Growing pains – adult child inheritance claims

Higgins v Morgan [2021] EWHC 2846 (Ch)

Although this recent authority was brought by an applicant under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 (the 1975 Act) as a child of the deceased’s family, it is parallel to an “adult child” claim (and was treated as such by the court). Given that the applicant succeeded, it is likely to feed into the debate as to whether the courts have demonstrated an increased reluctance to make awards in the case of adult children following the Supreme Court’s decision in Ilott v The Blue Cross and Others [2017] UKSC 17.