Wills with step children

rolling_thunder

Hello guys n girls
We have 4 children, two are mine, two are my partners.. We are not married, but do own a house together..
Can someone please tell us how to make a will that protects our childrens inheritants.. We would like to let the surviving partner keep the property until death then divide the property 4 equal ways.. The only poosible problem/issue we can think of maybe if the surviving partner should marry someone in the future this may move the money on to them???..
We have a tenants in common drawn up between us relating to the house..
What are our options?.. Would it help if we were currently married as we plan to marry in the future..
Would it be best to split our investment upon death of either side?..

Sorry to ask so much, but we are completely lost what to do next..
Mark n Marion

jacqhale

Hi, we are in a similar situation and are in the process of having a will drawn up at the moment. DH has a teenage son from previous relationship and we have a 3 year old and one on the way. I also have 2 properties and inheritence.
We decided on everything going to the partner then being split between the kids when both have gone.
However according to our will writer there is nothing that can be done about one partner remarrying in the future, as soon as they 'have the lot' they can then rewrite the will however they want so it either has to be a matter of trust between the couple or tie everything up in expensive and complicated trusts.

I would be interested to hear if we have had the correct advice or if there are any other options.

I suppose the problem with paying out to kids on one death is that you then may have to sell the family home to 'pay them off' which might put you in a difficult situation at a difficult time?

Whatever way we looked at it there didn't seem to be a right answer!

jhe

we altered the deeds to become tenents in common. whoever dies first leaves their half in trust to children, with a clause to protect the living partner, the children cant make exisisting partner sell the house or charge rent.it seemed a little complicated when we made the will but solicitor explained everything to us.it also protects the childrens inheritance when one partner dies and if the other remarried.

dzug1

Some thoughts you might like to think about. There isn't a correct answer here, BTW, just that you need to think about whether your values stand up to scrutiny.

Why do you WANT to protect the kids inheritance? OK fine now while they are young - but once they are adult?? Surely they stand on their own two feet? Anything they may or may not get by then is a bonus

Why would you want to put barriers in the way of your partner remarrying should you predecease him/her? Isn't that being a bit vindictive? If you are not prepared to allow them that perhaps they shouldn't be your partner.

More factual ones:

Should you marry any existing wills are rendered invalid unless they specifcally allow for that marriage

What you decide now is not for life - you shouldn't be trying to cover the potential of surviving to your 80s, just for the likely duration of your current circumstances. When those change, you should reconsider and make new wills if necessary.

I don't think there's anything in between a trust - complicated and maybe expensive - tying down what you partner can do and 'trusting' them to do what is 'right'. Again - what is 'right' may change over time.


Opinion again - I'd say don't tie them down. But whether that's right for you depends on your own shared values.

Hope that helps your thoughts

getmore4less

I am starting to look into this.

If you do a list of senarious of all those living and then dieing in different orders it gets very complicated.

Part of the problem is protecting the kids(grandkids) without depriving the existing spouse/partner if they need money for something.

Other issue is what hapens with things like property when selling and buying happens.

Also if the kids are young there are the ongoing tax issues.

Also with non married(civil P) you have to watch IHT since there is no nill band transfer.

I am working my way through the books(library) and on line resources HMRC for trusts and tax , courts for probate.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/cto/glossary.htm
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/trusts/basic_faqs_list_prex.htm
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/trusts/

http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/infoabout/civil/probate/index.htm

Watch out for executors and trustees the more complicated you make it that harder it gets for lay people and more costly if you use proffesionals.

jhe

dzug1.in my case my children are adults, i 100% agree with my partner having a life when i die including remarrying, life goes on. but my partner and i both agree with protecting their inheritance.we have worked for what we now own and would like our offspring to benefit from it. is it so wrong to want my family to inherit what i worked for. if partner was to remarry then die my children could get nothing.

dzug1

jhe wrote: »

dzug1.in my case my children are adults, i 100% agree with my partner having a life when i die including remarrying, life goes on. but my partner and i both agree with protecting their inheritance.we have worked for what we now own and would like our offspring to benefit from it. is it so wrong to want my family to inherit what i worked for. if partner was to remarry then die my children could get nothing.

No it's not wrong - but it isn't right either, not in any absolute sense. As I said, it depends on your own values. Questioning those values, and reaffirming - or changing - them - is something you should always be prepared to do.

margaretclare

It's maybe worth pointing out that in the case of step-children it isn't sufficient to write 'my children' - you have to name them.

In our case we have 'mirror wills' leaving everything to each other and then to 5 grandchildren, 3 of mine and 2 of his. On the death of the second survivor everything is to be split equally 5 ways. To ensure that, we have had to name all 5 of them.

swampduck

A similar situation arose when my Dads' second wife died. But she had written in a proviso that he could live in the house until he died or chose to remarry.
A few years later he found a lovely new partner and under the terms of his wifes' will allowed the house to be sold and set up a new home with his partner in a new property.

Just a personal comment here.... not sure that I would want to live in a house where previous wife had lived (but who am I to talk?!) I'm living in my partners' house which he had with his ex-wife and kids.
Despite my name being on the mortgage and completely renovating the house and knocking out walls etc etc I still feel like it is 'their' house. A situation I hope to remedy when the financial climate improves!!

Swampy

maggieann155

"In our case we have 'mirror wills' leaving everything to each other and then to 5 grandchildren, 3 of mine and 2 of his. On the death of the second survivor everything is to be split equally 5 ways. To ensure that, we have had to name all 5 of them."

But if you leave everything to your other half, once its his, cant he do with it as he pleases ie possibly provide for just his family?

Pee

If you are not married and your house or total estates are worth more than £325,000 you should be looking at Discretionary trusts and IHT planning.

If I was in your position I would probably give him a life interest in your estate with it then going to my children at 25 and appointing executors who can act in his best interests, i.e. friends of his that I liked and knew capable of dealing with a bit of paperwork.

If the value of the house is not much above the mortgage, even say £50k more than the mortgage, I would leave it outright to him and hope he did the right thing.

It depends how commited you are to one another and how likely you feel he is to do the right thing.

One option might be to leave it to the children at 25 and leave him together with a level headed friend as Executors.