Will - excluding a child

willquery

This won't be a popular post. Don't mean to upset or cause offence to anyone.

Husband and Wife have a child. Husband also has another child from a previous relationship. Child maintenance is paid for this child but other than that there is no form of relationship. Wife has never met this child and Husband has not seen the child for many years. Don't envisage things changing going forward.

Husband and Wife want to create a will to provide for their biological child (and any future children) but specifically want to exclude the child from the previous relationship. These are the wishes of both the Husband and the Wife and they have their reasons.

The will is being created as the fear is that the child they wish to exclude would potentially have some claim if the Husband died in probate - because of their age and the fact that the Husband pays child maintenance. The belief is that a written will would solve this issue as such. Is this right or could the excluded child contest the will successfully?

Torry_Quine

In Scotland you can't leave a child out of a will, if you did they would be able to successfully contest it.

**curlywurly**

Under the Inheritance (provision for Family & Dependants) Act 1975, a person who is maintained financially by the deceased can challenge what is in a will.

I suggest you raise it with the solicitor who writes the will, to see if there is anything which can be done to minimise/eradicate that possibility. I don't think there is. You certainly can't STOP the child from bringing the claim in the first place - as to whether you could successfully defend it, I don't know. It may be better to cater for the child in some way.

**curlywurly**

Sorry should have said - my advice only stands if you are in England & Wales.

SailorSam

I think you could leave the child a nominal amount (£1), that shows that they hadn't been forgotten but that you didn't want them to get a large part of your estate.

NAR

Leave the child £1 and state the reason why in the will. That way the child has not been "overlooked" and will have no grounds to challenge the will.

justjohn

SailorSam wrote: »

I think you could leave the child a nominal amount (£1), that shows that they hadn't been forgotten but that you didn't want them to get a large part of your estate.

I Believe you can get away with this. However it can be contested.

justjohn

NAR wrote: »

Leave the child £1 and state the reason why in the will. That way the child has not been "overlooked" and will have no grounds to challenge the will.

You can challenge a will just because it is unfair , the judge will decide

NAR

justjohn wrote: »

You can challenge a will just because it is unfair , the judge will decide

I think you will find you are incorrect - you have to have grounds for challenge and "unfair" is not enough!

pauletruth

its it the childs fault that the husband and the childs mothers relationship failed. no its not. what happens if his current relationship fails do's he write the new child out too. whos fault is it that he has no contact with the child. sorry but it is bad enough that his first child has been ignored but now he wants to rub their nose in the fact that they mean less than his second child. it maybe legal to do so but its not morally right.

System

Assuming this still stands:

"
Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975




You may be entitled to seek financial provision from the deceased's estate if you are:

1. A spouse or civil partner
2. A former spouse / civil partner provided you have not remarried / entered into a new civil partnership
3. A child of the deceased
4. Any person (not being a child of the deceased) who was treated as a 'child of the family' of the deceased
5. Any person being partly or wholly maintained by the deceased