Inheritance, Wills & Probate questions?

Grazzier

Hello, I have a query in mind, but I'm not sure how to best phrase it, so please bear with me. 

I would like to know whether or not a persons wishes regarding monies withheld in a will can be disregarded.

For example, an elderly married couple have grown up children however the elderly couple do not agree that all the grown children from their union warrant any financial benefit from the estate, but that only some warrant this monetary gift. 

Thus, if Mr passes away first with a wish that all the children warrant benefit from the estate, but surviving Mrs has never agreed with this assertion, what does the Law say should actually happen ?

I am guessing that the surviving Mrs will inherit the whole estate in the first instance.

In short, can one offspring of many from a marriage be excluded, and that it will be upheld after the death even if the surviving spouse does not agree with it?

And additionally, can the surviving Mrs then put different instructions to the contrary in her own Will ?

Many thanks for your considerations.

G

 

Savvy_Sue

If Mr leaves everything to Mrs, she can put what she likes in her will. He can express his wishes but if that's all they are, she can ignore them. 

Or, Mr can leave the house to Mrs, and leave money to Child 1, Child 3 and Child 5, excluding 2 and 4. In that case, 1, 3 and 5 get their bequest. Mrs can give 2 and 4 a gift, directly or through a Deed of Variation, and Mr can't prevent her.

Grazzier

Savvy_Sue..........  thank you so much.  That is very clear and very helpful.

Appreciate your time in replying to me.

G

congo66

I've been going through the HMRC website and looking at the links on the previous page and wanted to double check that my understanding is correct (or not).

Mum died 08/2009. There was no will and everything went to my dad. There was a house in joint names and less than 325k so there was no inheritance tax paid.

Dad died this month again without a will. He still has the house and box folders with the details of all his assets. So we know roughly how much he had and where it is, subject to any recent changes in their value (he has lots of 1 year bonds). There are no gifts or debts (other than the funeral and utility bills etc). There's nothing of any value in the house contents and he had an 18 year old car that's not worth anything either.

Now I'm one of 3 siblings so I believe everything is split evenly 3 ways and as long as the house is worth less than £350k (which it is) and the assets are under £650k (which they are) am I correct in thinking that there won't be any Inheritance Tax to pay?

The house and estate would be above a single persons allowance so if I'm wrong there will be Inheritance Tax to pay.

My siblings are fine with me being the executor and dealing with things so and it doesn't look like it's going to be too tricky (in theory). I tell all the financial institutions he's got accounts with that he's dead once the death certificates arrive, get estimates of the value of the assets, pass them onto HMRC when applying for probate to get 'Letters of Administration' and then I use that to sell the house and release funds via another bank account but maybe not an executor account because of charges/lack of online access?

For my particular circumstances it doesn't sound that difficult and that it should be possible for me to do rather than paying someone to do it or am I missing something? 

xylophone

The house and estate would be above a single persons allowance so if I'm wrong there will be Inheritance Tax to pay.

The family home was owned as joint tenants and passed to your  father by survivorship.

He also inherited  all  his wife's other assets.

He died intestate and his house and cash will pass to his direct descendants.

His nil rate band (£325,000 assuming no non exempt gifts in the past seven years), his  main residence nil rate band (£175,000), and transferable NRB and RNRB are available to set against the value of his estate.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/inheritance-tax-main-residence-nil-rate-band-and-the-existing-nil-rate-band/inheritance-tax-main-residence-nil-rate-band-and-the-existing-nil-rate-band

bery_451

Mojisola said:

bery_451 said:

Okay I checked and .Gov stating the fee for Probate registry is £215.
As someone mentioned earlier in this thread that both parents requiring a will each, does that mean each will needs to be registered so £215 x 2 = £430 total fees for 2 wills?

Wills don't have to be registered anywhere while the testator is still alive.

The executors named in the will have to apply for probate in order to administer the estate after the testator has died, if the estate is big enough to need it.

If you chose to, you can register your will with the Probate Department in order to keep it safe but your executors would need to know that you'd done this so that they could get your will when the time comes - this costs £20 per will - www.gov.uk/government/publications/store-a-will-with-the-probate-service/how-to-store-a-will-with-the-probate-service

Latest update is one of my parents will is registered with the probate department for 20 quid and they sent a Certificate of Deposit of Will as acknowledgement.
So the next question is my parents have to go through the whole process again that we covered in the last 13 pages or so that is drawing up a will again which should be free in this October free will month promotion and registering it again for another 20 quid that is getting the 2 witnesses to sign again and all that hassle before registering the will because 2 parents requires 2 wills correct?

Lastly will the 1 will that has been registered as mentioned above be suffice for probate for both parents because both wills are similar wills with no change to the beneficiaries on both wills so are the 2 wills are still required?
For example 2 owners are 2 parents and only 1 parent does a will and the other one forgets to do a will or has no time to do a will and both wills are similar anyway. So will the 1 will be suffice or the courts will refuse it and say they require 2 wills and only the latest will be seen as valid probate making the other will outdated?

Mojisola

bery_451 said:

Lastly will the 1 will that has been registered as mentioned above be suffice for probate for both parents

Each person needs to do their own will unless they have a - rarely made now - 'joint will'.

bery_451

Mojisola said:

bery_451 said:

Lastly will the 1 will that has been registered as mentioned above be suffice for probate for both parents

Each person needs to do their own will unless they have a - rarely made now - 'joint will'.

Is a Joint Will a Mirror Will?

Savvy_Sue

bery_451 said:

Mojisola said:

bery_451 said:

Lastly will the 1 will that has been registered as mentioned above be suffice for probate for both parents

Each person needs to do their own will unless they have a - rarely made now - 'joint will'.

Is a Joint Will a Mirror Will?

NO! A joint will is a very unusual thing now: it binds the survivor to not changing their will after the death of the first party. 

At the risk of repeating Mojisola, you need a will for each person. It's only valid for the person who made it. You can't say "oh Fred was married to Freda, here's Freda's will, let's use that." You can't even do that if you know Fred and Freda made mirror wills and you can't find Fred's for some reason. 

So, get another will made for the person who hasn't got one - or hasn't got an up-to-date one. As you say, free wills month. If not much variation from the other person's will, it shouldn't be too complicated.

You can then register each will with the probate service for the princely sum of £20. That is not essential, but if there's any danger of not being able to find the right, original, will then it may be money well spent. 

Mojisola

If they had made mirror wills at the same time, they would usually have paid less than the price of two wills because, apart from name changes, they are basically the same will.