Illegitimacy and probate

Today, births outside of marriage are common and carry no significant stigma. An “illegitimate” child is treated by law as a child of his or her biological parents, on an equal footing to any other biological or adopted child.

The same applies to “legitimated” children, who were illegitimate until the marriage of their parents.

For legal reasons, The Probate Wizard will only show questions relating to illegitimacy if the deceased left a will or codicil dated earlier than 4th April 1988.

Gifts to children in a will

If a will contains a gift to “all my children” or similar, this includes illegitimate children. (It also includes adopted children, but not step children.)

A will can be worded so as to exclude illegitimate children.

Intestacy

If there is no will, an illegitimate child has an equal right to the intestate estate as any other child of the deceased.