Stepchildren have a limited ability to claim provision from their step-parent’s estate. As explained in the Family Provision Act Amendment Bill, second reading speech:
‘An example of a stepchild’s claim is where a child’s parent re-partners and, as is common, the partners leave all of their estate to each other. In these situations there may be an understanding that on the death of the survivor of the partners, the survivor’s stepchild can expect to receive all, or a substantial part of the estate which came from the surviving partner from the child’s parent. However, for various reasons these understandings may not be adhered to.’
The purpose of extending the Family Provision framework to include step-children was:
- To provide for people who were reliant or dependant on their step-parent during their lifetime (eg where the step-parent stood in loco parnetis) and/or;
- Where the Deceased inherits a substantial benefit (see rule 3 below) from the estate from their subsequent spouse; to recognise that the deceased then owes a moral obligation to provide some of the remaining capital to their former spouse’s children on their death
r3 of the Family Provision Regulations 2013 (WA) states that the jurisdictional limit enlivening standing for step-children is $517,000.00 (of estate assets). This amended the former limit of $475,000.00 when the Family Provision Regulations (were enacted on 16 January 2013 the amended limit came into force on 16 May 2015).