A judge has set a new legal precedent – overturning a will which disinherited a grown-up daughter.

The landmark appeal case related to Melita Jackson, who fell out with her daughter after she married someone she did not approve of. Mrs Jackson left her £500,000 estate to three animal charities with specific instructions to her executors to fight any claim on her estate by her daughter. The Court of Appeal has ruled that the daughter, Heather Ilott, now in her fifies, is entitled to a third of the estate because her mother did not make ‘reasonable provision’ in her will, a claim which has traditionally been used to protect the financial interests of dependent children.

This new case will to make it easier for children who are over 18 to dispute a will and it will have an impact on the executors who are responsible for distributing an estate – potentially embroiling them in expensive legal disputes that could last for years.

Your Will Can Be Ignored – Read the full story in the Telegraph