The Daily Telegraph quotes Tamasin Perkins on the rise in families challenging ‘invalid’ wills

Data revealed by The Telegraph shows that bereaved families are contesting more wills in an attempt to secure inheritances they believe they’re entitled to.

In 2024-2025, a total of 122 wills were challenged by families who said that they were invalid, a 61pc increase on 2020-2021, when just 76 were disputed, according to Ministry of Justice data.

Families can challenge wills on the basis of validity if the documents were not completed properly, if the person making the will didn’t have mental capacity when it was written or if they were under undue influence. Wills can also be declared invalid if there is evidence the person writing the will was defrauded or the document is a forgery.

Tamasin Perkins, Partner and Head of Private Wealth Disputes comments for The Telegraph on potential reasons behind the increase:

We see complex family dynamics (especially for international families) and complex asset structures  leading to an increase in will disputes.  For example, online investment portfolios or investments in crypto and other digital assets can make it harder for family members to have clarity about what is an Estate and what inheritance they might receive.

"There may have been a ‘blip’ in the Covid and immediately post-Covid years which skews the statistics on the number of claim forms submitted; our experience of the trend is that Will challenges have continued to grow over the last decade.

"The rules for executing wills were briefly relaxed during Covid to allow for electronic signatures. This may have led to some confusion about exactly how a will should be executed to ensure it is valid and therefore more challenges based on invalid execution.

Read the full piece in The Telegraph here (subscription required).