Inheritance and Illegitimate Child

miss_independent

Hi, this post was resurrected after over a year and is no longer relevant, please kindly delete. There are also privacy issues involved.

Rince

If the Father writes a Will, he can decide who gets what. If there is no Will then it will be far more complicated and the illegitimate son may be able to claim, although i'm sure they'd have to prove he was the son as his Fathers name is not on the birth certificate. Most importantly is to make sure a Will is written. I'm sure once a Will is in place then that is his final wish and the son can't claim.

I'm sure someone with alot more knowledge will be along soon.

Person_one

If there's a will, then the father can leave his son a penny if he wants to, or give it all to a cats home and it would be hard to contest. As long as father is in sound mind and the will is correctly drawn up he can distribute his estate however he wants, nobody has a 'right' to any of it.

RAS

Father needs to get some proper legal advice because he is not legally obliged to make any provision for a child who has reached the age of maturity (18) unless he WANTS to.

It is generally considered wise to leave a token amount to the child he does not want to leave his business to because then it is clear that he considered the child and made a considered decison and did not just miss the child out of the will by accident.

So he need proper advice from a good probate lawyer or a reconised will writer not just someone who occasionally writes wills.

Raggs_2

If he chose to leave nothing, it needs to be clear that he is deliberately being left nothing (and preferably with reasons why), this makes it much less contestable.

However, if he is being left something, then it is obvious he has been considered within the will, and will find it very hard to contest (as far as I am aware).

In Scotland (don't know if relevant), I believe children (even over the age of 18) are entitled to a share of liquid assets regardless of what the will states. However, it's a small percentage, and in theory could easily be covered by what's currently being suggested.

However, as the others state, professional advice from a specialist is very advisable, especially when dealing with such intricacies and large sums.

vaio

I echo the “get legal advice”,

As far as I am aware there is no right to inherit on any child but, there is something about financial dependants, so if son is financially dependant (even though he’s an adult) then if he’s left nothing he could apply to get it changed. I think leaving him something gets round this

ailuro2

I agree, get legal advice on how to leave a trust of some sort to pay the illegitimate child x thousands of pounds per years for the next xx number of years.

Or pay him a salary from a trust fund as long as he is in full time education or work

carefullycautious

If this son is of adult age and not financially dependant he does not have a chance in hell of getting anything. The father can leave his money to whom he wants.

It sounds like this 'son' has been manipulating his father for long enough for financial gain.

Never a truer word than if you play with fire you get burnt. I bet this man is wishing he had kept his *** in his pants.

miss_independent

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mountainofdebt

Sounds to me as if the money given to the son is nothing more than guilt money.

It always amazes me how intelligent people (and the father must have some sort of intelligence to build up a successful business) fail to understand the consequences of not having a will - that hasn't even been mentioned here, so even without the complication of the existance of the son, it could get very messy should the father die without making a will.

The other thing that strikes me is that if there is any doubt over the boy's paternity then I would be demanding a DNA test before I handed over a penny either in maintenance or as a inheritance

miss_independent

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