My mother-in-law is leaving £600,000 to a cattery instead of my kids – I’m livid

Old mother and her adult daughter with financial problems at home

There is a uniquely toxic resentment that brews when adult children feel they have earned an inheritance that is being denied to them.

It is a feeling that often masks itself as a demand for justice, when what it really represents is a demand for control.

In the UK, we place a very high legal value on the principle of testamentary freedom – the right to leave your money to whomever you choose, regardless of what your family might expect or feel they deserve.

For this week’s Money Problem reader Priya, 44 from Surrey, that principle has collided spectacularly with her own expectations.

She has housed her mother-in-law for...