HOW BAD DOES AN ADULT CHILD’S BEHAVIOUR HAVE TO BE BEFORE THE CAN BE EFFECTIVELY DISINHERITED?

Some parents have become so distraught with their adult child’s behaviour that they make the very hard decision to leave that child nothing in their will. This does not always prove effective. Sometimes, if the child makes a family provision claim, the court will grant them provision despite their “disentitling” behaviour.

Crawford v Munden; In the Estate of Angel [2020] NSWSC provides an example of such an outcome. The court recognised that the son was responsible for a 16-year period of estrangement. The mother had made many attempts at reconciliation: she had moved twice to where her son lived, she had attempted to see her grandchildren, but was completely rebuffed by her son. He totally wiped her out of his life. A reasonable person reading the case details might well have concluded that his behaviour was cruel and heartless and that he deserved to be disinherited. Nonetheless the court gave him substantial provision from his mother’s estate.

In Grant v Grant; Grant v Grant (No. 2) [2020] NSWSC the daughter:

·       bullied, harassed and threatened her parents for money over several decades

·       her parents and especially her mother were frightened of her and at one stage even left the country to get away from her

·       she misused the power of attorney she had for her father, sold his house to her daughter for a nominal sum and left him without sufficient funds to pay his nursing home fees

·       she moved him from nursing home to nursing home so her siblings could not contact him

·       her mother disinherited her, she applied for family provision and was unsuccessful.

This case indicates that really bad behaviour: behaviour that is actively hostile, aggressive and potentially criminal will probably be sufficient to effectively disinherit an adult child.