VANITY
WHAT CAN WE ESTATE PLAN
Sunday night brought us the third episode in the ITV adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray ’ s Vanity Fair .
Spoiler alert …
Vanity Fair follows the story of Becky Sharpe , a poor orphan out to make her fortune by whatever means necessary . She ’ s already courted her friend Amelia ’ s wealthy yet insecure brother and following a disastrous and drunken evening he took his leave of poor Becky .
Since then , Becky has become very friendly with Lady Matilda Crawley the wealthy aunt of Rawdon , one of her suitors . Rawdon is a dashing military officer who relies on his aunt for handouts and because she isn ’ t married , hopes to inherit her huge fortune . There is competition though . Matilda demonstrates the typical upper class snobbery of the early 19th century and is
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The Society of Will Writers
disgusted to learn of the marriage of her nephew and Becky and views this as a betrayal and desperate attempt to inherit her fortune . As a result she cuts them off .
This is the first in an interesting case of inheritance and succession law discussion points . The principle of testamentary freedom ( the right to gift your property , chattels , real estate etc . to whom you want ) is one that is specific to English & Welsh Law and differs from the rules of many civil law jurisdictions , France for example .
Whilst Matilda Crawley resents her family and knows they simply want to inherit her enormous wealth she has the power to keep them all guessing as to where it will be going . Should Captain Rawdon get nothing he has no claim , but should this have happened post 1975 then he may have been able to make a claim under the
Inheritance ( Provision for Family and Dependents ) Act 1975 . The reason for this is because he has relied on the charity of his aunt to maintain his lifestyle so may qualify as a ‘ person being maintained ’. Historically though he had no rights . Part of me hopes that Miss Briggs the maid inherits to the disappointment of all of the Crawleys .
What does differ is that in 1814 when Vanity Fair ’ s third episode was set the primary piece of legislation governing Will writing as we know it ( The Wills Act 1837 ) hadn ’ t come into force . What was in place was the 1796 tax on estates which was introduced to help the war against Napoleon .
The idea of cutting someone out of your inheritance was also prevalent in the Osbourne ’ s