Rising property prices are driving an increase in inheritance disputes, with younger people more aware than ever that wills can be challenged, fresh data shows.
Rising property prices are driving an increase in inheritance disputes, with younger people more aware than ever that wills can be challenged and even seemingly well-do-to beneficiaries demanding a greater share of the family estate.
Released by Solomon Hollett Lawyers the second Inheritance State of Play in WA Report, compiled from a survey of 882 Western Australians, backs up raw court data which shows contested wills have jumped markedly in the past two years.
The report also highlighted a rising cohort of outwardly well-off people challenging the distribution of estates which have become bigger as property and other assets values have risen, and the surviving generation has lived much longer.
This new type of will challenger may have masked high debt or other financial issues behind a façade of apparent wealth and were looking for an inheritance to solve their problems.
The rise in the average life span meant that beneficiaries were older when the estate was to be distributed, often with greater financial needs than might have been the case in previous generations.
Rising estate values meant the reward for challenging a will was greater than the previously.
An estate might increasingly be worth $3 million or more but there were understood to be matters currently on foot worth as much as $80 million.
The inheritance report showed more people are at risk from dying without a will than two years ago when the firms’ first survey was compiled, rising to 44 per cent to 42 per cent.
It found wills were often out of date, with 58 per cent of people likely to die without a will or one that was at least 10 years old, circumstances Solomon Hollett described as falling into the high-risk camp for future estate disputes.
WA Supreme Court data shows that contested wills have jumped 40 per cent in two years, after been steady between 2021 and 2023.
The rise is largely where there is an order that provision be made out of estate, effectively where the court directs a change to how a deceased person’s estate is distributed.
Also rising is proof of will in solemn form, which generally occurs when one party asserts that a will isn’t valid for some reason.
Contested wills (active matters only) in the Supreme Court of Western Australia between 2021 and 2025.
Last Updated: 12 March 2026On the positive side, the report found overall expectations of family disputes over inheritance had dropped dramatically from 60 per cent to 35 per cent, with only the younger cohorts – notably Gen Z – being particularly pessimistic.
Solomon Hollett Director Morgan Solomon that while the dramatic reduction in expectations was incredibly encouraging from a societal point of view it didn’t tell the whole story.
“When you break it down into generations it is all over the shop,” Mr Solomon.
He pointed to the data which showed 57 per cent of Gen Z survey respondents anticipated an inheritance dispute in the family, as did 47 per cent of Millenials and 34 per cent of Gen Xs.
Older generations had much lower expectations.
“This shows to me that there is a fundamental disconnect in the understanding about what is going to happen.”
Mr Solomon said a new class of claimants who were seemingly well to do had been fascinating to experience.
He said they were people who looked comfortable on the surface, often dual income couples with high-paid jobs, resident in good neighbourhoods and sending their children to top schools, but they were living beyond their means.
“They are drowning in debt,” he said.
“They have had the realisation that the only way ahead will be the estate.
”They have always been there but they are much more apparent.”
