Celebrity chef and notorious potty-mouth, Gordon Ramsay says he wont leave his money to his kids after he dies.
However, a quirk in the law might make a mockery of his word, as many Gen-Y kids are relying on their parents’ inheritance to get onto that slippery property ladder.
If you have been left out of a will, it is possible to challenge the decision under the 1975 Inheritance Act, which was designed to make ‘reasonable financial provisions’ for family members excluded from a will or not left as much as they need.
Ramsay told the Telegraph,
It’s definitely not going to them, and that’s not in a mean way; it’s to not spoil them.
The only thing I’ve agreed with Tana [his wife] is they get a 25% deposit on a flat, but not the whole flat.
Which seems totally reasonable – and like plain good parenting, in most people’s eyes.
However, Chun Wong, head of dispute resolution at Hodge Jones & Allen, told the Mirror that courts can judge and overrule someone’s will on a case-by-case basis after working out what counts as ‘reasonable’
She explained:
The courts won’t look to maintain a certain lifestyle if that’s what you’ve been used to – it is about reasonable financial needs, not luxury things.
…Even if the claim has little merits, the estate still has to defend it. So there are cases where they just pay the claimant off, simply because the legal costs to defend the claim can quickly become disproportionate.
There is no entitlement to part of the estate, simply because you are the child of the deceased.
A study by the bank Halifax found that a quarter of young adults between the ages of 18 to 35 are entirely reliant on an inheritance to buy a property. Equally, a quarter of us believe we will never be able to afford a home.
According to the Institute of Fiscal Studies, younger generations are likely to inherit far more than their predecessors: Only 40 per cent of 1940s babies received an inheritance in adulthood, 75 per cent of those born in the 1970s will get one.
Of course, there is a huge wealth inequality between the rich and poor and the increase in inheritances just means those born into wealth are getting richer.
A former emo kid who talks too much about 8Chan meme culture, the Kardashian Klan, and how her smartphone is probably killing her. Francesca is a Cardiff University Journalism Masters grad who has done words for BBC, ELLE, The Debrief, DAZED, an art magazine you’ve never heard of and a feminist zine which never went to print.