Petition Improving the fairness of Will inheritance structures

The petition of certain citizens of the State of Victoria draws to the attention of the Legislative Council the private exploitation of Victoria's legal inheritance structures for personal gain at the expense of others. In particular, the testator’s capacity to control and deprive beneficiaries of assets they are morally entitled towards.

It has long been accepted in the law and among the public that parents, outside of exceptional circumstances, bear a moral duty to provide for their children in death. $5.4 trillion is expected to pass through Australian inheritance across the coming decades. Worsening cost of living, family estrangement and intergenerational wealth disparity will continue to raise the public’s reliance upon inheritance.

However, family provisions claims are disinterested in the fairness or equality of the will. Disinheritance or coercive conditions reasoned by xenophobia are treated just as valid as those in response to abuse, neglect or violence. Such reasoning may only be challenged during probate, creating a financial and legal barrier which fails to meaningfully enforce the moral duty to provide adequate provision. No legal system should allow for wrongdoing by engaging with it, especially that for which the perpetrator will never be confronted or held accountable during their lifetime.

The petitioners therefore request that the Legislative Council call on the Government to enact limitations upon the authority of wills by restricting conditions, scrutinising the circumstances of disinheritance and establishing minimum reserved estate portions for the immediate family.