Grandads Will -Should he include an 'Unborn/ INVISIBLE grandchild' in the Will? Advise needed

Danny_G

Grandad is a Widow and has 3 adult children who are all above 18. 

2 of his children are Married and have 2 kids each, and one of these children is single and has no children.

Son 1 = Married and 2 kids

Son 2 = Married and 2 kids

Son 3 = Not married, no kids yet  (but in this whole question, he might have one child years after his dad dies)

So the Grandad has 3 kids, and 4 grandkids from 2 of his children (each son has 2 kids each)

Now when he is writing his will the grandad wants to include some money in the will for his grandkids.
For simplicity sake, lets say he wants to leave them £1000 each, then that is £4000 of his wealth given to his 4 grandkids (1 grandkid gets £1000)

This £4000 will be released to the grandkids when they are 18 years.

Now the 3rd son who has no children, has no kids, but let's say 1-5 years after the grandad dies this single son has a relationship and possibly gets married and has 1 child, then there will be another child in this equation, making 5 grandkids.

At this stage lets call this 5th grandson an 'unborn' / invisible grandchild.

Can this son say to his alive dad, for him in his will to include some money aside for incase he has children one day?

or after he passes away, and has children can he say to his 2 siblings (the other 2 boys)  that "I need a share of that £4000" as NOW our dad has some another grandchild.


Note: this is only if the 3rd son has a child a few years 'after' the grandad (his dad)  dies.

Here are questions

Should this grandparent include an 'extra' share of money in the will saved for the eventuality that the lone son might have children?

or because he has no children while the dad is alive, then he cannot claim for any as there are currently now grandkid born yet.

Any other thing/suggestion you can advise?

Have you or anybody you know had this similar experience?

How did you approach it? What was included on the will? did anybody get left out?

AnotherJoe

My will leaves money to all grandchildren alive at the time of my death. That sort of clause is perfectly standard and it's no problem they aren't alive at the time the will was written. 

I even suspect that simply leaving money to all grandchildren means, by default, all those at the time of death but mine does have that wording in it as it makes it clear. 

MovingForwards

Duplicate thread with replies:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6260489/grandads-will-should-he-include-money-for-an-unborn-invisible-grandchild-in-the-will-advise-needed#latest

justworriedabit

Sorry, but another incredible thread re wills.  It is granddads money, he does what he wants to do and thankfully, 99% of the time this is true.

When we gifted some money to our children, there was a variation, as one quite a bit more than the other, we told them why, all work, work hard and all are sensible with their money but we had our reasons. For the record, none of them wanted these cash gifts but we won them over.

McKneff

Incredible. 
The childless one may go on to have 5 kids. 

The one s with kids could go on to marry again and have more children.

Let dad do what he wants with his money, and mind your business.

Ha could always go on to remarry, young wife, no will, you all get nothing....

Gavin83

It is your grandads money to do with as he wishes as mentioned. Saying this, with a few exceptions I’d say it’s terrible parenting to treat your children differently when it comes to financial contributions so the fairest option would be to gift £1000 to each living grandchild at the time of death.

ratechaser

One of my children inherited a sizeable sum from her uncle when a year old, and her sister didn't when she was then born a year later. No right or wrong about it, the will provision was for children alive at time of death, and to be honest it was a very untimely death.

In the end, we just decided to give our younger child a gift equivalent to the inheritance - seemed like the fairest approach to us. Appreciate not everyone will be able to do that though.

HampshireH

Personally I think it's ridiculous to expect someone to write unborn child for one son into the will 

As above what is the other sons have more children. Where does it stop?

What happens if there isn't enough money 6 grandkids later? 


If son 3 has chosen not to have children that's up to them. If grandad chooses to gift to alive grandchildren that's up to him. 

What would happen if son 3 decided never to have a child

gettingtheresometime

My mum faced a similar sort of dilemma when writing her will because if my sister or I predecease her, then my sister's share is divided between her 3 children whereas mine would go to my only child.

mum decided that was the fairest way of doing it.

I'm assuming that the OP feels that there should be some provision made for a yet unconceived child so that the family unit splits remain equal. So what happens if Son 3 has triplets?

there was a post, I think on the death board where the poster was complaining that her brothers children had been left something and then the balance split as they felt the estate should have been split equally& if anything was to be left to the grandchildren, it was taken out of the brother's share.  

Emmia

We have no children (choice) but 6 nieces/nephews between 4 siblings (I have 3 and DH 1 but equal numbers of offspring on both sides) - one of my siblings is still child free but recently married... I'm very much expecting more bambinos soon

Essentially each sibling* gets 25% of the estate divided equally between whichever offspring they have - my sibling who doesn't have children yet gets the 25% unless they have children, at which point the ££ goes to their child(ren) equally divided.

*after the second death

wannabe_a_saver

Emmia said:

We have no children (choice) but 6 nieces/nephews between 4 siblings - with one of my siblings still child free but recently married... I'm expecting more bambinos soon

Essentially each sibling gets 25% of the estate divided equally between whichever offspring they have - my sibling who doesn't have children yet gets the 25% unless they have children, at which point the ££ goes to their child(ren) equally divided.

Interesting, so they are skipping the children and going straight to the grandchildren. 

I think that would be a great idea if all the grandchildren were adults, less so if they are young children.