Re: its a cult
Unfortunately not true in our case coz we were not financially dependent on him, whereas a child would be legally regarded as a dependent, assuming you mean an actual child as defined by minority age rather than mere offspring. The legal term is actually 'issue'.
His reason for disinheriting us was coz we were all conspiring to steal from him. The Will was perfectly legal apparently, even though we filled two lever arch files with evidence of both undue influence by his 'carer' and impaired mental capacity. There was also a string of other suspicious circumstances that cast serious doubt on the validity of the Will, all backed by documentary evidence, but we were advised that it fell just short of outright proof, which is set at a ridiculously high standard in these kinda cases.
It's not as if we could have access to taped evidence of what they did to poison his mind against us. We console ourselves with the thought that these thieves will get their just reward in the next life.