Conditional Wills

Guest1987

I have recently been speaking to my father and he has asked me to be the executive of his will. He is currently in good health and recently retired and therefore isn’t planning on going anywhere just yet!

I am the youngest of three children and his original plans were always to split his estate evenly. In recent times thought my elder brother (the middle child) has shown that he isn’t the best when it comes to controlling his finances. When my dad had a life insurance/pension pay out a couple of years ago he gave All of us £10k. Both me and my sister put it to good use whereas he spent it on drinking and going out.

My dad is reluctant to give an equal share because he feels that my brother will again unwisely spend the money and waste it.

This doesn’t particularly sit well with me because it is going to be me and my sister who bear the consequences once the time comes and we all get on well, however are very different people.

If my dad puts conditions on the will can I ask who enforced them? I have my own house with a mortgage as does my sister. We each have two children. My brother has never bought his own home.

My suggestion to my dad would be that he could have an equal share of the money on the stipulation that he buys a house with the money. My dads concern is that he would sell the house straight away. My brother has an on/off partner and the other concern is that she would then be entitled to the money in the house. Is there a way of putting conditions that should he buy a house then he can’t sell it within a certain time frame? Is there a way of safeguarding the finances should he sell it so that no third party can be entitled to it?

My dads estate is of substantial value (with money in the bank and property owned we are liking at circa £2.5 Million) and therefore he wants to make sure he gets it right.

If there is a way of enforcing the conditions legally, without it been in my hands, is there any advice regarding any companies who could do this on our behalf?

Any assistance would be appreciated.

getmore4less

It's going to need a trust.

Some serious urgent IHT planning is needed.

Mojisola

Guest1987 wrote: »

My dad is reluctant to give an equal share because he feels that my brother will again unwisely spend the money and waste it.

This doesn’t particularly sit well with me because it is going to be me and my sister who bear the consequences once the time comes and we all get on well, however are very different people.

My dads estate is of substantial value (with money in the bank and property owned we are liking at circa £2.5 Million) and therefore he wants to make sure he gets it right.

If there is a way of enforcing the conditions legally, without it been in my hands, is there any advice regarding any companies who could do this on our behalf?

The best advice is don't try to control beneficiaries' lives after your death.

With an estate of that size, I hope he's taking advice about IHT - as executor, you'll need to deal with paying that.

It's not wise to have just one executor - you may die before him or at the same time or just not be fit enough to manage the estate.

badmemory

The problem with leaving offspring with different shares of an estate is the upset there will be when one of them finds out he has been left less than the other 2.

Grey_Critic

We might give you ideas but you really need legal advice - As Mojisola has said don't try to control beneficiaries' lives after your death.

Manxman_in_exile

My personal view is that your dad simply needs to make a decision (difficult as it may be).


I'd leave the money in equal shares to the three of you. What each of you does with the money is entirely up to each one of you to decide.


If your dad really doesn't want to see the money squandered, then he leaves less or nothing to your brother. Your dad (and you) probably don't want that to happen, so the sensible course is equal shares for all.


Any attempts to impose conditions will end up with you being very unpopular.


Your dad has to be realistic.


Just my personal view.

Flugelhorn

Your Dad needs to :

1) sort the IHT
2) Leave equal shares without conditions - what your brother does with his money is up to him

Keep_pedalling

What is the better option, have one child blow their inheritance on stuff you don’t approve of, or risk severely damaging your children’s relationship with each other?

No brainier really, and anyway he is hardly in a position to judge what is a sensible use of money, as currently it sounds like he wants to leave over £700k to the tax man.

Malthusian

getmore4less wrote: »

It's going to need a trust.

Some serious urgent IHT planning is needed.

Nothing in the OP's post requires a trust. If what dad wants is for the OP and his sister to control the money, he could just leave them 100% of the estate, and leave them to gift any capital to their brother if they think he deserves it.

A discretionary trust controlled by the OP and sister which the brother can't simply wind up is likely to be just a more complicated and expensive variation of the same thing.

getmore4less

Malthusian wrote: »

Nothing in the OP's post requires a trust. If what dad wants is for the OP and his sister to control the money, he could just leave them 100% of the estate, and leave them to gift any capital to their brother if they think he deserves it.

A discretionary trust controlled by the OP and sister which the brother can't simply wind up is likely to be just a more complicated and expensive variation of the same thing.

You missed the crucial part of the post

If there is a way of enforcing the conditions legally, without it been in my hands, is there any advice regarding any companies who could do this on our behalf?

Malthusian

Fair point. In that case 67% can be left to the sister and she can have that thankless job. If she keeps it all to herself that still meets dad's stated objectives. (Keep the money out of his prodigal son's hands unless an unspecified third party decides he deserves it, otherwise his other two children get all the money. Only the OP was excluded from the pool of potential third parties, not the sister.)

Both the OP and his dad should bear in mind that if he leaves the estate 50/50 to the two of them, they can always sign a Deed of Variation to make it 33/33/33 if 17% of the estate is not worth fraternal strife.

Leaving 33% to a discretionary trust controlled by lawyers would be an extremely drastic and expensive step that is not justified by someone spending £10k on partying instead of a house deposit.