When there’s a will, there’s a war.(有遗嘱，就有战争。) Or so they say in the courts of England and Wales, which are growing busier with fights over the dead’s estates. The number of probate(遗嘱认证) claims listed at the High Court has grown by over 400% over the past decade, according to Solomonic, a legal-analytics company. The first three months of this year saw the highest number filed during any quarter on record. With most disputes over estates settled out of court, this is the tip of the iceberg(冰山一角).
有遗嘱，就有战争。至少在英格兰和威尔士的法庭上是如此，这些法庭正因争夺死者遗产的纠纷而日益繁忙。根据法律分析公司Solomonic的数据，高等法院受理的遗嘱认证案件数量在过去十年增长了超过400%。今年前三个月提交的案件数量创下了有记录以来任何季度的最高纪录。由于大多数遗产纠纷都在庭外和解，这仅仅是冰山一角。
Several factors explain the rise in family fisticuffs(拳斗，打架). Whereas most of the rest of Europe has “forced heirship(强制继承制度)” systems, which guarantee spouses and children a fixed share of an estate, in England, Wales and Northern Ireland you can disinherit(剥夺继承权) anyone you like—on whatever grounds you like. Yet at the same time the law in those jurisdictions gives a wide cast of characters(一大群角色)—from spouses to stepchildren to financial dependents—a route to challenge a will if they can show they were left without “reasonable financial provision(合理的财务供给)”. As family structures have become both looser and more complex, this has left more people feeling that they might have a right to a slice of the cake(一份利益).
有几个因素可以解释家庭拳脚之争的增加。欧洲大部分地区实行“强制继承”制度，保障配偶和子女获得固定份额的遗产，而在英格兰、威尔士和北爱尔兰，你可以以任何理由剥夺任何人的继承权。然而，与此同时，这些司法管辖区的法律赋予一系列广泛的人——从配偶到继子女再到经济受抚养人——一条挑战遗嘱的途径，只要他们能证明自己没有得到“合理的财务供给”。随着家庭结构变得既松散又复杂，这让更多人觉得自己可能有权利分得一杯羹。
Demography makes matters worse. Britons are living longer but with conditions (particularly dementia(痴呆症)) that can reduce their ability to make sound decisions(做出明智决策), prompting more disputes over whether the deceased even had capacity(能力，法律能力) to execute a will. Meanwhile, young people are increasingly reliant on their inheritance to get onto the property ladder(房产阶梯): the average age of first-time buyers recently rose to 34 in England, with nearly one in three deposits coming from family gifts, and almost a tenth from inheritance.
人口结构使情况更糟。英国人寿命更长，但患有（尤其是痴呆症等）可能降低其做出明智决策能力的疾病，从而引发更多关于死者是否具备立遗嘱能力的争议。与此同时，年轻人越来越依赖遗产来登上房产阶梯：英格兰首次购房者的平均年龄最近升至34岁，近三分之一的首付来自家庭赠与，近十分之一来自遗产。