Dying father inheritance

NikChik84

Hi,

My father has terminal cancer and is due to remarry next week. His current Will will become invalid and he may not have the time and health to redo a new will. Which means his then wife will inherit most of his estate. His wish is for her to transfer the property he owns outright to me. He doesn't live in it, his partner has her own place which she has her own mortgage on. The value of the house is approx £240,000, my father paid £90,000 for it in 1999 so the value has increased some what.

I'm interested to know the fees that would be payable in the event of the gifting of the house into my name. Does anyone know much about this?

Yorkshireman99

NikChik84 wrote: »

Hi,

My father has terminal cancer and is due to remarry next week. His current Will will become invalid and he may not have the time and health to redo a new will. Which means his then wife will inherit most of his estate. His wish is for her to transfer the property he owns outright to me. He doesn't live in it, his partner has her own place which she has her own mortgage on. The value of the house is approx £240,000, my father paid £90,000 for it in 1999 so the value has increased some what.

I'm interested to know the fees that would be payable in the event of the gifting of the house into my name. Does anyone know much about this?

He can get a will form from WH Smith or the like and as long as there are two witnesses who are not beneficiaries the will will be valid.

TonyMMM

He can make a new will now, and make sure it clearly says it is made "in anticipation of marriage" which would be valid and would avoid you being dependent on his new wife's goodwill in transferring any property to you later.

Yorkshireman99

TonyMMM wrote: »

He can make a new will now, and make sure it clearly says it is made "in anticipation of marriage" which would be valid and would avoid you being dependent on his new wife's goodwill in transferring any property to you later.

It needs to name the proposed spouse as well.

NikChik84

Yes she is named on his current will anyway. Everything still stands on his current will, just that the marriage revokes it.

G_M

Good suggestions above regarding the will.

to answer your question though, since the will becomes invalid on marriage, the new spouse will inherit.

She can then, of course, choose whether or not to follow his wishes and gift the property to you. If she does:

* Capital Gains Tax. Not payable on death so the gain in value during his ownership is irrelevant
* Capital Gains Tax. The spouse would pay this on any gain in value between the time of valuation for Probate and the time of making the gift (subject to her annual allowance). However it is unlikely there will be such a gain.
* Inheritance Tax. His estate will have to pay IT on his death before probate can be granted and before his spouse can inherit. However the first £325K is tax free, so IT would only be due if his other assets took the estate over that amount.
* Inheritance Tax. If his spouse died within 7 years of gifting the property to you, the value of the gift would be included in her estate and IT may be due on it if the total estate were over the alloawnce in force on the date of her death.

If the current will leaves the property to you, is the simplest solution not to get married......?

NikChik84

Thank, this is very helpful. It was the tax around CGT that I was worried about as thought it would take into account the value of the house since my dad bought it. As you say it's from when my dads spouse acquires the property so the value will be the current one.

jackyann

I am just wondering if a simpler option is to contact the solicitor who drew it up (or a solicitor anyway) and ask for it to be copied with the addition of the "in anticipation of marriage" bit

kingstreet

Does he retain mental capacity?

If there is any question, the new will should be sworn before a solicitor who can do (or arrange) a simple test of capacity at the time.

getmore4less

If he gives it to you in his will she gets a reduced transferable nil rate band.

If she gifts it she retains more nil rate band.

Limited info so other bequests etc may mean the nil rate band is not that relevant.

Either way no CGT and maybe no immediate IHT.

If you can arrange a marriage you can arrange a will.

If the marriage urgency is Tax related(spouse exemption and transferable nil rate band) then fix the will at the same time.

NikChik84

getmore4less wrote: »

If he gives it to you in his will she gets a reduced transferable nil rate band.

If she gifts it she retains more nil rate band.

Limited info so other bequests etc may mean the nil rate band is not that relevant.

Either way no CGT and maybe no immediate IHT.

If you can arrange a marriage you can arrange a will.

If the marriage urgency is Tax related(spouse exemption and transferable nil rate band) then fix the will at the same time.

The wedding was only arranged 3 weeks ago and his partner has done all the hard work as he has limited capacity and requires a wheel chair now.

I know he would of re done the will regardless if he questioned it.

As some of his estate is likely to go over the IHT allowance that was one reason for the marriage as well as the fact they have been together for 14 years and wanted to have a nice wedding while he is able to. Xmas could he in doubt so it's a nice memory of the family all together.