11 December 2023 Issue 4 Mark Lindley TEP

When a child is born

On legitimate difficulties concerning children, succession and the law of England and Wales

CPD Estate planning Matrimonial Residency or Domicile England and Wales

Abstract

This article tackles the challenging issue of identifying who is entitled to a disposition of a deceased individual’s property where they are identified by reference to their status as a ‘child’ of that individual (or similar relation).

It discusses how to determine who is a child in this context, including where ‘non-traditional’ births (or circumstances) and multiple jurisdictions are involved.

The article examines the difficulties that emerge when the distinction between legitimate and illegitimate children remains relevant, and how it can still cause significant trouble for trustees, executors and their advisors.

‘See the child.’ So begins Blood Meridian, the late Cormac McCarthy’s brutal tale of the American Southwest, in characteristically terse prose. To which the modern private client lawyer (or lay pedant, a close relation) may ask: whose child? Born in or out of wedlock, and when? Carried to term by the genetic mother or by another? Born in which jurisdiction? To parents domiciled in which jurisdiction?

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