Will the Cost of Living Crisis Have an Impact on Probate Disputes?

With the current cost of living crisis in England and Wales, just being alive is getting more costly. This consequently, may place a greater importance on an individual’s entitlement to inheritance.

The Financial Times recently confirmed that challenges to probate applications increased by 37% in the last two years. This is unsurprising given the increase in the number of deaths due to the pandemic. In a recent article by the BBC, the number of deaths over and above the usual number since the pandemic began is 170,115. As a result, it is somewhat inevitable that the number of estate disputes also increased.

In some cases, the sudden nature of many of these deaths meant the deceased failed to get their affairs in order, resulting in an influx of contentious disputes from those who may have anticipated benefiting from the estate, and from those who were dependant on the deceased at their date of death.  Claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 increased, as qualifying claimants who perhaps anticipated benefiting or were dependant on the deceased, sought financial provision from the deceased’s estate in situations where they had not benefited.

In 2021, almost 10,000 (9926 to be precise) challenges were made against estates in England and Wales. Some of these challenges were as a result of homemade Wills made during lockdown. Challenges to Will validity can arise where formalities have not been adhered to as per section 9 of the Wills Act 1837. It is likely that the fallout of many of these ‘pandemic Wills’ will result in claims for years to come. Those who prepared homemade Wills are therefore being urged to seek legal advice to review whether the Will has been validly executed, and also to check that there are no unexpected tax consequences or grounds for validity challenges that could arise as a result of the homemade Will. 

During the pandemic, Royal London conducted research and found that more than half, circa 56%, of the UK population does not have a valid Will. Of those who do have a Will, approximately 30% had not considered updating or taken steps to update their Will for five years or more. Those without a Will or with a potentially out-dated Will are also urged to seek legal advice in order to take steps prevent claims being made against their estate when they die.

Fast-forward to 2022. The war in Ukraine, increasing gas and petrol prices, rising energy price caps and even the residual fall-out on trading costs from Brexit have meant that household income is subject to more and more pressure. With household purse-strings now being pulled ever-tighter, the constant strain on household finances means that those in difficult financial circumstances may have to become more resourceful in how they are able to ascertain increased financial security.

Those that may have been able to privately finance a challenge at one time may now be unable to do so without a funding arrangement in place with their legal representation of choice. The number of privately funded cases may therefore begin to reduce as the number of cases using alternative funding methods increases. In cases where there is more than one aggrieved party and the interests of those parties align, there may be a rise in cases where parties band together to jointly instruct lawyers to share the costs of making a challenge.