Disinheriting a Child

EndlessTaxation

Hello,

Apologies if this is the wrong forum (new here).

I was born in the UK and hold dual citizenship in both the UK and the Netherlands. I currently reside in the Netherlands. I am married and have two adult children, both of whom reside in the UK. For personal reasons I'd rather not discuss, I wish to completely disinherit one child.

I've been a resident in the Netherlands for almost 20 years, so naturally most of my savings/investments are held here. I do not own property. I don't think disinheriting a child is possible under Dutch law as there is a 'forced share', but I believe it is possible under UK law. My question is this: would it be possible to have a UK will drawn up in which only one child was a named beneficiary, disinheriting the other child?

Thank you.

Savvy_Sue

I believe that you need to have wills in any country in which you have assets. So yes, you can do what you propose with UK assets, but it won't AFAIK be binding in Dutch law.

You must take proper legal advice, and I'd suggest finding a solicitor with experience of both UK and Dutch law. Search for an expat forum?

haras_nosirrah

Rather than leaving one out entirely if you are set on doing this then leave a nominal sum e.g £100 to the child you don't want to inherit and also a letter explaining your reasons. It means they can't argue they were forgotten about as they have been mentioned in the will it is just clear you don't want them to have anything. If you don't mention them at all or don't leave a letter explaining your decision then the whole estate may be depleted when the cut out child challenges the will in court as they won't care their sibling will have to pay 10's of thousands in legal costs to defend their inheritance. Get watertight advice but I also hope you can rekindle your relationship with them before it is too late.

getmore4less

It looks like under Dutch law children are entitled to 50%.
Also a quick bit of research show duch law is very different to UK(even here scotland and N.Ireland are differnt to E&W).

Without more research applying things that are common in the UK to international situations is likley to come unstuck very quickly

As has been said this needs an experienced person that understands the laws and the impact of things like dual nationality.

Eg a British citizen resident in Holland might(from a brief look) be able to use English law for succession, but Dual nationality no idea.

BY no means a definitive place to find answers but gives an overview.
http://us.practicallaw.com/6-500-9629?source=relatedcontent#a870533

the UK version for comparison
http://us.practicallaw.com/7-500-9209#a614554

kidmugsy

EndlessTaxation wrote: »

I don't think disinheriting a child is possible under Dutch law as there is a 'forced share', but I believe it is possible under UK law.

English law, yes, though the matter can be argued in court; Scots law, I think not.

Essentially, as on so many topics, there is no such thing as "UK law".

xylophone

http://www.iamexpat.nl/read-and-discuss/housing/articles/european-regulation-change-international-inheritance-law-netherlands

"Choice of law:
Although in future you will still be able to choose which law applies to your estate in your will, that choice will be limited to the law of the country of which you have nationality. This restricts the freedom of choice that currently exists in the Netherlands.
Soon you will no longer be able to choose the law of your habitual residence in your will; however, if you made the choice before the regulation enters into force on August 17, 2015, your choice will still be valid. Naturally, this choice must have been made in accordance with the rules of international private law. An inheritance lawyer will check this for you."

You will need to consult an appropriately qualified lawyer.

sheramber

When we lived in Scotland we had wills drawn up. We then moved to live in England. When my son was born in England we asked our Scottish lawyer to amend our wills accordingly to include him.

Our lawyer did this but inserted a clause in the wills saying that we considered Scotland to be our domicile and Scottish law applied to our wills.

EndlessTaxation

Some very helpful info so far, thanks everyone. I will of course be employing a solicitor to deal with this, but I'm trying to get a rough understanding of what might be possible first. My main objective here is successful disinheritance - IHT is not so important, although still worthy of consideration.

Ideally I would move my Dutch assets (mostly cash savings and some small, easily liquidated investments - no property) back to the UK and draw up an English will which disinherits one child. This should be possible, correct? According to getmore4less's first link, Dutch IHT may still be due but that's not so much of an issue for me.

kidmugsy

I sounds to me as if it might be possible: your domicile is still England, presumably? Maybe that's a key thing to get your English solicitor to explain.

You should also get him to explain the conditions under which a disinherited child can challenge your will in court; there was a case of that recently in the papers.