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Status Quo Rocker Rick Parfitt Disinherited his Wife

Can he do that? Probably not.

Status Quo Rocker Rick Parfitt Disinherited his Wife

Can he do that? Probably not.

Status Quo Rocker Rick Parfitt Disinherited his Wife

The late Status Quo star Rick Parfitt disinherited his wife in the final days before he died, it has emerged. But all is not as it seems.

Rock widow Lyndsay Parfitt has spoken in the press of concern that her husband changed his Will to exclude her from being provided for.

In the days following his untimely death, there was much uncertainty about who would inherit Parfitt’s wealth, since he was married three times and was the father of four children from those marriages. Onlookers doubted that anyone would go short, though, because Parfitt’s estate was estimated to be worth around £10million.

However, recent reports indicatre that he made no provision for his current wife and may in fact have left a very small estate.

Parfitt and his third wife enjoyed semi-retirement in Spain where they raised their twins. Two months before his passing, Parfitt separate from his wife. However, she maintains the couple remained close, and that she supported him closely in his final days. Lyndsay Parfitt told the press that she had believed they were still in every important respect a couple, and that she was upset to learn that he had changed his will  days before his death.

Can he get away with this?

Lyndsay Parfitt's version of events is that the couple drew up wills in 2009 leaving everything to each other, but that she received a lawyers' letter after her husband's death a saying he had changed his own will disinheriting her.

However, if she has taken proper legal advice, Lyndsay Parfitt will now know that, in the UK at least, it’s virtually impossible to disinherit your spouse.

The Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependents) Act 1975 provides very robust protection for disinherited spouses. Unlike the uncertainty surrounding the entitlement of disinherited children – as shown by the high-profile court cases of Danielle Ames and Heather Ilott – a spouse’s position under the 1975 Act is much more secure.

In effect, the 1975 Act provides a disinherited spouse with the same financial entitlements as conferred by the divorce courts. In many respects, the 1975 Act is actually more generous to disinherited spouses. The divorce courts must come up with a solution that provides as far as practicable for the needs for both spouses. However, under the 1975 Act, because one spouse no longer has any needs – because they have died – there is scope for more generous provision for the spouse seeking the court’s help.

The fact that the Parfitts had settled in Spain is unlikely to be an obstacle to using the 1975 Act, because they were both UK citizens. At the very least, any UK assets would be available to the court to redistribute in Lyndsay Parfitt’s favour.

But is there anything left to inherit?

This may be cold comfort for Lyndsay Parfitt, because her late husband’s lawyers also notified her l that there doesn’t appear to be much money left in the late rocker’s estate. Lyndsay Parfitt was aware that her husband's rock-star lifestyle was liable to burn through his funds at an alarming rate. She was however independently well-off when the couple met, and later managed most of her husband’s financial affairs during their marriage.

But she now says that all she has left is her half-share in the couple’s heavily mortgaged home, which the estate’s lawyers are pressing her to sell, so that Parfitt’s share can be distributed to his beneficiaries. She further says that she and her kids would be destitute were it not for her elderly mother’s financial support, and that the twins will shortly need to be taken out of their private school.

The picture is unlikely to be as bleak as described, though. In addition to ongoing royalty income from Status Quo, both Rick and Lyndsay Parfitt are listed as co-owners, along with Managing Director Julian Hall, of Status Homes Ltd, an outwardly successful Marbella estate agency. And with her self-acknowledged business skills and financial acumen, Lyndsay Parfitt is likely to succeed in keeping her twins in the manner to which they are accustomed.

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