The Law Commission has launched a consultation on the risk of “predatory marriages” after dozens of families came forward to claim they had been cheated out of their inheritance by secret brides or grooms.
Earlier this year Labour MP Fabian Hamilton highlighted the issue in Parliament when he mentioned the case of his 91-year-old constituent, Joan Blass, a vascular dementia and cancer sufferer, who died in March 2016.
Mr. Hamilton said a few days after her death her family found out she had been “secretly married” five months earlier to a man who was more than 20 years younger than her.
Under English law a widow or widower is automatically entitled to inherit their spouse’s estate up to the value of £270,000 and any existing will, prior to that marriage, becomes negated.
The consultation also asks whether electronic wills should be valid.
Professor Nicholas Hopkins, the Law Commission’s commissioner for property, family, and trust law, said, “Our review of wills aims to ensure that the law is modern and as straightforward as possible, protecting the most vulnerable and giving greater effect to everyone’s last wishes.”
“In light of recent technological and societal developments, we are seeking views on electronic wills and the effects of predatory marriage on wills. We welcome a wide range of responses to our consultation paper,” he added.
MP Says ‘Smiling’ Is Not Consent
He said at the time, “It’s not good enough for a registrar simply to say that because one of the participants in the marriage ceremony was smiling at the time, that meant consent was happily given.”On its website the commission said, “Increasing concerns about predatory marriage cast potential doubts on whether a marriage or civil partnership should continue to revoke a person’s pre-existing will.”
“The consultation seeks to determine how often this form of financial abuse takes place and considers whether wills should continue to be automatically revoked by marriage or civil partnership,” it added.
The commission said: “Predatory marriage is where a person marries someone, often who is elderly or who lacks mental capacity, as a form of financial abuse. This type of abuse is relevant to wills because marriage or civil partnership revokes a person’s will which means that their spouse or civil partner may inherit most if not all their estate in the absence of a new will.”
Inheritance laws in the UK are largely governed by a piece of Victorian legislation—the Wills Act 1837—which was drawn up three years after slavery was abolished in the British Empire and at a time when women were not allowed to vote.
Time for Electronic Wills?
The commission is seeking views on whether a proposed Wills Act should permit electronic wills, which would be created digitally, using electronic signatures, and could be stored safely with no danger of a paper version being stolen or destroyed by fire.Technological advances have made electronic wills feasible.
Electronic documents are currently used for conveyancing documents and in many other fields but at the moment a will is only legal if it is printed out and signed with ink.
During the COVID-19 pandemic the UK authorised for paper wills to be witnessed virtually but that temporary measure has now ended.
But several other countries have introduced permanent reforms to enable electronic wills.
