Predatory marriages could be banned after pensioners ‘groomed’ for inheritance payouts

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*By Madeleine Ross, Money Reporter, 24 May 2025 – 09:01AM BST*

Ministers are considering reforming marriage rules to stop elderly people from being preyed on and their families disinherited.

So-called “predatory marriages” – which lawyers claim are on the rise – see the elderly and vulnerable groomed into marriages they may not properly understand.

Current rules mean that pre-existing wills are invalidated when a person marries, meaning that spouses, who can inherit without paying any death duties, stand to get everything under intestacy laws.

But a major report from the Law Commission, published last week, recommended that wills should no longer be discarded when a person marries.
In a letter to Sarah Sackman, a justice minister, and Fabian Hamilton, a Labour MP, raised the case of Joan Blass, a 91-year-old woman suffering from dementia who married a younger man in a “secret” wedding.

She was widowed in 2008 but towards the end of 2011 struck up a conversation with the man, who was standing at the end of her garden. Within a month, he had moved into her spare bedroom.

The marriage – made without the knowledge of Ms Blass’s family – meant that when she died in 2016, she was buried in an unmarked grave, against her wishes, and “stripped of all her assets and money”.

Her husband claimed she did have the capacity to marry him and that it was a “loving and caring” relationship, the i newspaper reported.
Mr Hamilton wrote on X: “The Wills Act hasn’t been updated since 1837. Marriage should never revoke a previous will.

“The Law Commission has put forward decisive recommendations. I have written to the justice minister calling on the Government to act on them.”

**Current rules ‘hard to justify’**

The Labour MP put forward a Private Members’ Bill in 2018 proposing a change in the law, which was supported by MPs including Rachel Reeves and Sir Ed Davey.

Mr Hamilton said he had been contacted by several families who had experienced “predatory marriages”, demonstrating the scale of the issue.

Daniel Edwards, a partner at law firm Browne Jacobson, said many people were unaware of the rule, and that it “can seem a little hard to justify, given changes in society since the rule came about.”

Mr Edwards added: “It is also one that can be open to abuse; in cases of ‘predatory marriage’ a will – that perhaps leaves everything to the testator’s children – would in all likelihood be revoked by a marriage.

“While Law Commission reports can sometimes take years to be considered and debated in Parliament, the fact we have already seen the Government’s response suggests there is motivation and intention to bring forward changes in the not-too-distant future.”

**Government ‘recognises current law is outdated’**

Ms Sackman said in response to the recommendations: “Marriage should no longer automatically revoke a will – this recommendation is designed to address the problem of ‘predatory marriages’ where vulnerable people are befriended, and the effect of the marriage is to disinherit families and others from any will they have made.”

The Law Commission began looking into wills in 2016, before pausing the research in 2019 to focus on marriages at the Government’s request. It published the results of two public consultations and draft legislation earlier this month.

Other recommendations from the review included allowing children to make wills, making electronic wills valid and the recognition of more informal wills.

The commission also proposed abolishing rules which stop second spouses, stepchildren and divorced partners from challenging mutual wills under the Inheritance Act 1975.

Ms Sackman added: “The reforms proposed by the Law Commission are significant and wide-ranging. They deserve detailed consideration.

“The Government recognises that the current law is outdated, and we must embrace change, but the guiding principle in doing so will be to ensure that reform does not compromise existing freedoms or protecting the elderly and vulnerable in society from undue influence.”

So we will also be banning predatory marriages where people are lined up to (generally older men) as children?

Feels like it would make more sense to confirm the person has capacity to enter the marriage, rather than letting them live whatever sort of life the predatory spouse allows and merely safeguarding the money for their children. But the money is the important part of this story, eh?

As long as they’re mentally competant they should be able to give their money to whoever they want. It’s not up to someone who doesn’t know the individual to decide that a relationship is predatory.

So would this wreck my plans to be groomed by the entire Swedish women’s beach volleyball team when I’m 97?

How can you ban this legally? Shall we also ban SAGA holidays for defrauding grandchildren of their inheritance?

Assuming they have mental capacity these men are allowed to be led by their dick and make an unwise decision. If their family are unhappy they should take this up with their dad, not the law.

Safrguarding against coerced marriages of teenagers to grown men should be the priority, not this.

Forward thinking youths getting back the money from wealth hoarding boomers.
/s

My family is currently experiencing this and it’s heartbreaking. My 92 year old (very wealthy) grandfather fell under the spell of a 50 year old woman whilst my grandmother was dying of Alzheimer’s disease. We have no idea how they first met but within a few months of my grandmother passing she had moved in and they were married less than a year later. My poor mother and her siblings (who are all older than their new stepmother) have tried and tried to talk some sense into my grandfather but he just goes on the defensive and it ends in an argument and him not speaking to them for a few weeks. They don’t care about the money they just don’t want to see their dad being abused but he refuses to see the truth of the situation and she has poisoned him against his own children and grandchildren. We have now reached a very uncomfortable situation where if we want to see our grandfather we have to grit our teeth and smile at this evil woman and pretend we don’t know exactly what she is and what she’s doing.
We are absolutely powerless to do anything, he is of sound mind and has changed his will so that everything goes to her and her family, the police aren’t interested as she hasn’t technically done anything illegal.