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As someone who has suffered a spectacular disinheritance, (albeit definitely NOT in favour of any deserving cause), I'm with the greedy family on this one.

Whilst I do make it clear on my website that I don't do civil litigation I still get a trickle of enquiries from people who have been disinherited.

Not one of us has enjoyed the experience, and I haven't noticed that because the beneficiary is a charity that the disinheritance was somehow thereby thought to be OK by the disinherited.

I was lucky in that I benefited from obligatory heirship rules that at least garanteed me something, and if I had to choose between a system that has obligatory heirship and this country's Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 I'd opt for the system that has obligatory heirship any day, ... but any day.

If people reading these posts are thinking about making large bequests to charity I would like to urge them to make the payments now, whilst they are still alive, when the sacrifice might actually hit / hurt them and not the next-of-kin.

Forcing the next-of-kin to make the sacrifice in favour of Oxfam, Granny's church or cancer research is not heroic.

I am not going to tick down anonymous of 17.47 ... but there is another point of view out there.