Advice about Wills and step children please.

smartpicture

A lot of the will-related issues here seem to be caused because one partner leaves everything to the other, who then marries again and leaves everything to the new wife/husband - so you children could end up with nothing. Have you considered this scenario?

moralissue

smartpicture wrote: »

A lot of the will-related issues here seem to be caused because one partner leaves everything to the other, who then marries again and leaves everything to the new wife/husband - so you children could end up with nothing. Have you considered this scenario?

Yes we have and other than the fact we trust each other to do the 'right' thing and update any wills if one of us dies and the other re marries I am not sure what else we could do about that? In this day and age its no wonder this kind of things causes problems.

Mojisola

moralissue wrote: »

I think what we will do is (using the advice from this thread) is write an exact list and insist that our wishes are granted even if it means harder work for the solicitor, we are paying after all..

But having a strict list that we don't want to veer from written down might help so, so far:

• Everything left to each other. (I'm assuming that children can't contest it that they should get something before both parents have died? ie they can't contest a will if we want the full amount left to the surviving wife/husband? Not that I am thinking they will but this solicitor has really got me thinking!).

There would have to be really extraordinary reasons for them to do this! Not something to worry about.

• If we die together then certain percentages of estate (house/cash etc) for each child.

• All possessions to be divided between our 2 children.
  

Do you think I need to add other clauses?

That works if all the children are over 18 - is that so?

moralissue

No one is under 18

paddy's_mum

I agree that this solicitor needs ditching - how arrogant to try to turn you from this without going into the why's and wherefore's of his advice!

Friends of mine did it this way. There were two children from the marriage plus a child of the wife's from a previous relationship. Both spouses had worked extremely hard for what they had. They decreed that each spouse 'owned' half of their total estate and this was to be fairly split between however many children each spouse had. So, the wife's notional 50% would be split into three with one portion going to each of her three children. The husband had only two children of his own so his notional 50% was split equally between those two children.

Therefore, in effect the whole estate was split into five parts with two children taking 2 portions each (one from each parent) while the mother's child got one share from her parent.

I can't see anything wrong with this calculation at all and I'd bet that most people can readily see the logic and fairness behind it. Hope it all gets sorted out amicably for you.

belfastgirl23

We had a similar situation in our family. The father has decided to leave his half of the joint estate equally between his four children, mother wants to leave her half of the joint estate to her two children. Therefore the calculation is simple - 1/8th of the estate to each of the older children and 3/8ths of the estate to each of the two younger children. This has all been explained well in advance so it's clear to everyone the reasoning for the will. So on a £10,000 estate, the two older children will get £12,500 each (a quarter of dad's estate each) and the two younger will get £37,500 each (half of Mum's estate plus a quarter of dads).

fluffnutter

Good Lord, what's a will for if it's not to specify what you do with your estate? Why on earth should a solicitor advise "don't do that, too complicated, split it all equally"? What a bizarre response. Of course wills can be contested. But generally speaking to successfully contest a will like this, they'd have to demonstrate either that a) your husband and you were coerced in some way into making this will, i.e. it's not of your free will or b) that there's been a longstanding financial arrangement between you and them and that they have a moral expectation to this money. Simply thinking a will's 'not fair' is not grounds for a successful contest; it's up to you how you leave your money and if you want to favour some children over others then that's your right.

It's worth bearing in mind however, the legacy you leave behind if you don't treat all children the same. But I get the feeling you've already done so and these decisions aren't made lightly. Find another solicitor and write the will you want to leave.

Surfbabe

We are just settling my mums estate - she split the estate into shares and specified how many shares each person was to get - its not caused any problems - we've made our wills and if anything should happen to us and the kids at the same time then the state is split 50/50 between our siblings - this means that my siblings will get half my share each and DH siblings will get a third of his share each.

No solicitor has the right to tell you its complicated - they get paid enough to sort it after all !!!

zzzLazyDaisy

I am astonished that your solicitor advised you to leave the money equally when it was clearly against your express wishes. Is the solicitor a sole practitioner, or working within a firm? If the latter, I would make a formal complaint and ask for another solicitor to take over your case (all firms of solicitors must have a complaints procedure and you should have been given a client care letter at the outset explaining this).

My husband and I were in a similar position. We made mirror wills, each leaving everything to the other, but in the event that the other should predecease then everything to be split equally with my half share being then split four ways (son and grandchildren) and his half share going totally to his son.

Of course we knew that after the first spouse's death the survivor could change his/her will, but we trusted each other to do the right thing.

One other thing - the only way a will can be contested is if a person who was dependent on the testator in their lifetime is left unprovided for or insufficiently provided for. Since all the potential beneficiaries are over 18 and in agreement, that is unlikely to apply.

One final point - do consider what you want to happen if a child should predecease you. Do you want their share to go to their children? Or do you want their share to be divided between the remaining children? Or whatever. Sorry, I know you probably don't want to think about these things, but the clearer your wishes, the less likelihood of confusion later.

Savvy_Sue

Surfbabe wrote: »

No solicitor has the right to tell you its complicated - they get paid enough to sort it after all !!!

although remember you do not HAVE to appoint solicitors as executors, nor do you have to use or even consult a solicitor if one has not been appointed as executor.

and appointing a solicitor as executor is not generally recommended unless there's no half-way competent friend or family member who might be asked to do it. Said friend or family member can always instruct a solicitor if at the time they are not up to doing the job, but at least they can shop around!

obviously for a complicated will with trusts involved you might want to do that, but again I'd suggest using a STEP solicitor for that rather than a general high street one.