No Will - parents inherit

SevenOfNine

Our unmarried son has died without a Will. We understand that as parents we inherit everything. We don't want it.

We have another married son (his brother) with 2 children (age 6 & 7) & would like to distribute the money between them, approx £70,000 of assets once mortgage paid etc.

Will we have to inherit it then redistribute it accordingly - as we think our deceased son would have chosen to if he'd had time (or foresight) to write a Will.

Any useful websites to help? His Dad is going to obtain Letters of Administration.

Ms_Chocaholic

So sorry to hear about your son.

Did the son you lost have a property with another person? If that property was held as joint tenants (rather than tenants in common) the other person automatically inherits the other half.

Yorkshireman99

SevenOfNine wrote: »

Our unmarried son has died without a Will. We understand that as parents we inherit everything. We don't want it.

We have another married son (his brother) with 2 children (age 6 & 7) & would like to distribute the money between them, approx £70,000 of assets once mortgage paid etc.

Will we have to inherit it then redistribute it accordingly - as we think our deceased son would have chosen to if he'd had time (or foresight) to write a Will.

Any useful websites to help? His Dad is going to obtain Letters of Administration.

Under the intestacy rules the parents inherit. The best thing is to do deeds of variation that specify who the beneficiaries are to be. This way the is no potential problem with IHT on your estates. It is worth spending the couple of hundred pounds with a solicitor to make sure there is no query in future. Any money left to your grandchildren will have to be held in trust until they are 18.

Torry_Quine

Are you on any income related benefits? If you are you cannot give away the money as it would be deprivation of assets.

Keep_pedalling

Yorkshireman99 wrote: »

Under the intestacy rules the parents inherit. The best thing is to do deeds of variation that specify who the beneficiaries are to be. This way the is no potential problem with IHT on your estates. It is worth spending the couple of hundred pounds with a solicitor to make sure there is no query in future. Any money left to your grandchildren will have to be held in trust until they are 18.

Yes, you definitely need professional advice, which should also cover potencial future events such as a 3rd child,

getmore4less

Depending on your total estate(with the sons assets) a DOV may be an unneccessary expense.

your nilrate bands will give you £650k(more when the house nill rate kicks in)

Simply inheriting and gifting may be cheaper.

SevenOfNine

Personally, we have a Nil Rate Band Discretionary Trust set up for 12 years or so, left in place (when it was no longer needed for inheritance tax purposes) to protect our assets from the survivor remarrying or care home fees..

Our late son's net assets will total around 150k once his mortgage is paid & house sold, he has no wife, partner or children - sole owner of everything he had, by default it all drops into our lap. We don't want, or need it (we claim no benefits whatsoever).

We know exactly what our late Son would have wanted to happen to his assets, he worshipped his 2 nephews, loved his brother & SiL so we are happy to do the right thing by him.

I think we'll take the DoV suggestion, think it's worth the solicitor costs to do it officially, gifting a bit risky as we aren't getting any younger (67 & 61), our own estate will be complex enough without adding additional problems perhaps.

We're thinking we'll share trusteeship with our remaining Son & DiL over the share their 2 children will get (our Grandsons). Who knows what the future holds for anyone & there will NEVER be a day when we don't have the best interests of our Grandsons, plus the wishes of our late Son, right at the forefront of any decisions we make regarding the boys inheritance from him.

Hope this is all feasible & won't be construed as deprivation of assets by some jobsworth further down the line.

silvercar

Couple of points:

Can you do a DoV if there is no will to vary?

Consider future grandchildren. If a 3rd appears will you want to include them?

Yorkshireman99

silvercar wrote: »

Couple of points:

Can you do a DoV if there is no will to vary?

Consider future grandchildren. If a 3rd appears will you want to include them?

Letters of administration take the place of the will. A DOV can be done. The OP needs to take paid for professional advice from a STEP solicitor with a view to setting up a trust for thge current and any future grandchildren.

SevenOfNine

silvercar wrote: »

Consider future grandchildren. If a 3rd appears will you want to include them?

Probably not. Seems mean but this is about the relationship between our late Son & family living now. Our other Son & DiL can think about putting away part of their own share in case there may be more children in the future - or we may vary our own Will arrangements if necessary.

Been looking at STEP solicitors, about 8 where we live. Thanks YM99.

lisa110rry

I am so sorry for your loss.