may not be the son you have heard about and might be any number of other as yet unknown offspring might well be right.

I'm sorry your father was such a person.

Given everything else your father has done, are you so sure he definitely had a vasectomy, and/or never had it reversed?

Given it's a mother making a claim, I do wonder if there's a child under 18 involved, perhaps one where your father was discretely paying maintenance?

I think, if at all possible, you should try to find out a few more details about the people involved- presumably your solicitor knows who they've had a letter from?

It does all sound very difficult for everyone involved.

@Postapocalypticcowgirl No he proudly showed off his stitches to my mum when he was married to his third wife. She almost threw up. Just flashed her in the kitchen when he'd come to pick us up for his allotted time. He did not want any more children, didn't want the school fees etc..we haven't found any weird regular payments in any of his bank statements going back 15 years. There was no letter, just a phone call to the solicitor from a woman who wouldn't give her name and simply stated she would be making a claim against the estate on behalf of her son.
It will be a child between the ages of 40 and 62.
@SpringLobelia a few people over the years have said the exact same to me. It's very sad to have a parent like that.

If there is documentation evidencing the gift of £250k equivalent at the time, it will probably state 'in full and final settlement' which may negate the claim. Unless it's some other random baby

If the man was as much of a rogue as he sounds, why do you feel the offspring that happen to be from the last union is more deserving than any other offspring?

From what you’ve said i don’t think it will be a long battle. You’re not in Scotland so parents can not leave anything to their children if they choose. My mother left over half a million to random neighbours and nothing to me, totally her choice. But I know if I’d tried to fight it I wouldn’t have a chance.

This half sibling has even less chance because they had no relationship (apart from biological ) with their dad and also your mother is still alive…..it’s perfectly normal for a spouse to inherit first. Think of all the kids from first marriages where the biology parent dies first, leave their money to their new spouse who has promised to leave it to kids from both sides when they die but then change their will and only leave money to their kids not the step kids. Happens a lot.

People don’t inherit money because they are ‘deserving’.

He wrote that he wanted it to go to his kids, that’s the end of it surely.

That is not the issue here. Property has been left in trust to (some of) the children. Nowt to do with what the (most recent) wife has inherited.

Was your mum on the property deeds? I.e. is it "only" half of 1.5 million that your dad had to bequeath or was the 1.5 his full half?

I totally agree.. but is there a chance they tried to reach out years ago and were rejected? Not that they should be going after his money now as a mature adult.

TBH if my mother had been a 16 year old maid knocked up by a married man whose father than paid her off and I had tried to reach out over the years I'd be bloody going for it.

But it may be a completely different child because the poor OP had a bit of a shit as a dad.