Leaving it all to Son but with Provision for Mother - Wills and Trusts

notwavingbutdrowning

Hi there, a little advice appreciated. My friend and neighbour has recently been diagnosed with a degenerative disease, is very disabled already, has quite a bit of property and wants to sort out his Will.
He wants to leave everything to his teenage son, of course, but also wants to allow for some security for the boy's mother (they are LAT's - Living Apart Together - i.e. partners but live in different homes - she looked after her parents for many years, hence never moving in with him).
Mum does a lot of caring for him now, and of course, rears the child as well as her own job, but her home is rented so he wants some provision in his Will in case she should need a more secure and permanent home in the future. I think he's a bit worried that, if he bequeathed everything to her outright, complications may arise should she marry or have a partner later on after his death - understandably, he doesn't want anyone else ending up with a claim on his son's inheritance.
On the other hand, he wants to ensure his son will look after his mum and not take up with some 'gold-digging floozy' (said tongue-in-cheek) who might resent the 'Young Master' looking after ma-in-law.
Don't get me wrong, it's all very amicable, he's just thinking of all eventualities. He does have a solicitor and has written a Will but I get the impression he's not entirely happy as he's been mulling this over for a while so I said I'd put it out there for a few ideas from all the knowledgeable folk on this site.
I've suggested there are Trusts he could set up for this sort of thing but I am far from an expert on these matters and he's worried he'll lose too much control with a Trust. Also, he's not sure whether just making Mum an executor or Trustee (don't know which) would be enough.
If anyone has any advice about what he should say in his Will regarding the above I'd be very grateful.

getmore4less

Often when you go through this you end up in a catch 22 situation.

You need to keep the flexability and discretion so changing circumstances can be catered for but that can lead to to much discretion so you try to put in safegaurds.

The more restrictons you put in the harder it is to get them right.

A close example is pensions most have conditions that if the surviving spouse remarries they loose the pension, so people meet some one new and just don't get married.


the other issue is what form are the assets, succession planning also needs to consider the abilities of those that will take over.
No point in handing over a portflio of rental property if neither of them is capable or interested in manageing them. Same with shares and other assets.

How old is the lad?
How old is the mother?

Are her parents still needed support?

How big is his estate? if over £325k there are other considerations

What he might do is set up a trust with some/all of the assets enough to provide a home and give her a life interest on any income, leaving the rest outright to the son.

As well as the inheritance aspects there are also tax issues with trusts

definately one for advice and research from trust and tax experts.

zzzLazyDaisy

Does it have to be either / or?

They may not have lived together, but from what you say she is his long term partner, lover, and the mother of his child. She will continue to be responsible for providing a home for their son after he has gone.

You say he has several properties, so one possibility is that he leaves a bequest to his partner sufficient to enable her to buy a home for herself and their son. You don't say what the mother's situation is, but if she is in receipt of LHA or HB, once the son leaves full time education, she will get only the one bed rate, while the son will still want/need a bedroom at home for some years after that (even if he goes to uni, he will still be coming home in the holidays).

One other thing to consider - presumably he is currently paying maintenance to his son's mother? He should consider factoring that into his will -either as a lump sum, or setting up a trust fund to provide regular payments, as failing to provide for the maintenance of a dependent child is one of the causes of challenge of wills (not saying this would happen, but it is a possibility).

The remainder could then be left to the son.

But as has already been pointed out, he needs more specialist advice than he can get from a forum.

madbadrob

The easy answer would be to set a trust fund up for the mother that has specific reasons which then allow a payment from the fund. This would then secure his partners future and also give what he wants to his son.

Rob

notwavingbutdrowning

I've passed all this on; my friend would like to say thank you all for your replies. I'm sure it'll give food for thought.

getmore4less

How big is his estate? if over £325k there are other considerations

Just to folow up on this, if the estate is over £325k then he might want to consider marrying the mum, this will mean anything that goes to her is exempt for IHT.

Another complication relating to the property potfolio is if they are mortgaged.

Another is if property portflio will need to be dismanted then one thing death does is remove the CGT liabilities.