Charity can begin at home

Does the recent Supreme Court decision in Ilott v Mitson [2017] UKSC 17 now mean that we cannot disinherit our adult children? The answer is now, as it was before: it depends. What we do have is more clarity on how the courts will approach a claim by a disappointed adult child.

In some European countries, children have an absolute right to a share of their parents’ estates. If a parent does not give them the minimum amount prescribed by law, the children have an automatic right to claim it. That is not the case in England and Wales. Here, we may leave our estates to whomever we wish, including charities—no one, not even our partner or children, has an absolute right to any of it.

Despite this freedom, Parliament has decreed that, in some circumstances, we ought to make provision for others and the most recent statutory rules are set out in the Inheritance (Provision for