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Inheritance Act claims: A high bar for adult children?

25 March 2022
Issue: 7972 / Categories: Features , Wills & Probate
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How does the court approach the issue of adult children who claim a will fails to provide for them? Myles McIntosh reports
  • In Miles and another v Shearer [2021] EWHC 1000 (Ch), two adult children brought separate claims for financial provision under the Inheritance (Provision for Family & Dependents) Act 1975.

The case of Miles and another v Shearer [2021] EWHC 1000 (Ch), which gathered significant press interest, recently looked at the increasingly common scenario of adult children bringing separate claims for financial provision. The case provides a detailed analysis of the approach the court will take into account when considering these types of claims.

Juliet Miles and Lauretta Shearer (‘the claimants’) brought claims, as the adult daughters of the late Anthony Shearer who died in 2017, against his estate. They both sought orders that their father’s will (prepared in 2015) failed to make reasonable financial provision for them.

The claimants were the children from Mr Shearer’s first marriage. That marriage was dissolved in 2007 after 34 years.

Mr Shearer remarried Pamela Shearer (‘Mrs Shearer’) shortly after that.

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