Leaving daughter out of will, advice needed please.

SevenOfNine

You say you've always had a fraught relationship with your daughter & now she's stopped communicating with you. Perhaps she considers the relationship with you to be toxic, or detrimental to her emotional stability? In which case, TBH she's unlikely to care if you write her out of your will, more so if she has a good job & unlikely to be affected financially by your decision.

I think you should go ahead & change the will if you feel they way you seem to. Would be kinder to write an accompanying letter explaining why you've taken this course of action, but perhaps for you that would be more to prevent a challenge as opposed to softening a 'blow' for your daughter.

Would be sensible to let a solicitor handle the will writing though, sounds like you've copied your existing one word for word & just substituted the name of grandaughter.

If a solicitor does it there can be no question you were of sound mind, not coerced into making this change by the other existing beneficiary, witnessed correctly etc.

Paul_DNAP

Christabel wrote: »

My daughter in her 40s and I have always had a bit of a fraught relationship and now she's basically stopped communicating with me. I've decided to amend my will so that my granddaughter inherits my daughter's share instead. Can my daughter contest this after my death do you think? She has a really good job so will not be disadvantaged by it at all. Should I leave a letter along with the will explaining the situation to make it less likely that she would win if she contested the will? I've just copied by original solicitor-drawn-up will and amended the part where it names my two children to inherit and substituted the words granddaughter and her name in full for my daughter's name. Your advice welcome please.

Seems like a reasonable thing to wish to do (and I've read your update/clarification further on as well).


You can't stop her contesting it, anyone can contest any will for any reason, what you really want to ask is "how do I make it so her contestation is unsuccessful" - and for that I would suggest that you hand amending this will isn't the best idea. A newly written document that is properly witnessed will be a much stronger document for your executor to defend. You can ask the solicitor about leaving a footnote/appendix to the will to explain your decisions to your executor, again properly witnessed, which will strengthen their arguments.


However, there is no guarantee that whoever decrees on the contest will just belligerently say "pah, the daughter should have the right to inherit from the estate no matter what" and completely disregard your wishes.

Malthusian

kazwookie wrote: »

Personally I suggest you spend most of your money before you died, then there will be less for the daughter to fight over.

The other option is to give money to the granddaughter while the OP is alive.

Unlike Wills, when making gifts your wishes are totally bulletproof. If you give money to your granddaughter your daughter cannot sue you or her niece claiming you should have given her some money as well.

(Or rather she can - you can sue anyone you like for anything - but it will be summarily dismissed, unlike a claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act which could drag on for a long time even if it is totally hopeless. And it would not cost your niece or yourself anything as your daughter would pay all costs, whereas a challenge to the estate could cost the estate money.)

Gifts during one's lifetime are also more pleasurable and more tax-efficient than inheritance.

The same consideration as to the OP's own needs still applies of course.

Keep_pedalling

Malthusian wrote: »

The other option is to give money to the granddaughter while the OP is alive.

Unlike Wills, when making gifts your wishes are totally bulletproof. If you give money to your granddaughter your daughter cannot sue you or her niece claiming you should have given her some money as well.

(Or rather she can - you can sue anyone you like for anything - but it will be summarily dismissed, unlike a claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act which could drag on for a long time even if it is totally hopeless. And it would not cost your niece or yourself anything as your daughter would pay all costs, whereas a challenge to the estate could cost the estate money.)

Gifts during one's lifetime are also more pleasurable and more tax-efficient than inheritance.

The same consideration as to the OP's own needs still applies of course.

I would agree with this. If you have liquid assets that are in excess of your needs then gifting is a good thing to do especially if it pays for things like getting through university or a deposit to get on the housing ladder.

Gavin83

I know of a recent case of someone I know who had two children and disinherited one of them. She died a few months back and left a large estate, frankly a life changing sum of money. Ultimately the child who inherited decided to split the money 50/50 with the other sibling anyway, mainly to avoid friction.

I guess what I'm saying is that despite what is in your will you can't really guarantee where the money will end up. If you really want to reduce their chances you need to spend it while you're alive.

Sea_Shell

Gavin83 wrote: »

I know of a recent case of someone I know who had two children and disinherited one of them. She died a few months back and left a large estate, frankly a life changing sum of money. Ultimately the child who inherited decided to split the money 50/50 with the other sibling anyway, mainly to avoid friction.

I guess what I'm saying is that despite what is in your will you can't really guarantee where the money will end up. If you really want to reduce their chances you need to spend it while you're alive.

Good point.

Next we'll have wills that prohibit any beneficiary from making a deed of variation, lest they forfeit their inheritance. (Would that even be possible, legally????)

Pure gifts though, made from inherited funds.... absolutely nothing I can think of to prevent that happening.

Gavin83

Sea_Shell wrote: »

Next we'll have wills that prohibit any beneficiary from making a deed of variation, lest they forfeit their inheritance. (Would that even be possible, legally????)

Probably not. Even if it was ultimately it'll become their money and you can't dictate what they do with it, they could just give it to the other person once it's been received.

Malthusian

Sea_Shell wrote: »

Next we'll have wills that prohibit any beneficiary from making a deed of variation, lest they forfeit their inheritance. (Would that even be possible, legally????)

As you and Gavin say, even if it is, it's completely pointless and achieves nothing except to reduce tax-efficiency.

It's the "haunted house" school of Will writing. People only think this kind of thing is possible because they saw a movie where Mad Uncle George leaves his heirs £1 million but they have to spend a night in a haunted house and get killed otherwise it all goes to the cat's home.

The answer to any question that starts "Can I ensure that after I'm dead..." is "Please go away and read up about what death is, then we can resume this meeting."

Marcon

Leave a token sum to your daughter and leave something to a big national charity - preferably a % of the residual estate. They are absolutely excellent at seeing off challenges when their own bequest is under threat!

lisyloo

Malthusian wrote: »

Unlike Wills, when making gifts your wishes are totally bulletproof.

You have to leave enough though for a long stay in residential care, so that 6-figure sum still needs to be dealt with a will.
If you have given away a large amount then it’s not bullet proof from a deliberate deprivation point of view.

Depends on age, how much and what %, but if you don’t want to go to overmydeadbody grove then you need a 6 figure sum.

Do you have a bullet proof way of avoiding deliberate deprivation?