Legacy Matters

The frontier of law

With the rapid changes in technology and life, there are issues now before courts that could never have been imagined 25 years ago.

Two British-born orphans adopted by regal Italian family in legal battle over £1bn fortune

The pair – who are not real siblings – have fallen out over who will one day inherit the billion-pound estate of the family that took them in 40 years ago.
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But 45-year- old Princess Gesine is unhappy about her adoptive brother’s offspring being named as heirs. Prince Jonathan is gay and had a son and daughter by surrogate mothers.
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Under Italian law Emily, three, and Filippo Andrea, two, have no legal rights to the family fortune, despite Jonathan’s British civil partnership with Brazilian lover Elson Edeno Braga.

In addition, staunchly Roman Catholic Princess Gesine disapproves of Jonathan’s lifestyle and says she fears that the children’s surrogate mothers could try to claim part of the fortune if they were

For last two years the dispute has been fought out in the Italian courts – a bitter ending to that fairytale beginning. A decision is expected next week.
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'The funniest thing out of all of this is that Jonathan and Gesine call themselves prince and princess but they don't have a drop of real blue blood between them

How can you plan for what you can't even imagine?