The Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 allows certain people, including spouses, civil partners, cohabitants, children and anyone being maintained by the deceased, to ask the court for reasonable financial provision from an estate when the will, or the intestacy rules, have not made it. It is one of the most frequently mediated areas of civil work, and for good reason.
Why these claims are so hard to predict
The Act asks the court to weigh a list of factors in section 3: the applicant’s needs and resources, those of the other beneficiaries, the obligations the deceased had, the size of the estate, and any other matter the court considers relevant, including conduct. The Supreme Court in Ilott v The Blue Cross confirmed how wide that discretion is. Two judges could, quite properly, reach different figures on the same facts.
That uncertainty is why these claims settle. Neither side can safely predict the outcome, the costs come out of the estate or the parties’ own pockets, and every month of litigation erodes what there is to divide.
What a mediation adds
A trial can award a lump sum or periodical payments. A mediation can do that too, but it can also do what the family actually needs:
- Let one beneficiary keep the family home in return for a reduced share of the rest.
- Agree a deferred payment, or a life interest, rather than a forced sale.
- Deal with the personal possessions and the memories attached to them.
- Record who will administer the estate from here, and on what timetable.
- Allow things to be said, in private, that no witness statement would ever contain.
Timing
The claim must usually be issued within six months of the grant of representation, which concentrates minds. Most mediations take place after the claim is issued and the parties have exchanged evidence, but an earlier mediation, before costs have built, is often the better investment. Wherever it falls, a settlement reached at mediation can be recorded in a consent order or a deed of variation.
The practical steps
Each party provides a concise position paper and the documents that matter: the will, a schedule of the estate, evidence of needs and resources. I speak to each side before the day. The mediation itself is usually a single day, in person or online, with joint and private sessions. Terms are written up and signed before anyone leaves.