Family Provision

It was well established that the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 imposed a two-stage task upon the court when addressing a claim for financial provision. The first question was whether the will had made reasonable financial provision for the claimant. The second question, which arose only if the first was answered in the negative, was whether and to what extent the court should exercise its own wide powers in that respect.

Further, s 3 required the court in conducting both those stages of the analysis to have regard to the matters set out in s 3(1)(a)–(g). Each of those matters might be of infinitely variable weight, on the particular facts of any given case.