{"id":10251,"date":"2021-07-26T12:13:25","date_gmt":"2021-07-26T11:13:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/?p=10251"},"modified":"2021-07-26T12:13:25","modified_gmt":"2021-07-26T11:13:25","slug":"can-i-exclude-someone-from-my-will","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/can-i-exclude-someone-from-my-will\/","title":{"rendered":"Can I exclude someone from my will?"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

Excluding a family member from your will is your right. At least, that\u2019s what you\u2019d think \u2013 the point of a will being that you get to decide who benefits from your estate after you die.
\nUnfortunately it\u2019s not quite that simple. But let\u2019s start with how you could exclude someone \u2013 say a family member you\u2019ve fallen out with.<\/p>\n

Of course, the starting point is that you simply don\u2019t name them in your will. But for close relatives, you need to anticipate how they\u2019ll feel and how they\u2019ll react from being excluded.
\nSo best practice is to include another document with the will, called a letter of wishes, in which you explain why you\u2019ve excluded a certain person or persons.<\/p>\n

The problem is that even a letter of wishes still won\u2019t stop someone taking legal action after your death.<\/p>\n

Spouses, former spouses, children and dependents can do just that if they don\u2019t feel the financial provision for them is reasonable. The law governing this area is laid out in the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975.<\/p>\n

Case Study<\/h4>\n

One example of this happening came about in 2004 after the death of Melita Jackson. She was estranged from her daughter, Heather Ilott, and left her nothing in her will.
\nJackson had left her estate, worth just under \u00a3500,000, to three animal charities.
\nMrs Ilott went to court and the action was successful. She was initially awarded \u00a350,000 from her late mother\u2019s estate. On appeal, however, she was awarded a much larger amount.<\/p>\n

The charities declared themselves surprised and disappointed with this state of affairs. They pointed out that large sums were donated each year from legacies, which charities rely on to do good work.<\/p>\n

The final legal ruling on the case came in March 2017 from the Supreme Court. This time the charities won and the original, lower, award was restored.<\/p>\n

Legal experts interpret the verdict as saying that reasonable provision means paying maintenance money from the estate and no more. What\u2019s more, it reinforces the idea that, reasonable provision aside, we\u2019re free to choose who benefits from our estate.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m still not sure<\/h4>\n

If you\u2019re still concerned about excluding someone from your will, you could instead leave them a very modest amount of money.<\/p>\n

Explains Maplebrook Wills\u2019 Mike Pugh: \u201cAs will writers, we to try to ensure that your wishes are adhered to. You could leave them a nominal amount \u2013 a gift of \u00a3100, for example, and explain in the letter of wishes why you\u2019ve left them such a small benefit.\u201d
\nIf you want to exclude a child but still ensure your grandchildren are cared for, you could gift them your estate in a trust.<\/p>\n

Says Pugh: \u201cThe child you wish to exclude would neither be a beneficiary nor a trustee of the trust. You could set the conditions of the trust such that your grandchildren benefit at the age you stipulate \u2013 at the age of 18, or 21 or 25, for example.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Excluding a family member from your will is your right. At least, that\u2019s what you\u2019d think \u2013 the point of a will being that you get to decide who benefits from your estate after you die. Unfortunately it\u2019s not quite that simple. But let\u2019s start with how you could exclude someone \u2013 say a family […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10252,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[92,240],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-maplebrook-wills","category-accountancy-and-finance-franchises"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/danielle-macinnes-49772-unsplash-1024x683-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}