Wills and children/stepchildren

Mojisola

Civvy21 wrote: »

Re a couple of the other points made. I am assuming (again, maybe wrongly) that my wife's will will be fairly straightforward, especially as she is not named on the deeds of the house. Joint savings to me, and her personal savings to her son. Are there any other obvious complexities i have missed?

Yes. A will should cover several eventualities - a will as you suggest covers what would happen if your wife died before you and her son and nothing else.

getmore4less

Do a "what if" tree for all involved and future issue from any one in the tree

Yorkshireman99

Civvy21 wrote: »

Thank you for all your very interesting comments. They have been very helpful and have certainly given me food for thought.

It looks like i am not going to be able to avoid using a solicitor. That's a shame really because the last time i used one, albeit 20 odd years ago, i was astonished at the sheer incompetence and arrogance of the firm. And it wasn't particularly cheap either. Still, i must not let that colour my judgment on this issue.

It is interesting what people say about will writing services. That's also a shame because i still don't think a will like this should be that overly complicated. Although i accept there may be some complexities involved (care costs, upkeep etc) i would have thought it should still be a fairly standard and increasingly common legal procedure. Especially in a case like this where there is only one major asset. Perhaps I'm being ignorant.

Re a couple of the other points made. I am assuming (again, maybe wrongly) that my wife's will will be fairly straightforward, especially as she is not named on the deeds of the house. Joint savings to me, and her personal savings to her son. Are there any other obvious complexities i have missed?

Also, I wish I could stick with the life insurance option. Unfortunately due to the lunacy of UK house prices and the costs of life insurance (i think in insurance terms I am now "old") the cost of a new policy would be prohibitive.

Again, thank you all for your comments.

On of the benefits of going to a good solicitor is tha they should be able to tell you the sort of things like house ownership etc. that might be usefully be changed to make things more straightforward and also to look at scenarios if one of you dies in an accident. You will not get that with a will writer.

jackyann

Mojisola wrote: »

That is unusual - there is normally a clause that allows the surviving spouse to sell and move if wanted. If this releases some of the capital, it may be distributed to the beneficiaries but otherwise this is retained and the spouse can use any interest made on the capital.

That's what I thought as well, and I know her husband intended that she should always have somewhere to live - as he spoke about it. I did think that should she choose to challenge, a lot of us would give evidence to that effect, but I can't see her wanting to do that.

margaretclare

As your wife is not named on the deeds (Land Registry) the house would not pass automatically to her on your death.

Land_Registry

margaretclare wrote: »

As your wife is not named on the deeds (Land Registry) the house would not pass automatically to her on your death.

If you are the sole registered owner then the issues you are referring to in your OP relate to the beneficial ownership, namely who gets what following your death.

In your case someone would have to obtain probate in order to deal with that part of your estate. The legal ownership, the registered title, could be transferred by the named executor as appropriate e.g. to any beneficiary or to the person best placed to administer the trust you are referring to.

In your example it seems likely that your wife would apply for probate, transfer the legal ownership to herself and look to protect the trust element in some way so that the child(ren)'s interest(s) are protected

Definitely get legal advice as to the best way to do things and to confirm though