My wife died earlier this year, am i entitled to her share of her fathers estate?

Otbcnmtd11

My wife sadly passed away unexpectedly earlier this year.

Her father has dementia & is likely to go in the next 6-12 months.

My wife was a beneficiary in her father's will along with her sister & brother. 

I had expected that her part of the estate would pass to myself upon her father's death.  I have just been told by her sister that I won't receive anything & it will go directly to my wife's children.  Ist this right?

we were depending on this money at some stage to help with our excessively high mortgage.

Any help or advice would be appreciated.

NBLondon

Doesn't it depend on what is written in the will?    If the will specifies "my daughter X and in the case of her death preceding mine, equally between her children" then no you get nothing.  If the children are under 18 then the will might specify who is to hold funds in trust for them.  If that's you - you still can't just spend it on the mortgage; if it's your sister-in-law...

If the will doesn't specify what happens if a beneficiary dies first; I don't know.

xylophone

https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/inheritance-tax-manual/ihtm12084

Lapse occurs when a gift made in a Will fails because of the death of the legatee or devisee in the testator’s (IHTM12001) lifetime. Where the legacy or devise is anything other than residue, that property will normally fall into residue.

If a gift of residue lapses, the property devolves as it would on intestacy (IHTM12101).

There are exceptions to the rule. The most common are where

• a gift in a Will to a child or remoter issue of the testator or testatrix (IHTM12001) will not lapse if the dead beneficiary leaves issue (children) who are alive at the testator’s death (in England & Wales, the Wills Act/ S33 as amended by the Administration of Justice Act 1982/ S19; in Northern Ireland, article 22 of the Wills and Administration Proceedings (NI) Order 1994). This does not apply where the gift is a life interest.
• the testator or testatrix makes substitutory provisions in the Will. For example a gift to ‘such of my children as are alive at my death’ will clearly benefit surviving children and not the issue of any predeceasing child.

Flugelhorn

suspect in most wills it would go to the children, however all depends on the wording 

Spendless

That's how my Nan's will was written. In the event of my Mum dying before Nan, the money is shared between me and sis, missing our Dad out. If me or sis have already died, our portion goes to our children missing out our husbands. It was written to 'follow the blood line down' so that any money left by Nan didn't go to a relative by marriage, who could then re-marry, die and then new wife and family end up with Nan's money.

Pretty irrelevant now as Nan has been in a care home for some years so the property has been sold to pay her fees and she's down to the minimum. This fetches me to my next question. Is your FIL in a care home as he has dementia and isn't expected to live? Is there much left of his estate if he's been paying fees? 

Stubod

...entitled???...probably not, but I guess it depends on what is written in the will?

Marcon

Otbcnmtd11 said:

My wife sadly passed away unexpectedly earlier this year.

Her father has dementia & is likely to go in the next 6-12 months.

My wife was a beneficiary in her father's will along with her sister & brother. 

I had expected that her part of the estate would pass to myself upon her father's death.  I have just been told by her sister that I won't receive anything & it will go directly to my wife's children.  Ist this right?

Without knowing exactly what the will said, and whether we are talking about England and Wales, Scotland or NI (not sure it would make much difference in this case), it's impossible to know if that's correct. Given your father in law has dementia and is expected to die within a year, it seems unlikely that he could execute a new, valid will even if he wished to.

Was your wife employed at the time of her death, and if so have you checked with her employer whether any death in service benefits are due? Did she have any pension provision built up in her last or previous employments? I'm sorry these sound rather cold-hearted questions, but if you have a hefty mortgage, they are possibly the only avenues which might help you financially.

Spendless

Also if your wife died less than 3 months ago, have you claimed this?  https://www.ageuk.org.uk/information-advice/money-legal/benefits-entitlements/bereavement-benefits/

JamoLew

This is the problem with making financial decisions and/or retirement plans based on an anticipated inheritance - sometimes life doesn’t happen as you expect for whatever reason

74jax

Otbcnmtd11 said:

My wife sadly passed away unexpectedly earlier this year.

Her father has dementia & is likely to go in the next 6-12 months.

My wife was a beneficiary in her father's will along with her sister & brother. 

I had expected that her part of the estate would pass to myself upon her father's death.  I have just been told by her sister that I won't receive anything & it will go directly to my wife's children.  Ist this right?

we were depending on this money at some stage to help with our excessively high mortgage.

Any help or advice would be appreciated.

In relation to 'expecting' her part to pass to you, why did you think this? Is this in the will? Have you seen the will?

In relation to the 'we were going to use it to pay off mortgage', who is we? The person you are waiting on dying? Can you speak to them and clarify what they meant? Do they need a new will?

You need to know what the will says before you can ask if it is right. No one knows what is in the will.

Why not move? 

p00hsticks

74jax said:

Otbcnmtd11 said:

My wife sadly passed away unexpectedly earlier this year.

Her father has dementia & is likely to go in the next 6-12 months.

My wife was a beneficiary in her father's will along with her sister & brother. 

I had expected that her part of the estate would pass to myself upon her father's death.  I have just been told by her sister that I won't receive anything & it will go directly to my wife's children.  Ist this right?

we were depending on this money at some stage to help with our excessively high mortgage.

Any help or advice would be appreciated.

In relation to the 'we were going to use it to pay off mortgage', who is we? The person you are waiting on dying? Can you speak to them and clarify what they meant? Do they need a new will?

THe OP isn't explicit, but I read it as that the couple weren't anticipating the wife dying before her father, so assumed that the wife would in due course inherit from the father and this inheritance could then be used to pay off the couple's mortgage.

Unfortunately becase the wife has died unexpectedly prematurely before her father this is unlikely to happen, as it would be usual in the circumstances for any potential inheritance from the father to now go either to other surviving siblings or to the deceased wife's children, depending on the wording of the will.