# Disinheritance ruling: daughter successfully challenges charitable legacies

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2015/07/28/disinheritance-ruling-daughter-successfully-challenges-charitable-legacies/
- Published: 2015-07-28T16:28:34+01:00
- Author: Simon George

**Today’s ruling by the Court of Appeal in favour of a woman cut out of her mother’s
will when she left her estate to three charities may be a landmark that sets a new
precedent. **
Although not specifically about legacies to charity, the ruling could
affect those cases each year where an individual has disinherited their family in
favour of one or more charities.

In this instance, Melita Jackson left all her £486,000 estate to the RSPCA, RSPB
and Blue Cross in 2004. In so doing, she cut out her daughter Heather Ilot, from
whom she had been estranged since 1978. The daughter has successfully challenged
the will and been awarded £164,000 or a third of the estate. This is unusual, in
that previously a successful claim could only be made where it could be shown that
the person challenging the will had been financially reliant on the deceased person(
which was not the case here).

While the ruling will not prevent people from cutting relatives out of their will,
it does mean they will now have to be very careful to document and justify their
decision and demonstrate their reasons for supporting charities instead.

## Advertisement

## How might this affect charities?

So what are the implications for charities? It is possible that this ruling will
reduce the number of contentious legacies they receive. Although this could mean
less money for charities, the upside is that it could also mean fewer PR battles
to avoid the negative publicity that can sometimes arise in these cases. We all 
remember the RSPCA’s battle over the Gill case and the publicity that generated.

There seem to be no direct implications for legacy marketing. After all, not many
charities have openly encouraged supporters to disinherit family members (though
many may have secretly hoped for this). In fact, the ruling seems to chime well 
with the prevailing theme of “family first”, whereby charities encourage donors 
to provide for their loved ones, before remembering the charity in their will. This
is clearly the responsible path to follow and today’s ruling only supports this.

_Simon George is a Director of [Wootton George Consulting](http://www.wgconsulting.co.uk/fundraising-services/legacy-fundraising)_

 * **[Charities win high court legacy case](https://fundraising.co.uk/2016/01/28/charities-win-high-court-legacy-case-2/)**(
   28 January 2016)
 * **[How Peter Rogers ‘Carry On’ films leave a charitable legacy for the British film industry that it once helped to define](https://fundraising.co.uk/2016/03/11/how-peter-rogers-carry-on-films-leave-a-charitable-legacy-for-the-british-film-industry-that-it/)**(
   11 March 2016)
 * **[Legacy income up 10%, reveals Legacy Monitor](https://fundraising.co.uk/2016/08/11/legacy-income-10-reveals-legacy-monitor/)**(
   11 August 2016)