Unequal Split for Kids Inheritance

samjocky

Hi

Please help me and don't think bad of me. I am a divorced mum of 2 and I currently have the following assets:

House worth £200K - with £80K equity.
150K of life insurance.
Car - £3K

For reasons only known to me, I aim to write a will in November 2006 under the Will Aid scheme. However, I want to adjust the percentage going to each child. For my eldest child I want to give 25% and to my other child the remaining 75% with a financial bequest to my current partner also.

Am I able to do this? Will my eldest child be able to contest this (my ex husband will totally back him on this if so). He has been a totally vile child to me and although I don't want to cut him out altogether, I feel I must leave him something.

It is a subject that I am sure will horrify many of you, but without knowing the circumstances, please still give me some advice if possible.

Thank you for your time in advance

skylight

Its your will. You can leave what you want to whomever you want. There are no rules to say you have to leave everything equally to your kids.

And your eldest could contest the will if he wants - he has a right to do that to. But it will be costly for him and I doubt he would get anywhere provided your will is written correctly with no loop-holes in it.

And no, its not horrifying about who you want to leave your stuff to. You do not have to leave him anything if you don't want (my grandparents are doing this to one son and splitting the rest between other son and my Mum).

samjocky

charlotte664 wrote:

Its your will. You can leave what you want to whomever you want. There are no rules to say you have to leave everything equally to your kids.

And your eldest could contest the will if he wants - he has a right to do that to. But it will be costly for him and I doubt he would get anywhere provided your will is written correctly with no loop-holes in it.

And no, its not horrifying about who you want to leave your stuff to. You do not have to leave him anything if you don't want (my grandparents are doing this to one son and splitting the rest between other son and my Mum).

Charlotte 664, you have just made me feel so much better and not like the ogre that I was feeling. Thanks xx

Rikki

I also what to do the same thing with my childrens inheritence, with the bulk going to my youngest child. I wonder if your reasoning may be simular to mine. (no need to say)

What is the will aid scheme?

skylight

What is more important though is the tax threshold level - I cannot remember what that is!

Js_Other_Half

Rikki wrote:

What is the will aid scheme?

http://www.willaid.org.uk/

"Solicitors throughout the UK will waive their fee to draw up a basic Will during November 2006. Instead they will ask you to make a donation to the Will Aid charities. All the money raised by the participating solicitors firms is given to the Will Aid charities to support their work."

Spendless

I might be totally wrong here but isn't there some rule about dependants being able to challenge what could be seen (by them) as an unfair will .

Are the children grown up? I am aware of a relatives will that does something similar to their kids but in this case the children are adults, it may not be the same if the kids are under 18.

Also, again I think that the beneficiary of a will can change it (eg share the money out) though it costs money to do so. Have you thought about this at all?

mountainofdebt

I don't know if you can do this but I think you can put in your will the rationale behind your decision.

If you do this then I would imagine there is less chance of the elder child contesting the will as your reasons will be there in black and white.

Personally if he's been that horrible to you I don't see why you have to leave him anything but that, as I said is only a personal thought.

samjocky

Thanks to all who replied ( I have posted thanks) - I just want to ensure it is pretty watertight really. I hope that the cost of contesting will deter my ex and my son from doing so.

Thanks again to all - this was a really hard subject to write about and not one of you have judged me - thanks

margaretclare

Hi

I think the will could only be contested if the son you're not leaving much to is your dependant. If he wasn't then I don't think there's anything he can do. Why leave him anything at all if he's such a 'vile child' as you say? It's your money, you can do what you like with it!

My DH and I have our wills already written, and to be fair to all, we've written that the residue of our estate is to be split equally between 5 grandkids, 3 of mine and 2 of his.

I am doubtful about this now. Certainly the 2 of his will never want for anything (unless things go very badly wrong!!) I also think that the 2 younger ones of mine will do all right. My eldest one though, I'm very concerned about her. The last I heard, she was living in a room in a pub in exchange for doing some cleaning in the pub. There'll never be a rich husband - she's gay!

So many people are concerned about not paying IHT/not paying care home charges, those kind of things. I am just concerned about my eldest granddaughter.

Margaret

Philippa36

My Mum has split her will fairly between me and my sister. My brother isn't getting anything because as far as she is concerned he has had his share already.

Where is it written that you have to save all your life to provide for your children when you die? I would prefer my Mum to enjoy life and spend what money she needs to to fund this, not worry about leaving it all for her children.

Its your money and your choice