Inside the Inheritance Act
To mark the 50th anniversary of the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 receiving Royal Assent on 12 November 2025, Hayley’s specialist Consultancy Team is publishing a series of articles under the title, ‘Inside the Inheritance Act’, to provide clients with guidance on how the Inheritance Act works.
In this edition, we look at the lesser known provisions of the Act providing for calling assets back into the estate under sections 8, 9 and 10.
What is the Inheritance Act?
The Inheritance Act provides a mechanism for certain categories of individuals to seek (increased) reasonable financial provision from the estate of a deceased person where their Will, or the intestacy rules, have failed to provide that provision for them upon their death. The categories include spouses and former spouses, financial dependants, and children.
What is the net estate?
Under section 3(1)(e) of the Inheritance Act, the court is specifically required to consider ‘the size and nature of the net estate of the deceased’ as one of the factors to weigh in the balance when deciding whether an applicant has received reasonable financial provision from the deceased’s estate and, if not, what reasonable financial provision should be made for them by way of an award upon a successful outcome of their claim.
This means the Court needs to consider whether the net estate is:
- of a sufficient size to make provision for the applicant, potentially also ensuring that the existing beneficiaries receive reasonable financial provision; and
- whether the nature of the assets in the estate lends itself readily to an award being made to provide for the applicant. For example, is the entirety of the value of the estate tied up in a property occupied by the spouse of the deceased (making it potentially more difficult for an award to be made if it will result in the property needing to be sold and them losing their home) or have all of the assets been sold such that the estate is in liquid form (making it potentially easier for an award to be made for the applicant causing less disruption to existing beneficiaries)?
The definition of ‘net estate’ for the purposes of the Inheritance Act is set out at section 25 and in broad terms is the deceased’s total assets less total liabilities. However, as a result of sections 8, 9 and 10 of the Act additional assets can be called back into the estate for the purposes of determining whether and to what extent an order for reasonable financial provision should be made under the Act for an applicant.
What do sections 8, 9 and 10 of the Inheritance Act provide for?
Under section 8 of the Inheritance Act, certain assets held on trust outside of the estate can be called back into the estate for the purposes of the court’s calculation of the net estate when determining a claim. This will often cover certain forms of pensions and trusts with nominated beneficiaries.
Under section 9 of the Inheritance Act, the deceased’s share of property which was jointly owned with another and held outside of the estate, immediately prior to the death, can also be called back into the estate for the purposes of the court’s calculation of the net estate when determining a claim. This will often include the deceased’s share of a joint bank account or the deceased’s share of a property held with another by way of survivorship. Unless the deceased’s share can be evidenced to be otherwise, it is likely that an equal share of that asset will be called back into the estate so for example if the deceased co-owned a bank account or property with one other person then 50% of the value of that asset would be called back into the estate. The default is that the court will take the value of that asset as at a date immediately prior to the death but the Court has the power to order that a different date of valuation should apply instead (for example, the date closer to a trial date).
Under section 10 of the Inheritance Act, the court can call back into the estate assets which it deems to have been deliberately removed from the estate prior to death in an attempt to defeat the merit of the applicant bringing the Inheritance Act claim. In order to successfully call such assets back into the estate the Court must be satisfied that the transaction took place less than 6 years prior to the death, with the intention of defeating an Inheritance Act claim and that full valuable consideration was not given for that transfer (i.e. it was a partial or full gift) by the recipient of the gift or another in their stead and that to make such an order would facilitate the Court being able to make an award for reasonable financial provision for an applicant under the Act.
When should you start an Inheritance Act claim?
The Inheritance Act imposes a time-limit (also called a limitation date) on starting these claims with the Court, which is six months from the date of the Grant of Probate / Grant of Letters of Administration. Whilst section 4 of the Inheritance Act permits the bringing of a claim after this time there are various factors which the court must take into account when deciding whether to allow applicants to do so and it can make the claim more difficult to succeed upon. For this reason it is important that you seek specialist legal advice upon your rights to bring a claim as soon as possible following the deceased’s death.
Historically there was a requirement for any claim to call assets back into the estate pursuant to section 9 of the Inheritance Act to have been commenced within six months of the date of Grant of Probate / Letters of Administration, which would have excluded the possibility of including a section 9 claim within a claim which is seeking permission to bring the claim out of time under section 4. That requirement was removed by the Inheritance and Trustees’ Powers Act 2014 so that it is now possible to include a section 9 claim within an out of time claim.
SBMB – Specialist Inheritance Act Consultancy Firm
If you feel you have not received adequate provision from the estate of a loved one, please contact us for a free initial consultation to discuss your options for bringing a claim and the funding arrangements we can offer, such as no win no fee.
Read more in the series: ‘Inside the Inheritance Act’.
For more from Hayley’s specialist Consultancy Team go to ACTAPS Consultancy Firm.
