Gifting money to estranged family

Bigbadmarky

Evening all,
My mother recently died leaving me a small sum of money. Nothing big, just a portion of her pension pot that wasn't used.
She had a will and I was one of the beneficiaries but my brother, who is estranged from the family, was left out of it. We had discussed her will a few years before her death and my mums intentions were clear: she didn't want him to receive a penny of her estate.  It sounds harsh but my brother is a real piece of work. 

I wouldn't want to go against my mum's wishes however, I feel slightly obligated to set a small amount of money aside for my brother's children, my estranged nephew and niece (who are about 9yo and 7yo). Nothing big, maybe £1k each or something. Just a little nest egg that might mature into something by the time the kids reach 18.

I've had a look into it but I can't find a means of setting up a trust or savings account which doesn't require my nephew and niece's birth certificates etc. A bare trust seems ideal but, as far as I understand, I would need to set up an account in each of their names, requiring their birth certificates etc which I can't obtain without my delightful brothers involvement. 

Can anyone suggest an alternative means of saving some money for my nephew and niece? 
Is there another way of setting aside a small pot of money for them to acces once they reach a set age?

Many thanks,
 BBM

Lavendyr

Why not make your own will and stipulate in that how the money goes? Then put the amounts into junior ISAs or similar. 

TBagpuss

You could set up a savings account in your name but earmark it in your head from them . You would pay tax on any interest and the money would be relevant if you were claiming means tested benefits or if you got divorced, but it would be simplest, and would also leave you completely in control, so you could decide whether to gift it to them at 18 or a later age.

You can get duplicate birth certificates through the registry office https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/login.asp but of course you would need to be careful as of course you don't know what other accounts etc the children may have, and some things are limited in how much you can invest. 

missimaxo

Is your brother still together with the children's mother? If they have separated maybe you could contact the mother and ask her to keep it confidential. My sister was contacted by her ex husbands family after he chose to walk away from all of them and her boys were names in a family will in his place. Her ex has never been told but he doesn't have a relationship with the boys either 

Savvy_Sue

Lavendyr said:

Why not make your own will and stipulate in that how the money goes? Then put the amounts into junior ISAs or similar. 

I don't think you can open JISAs without having the birth certificates, and as TBagpuss says, 

TBagpuss said:

You can get duplicate birth certificates through the registry office https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/login.asp but of course you would need to be careful as of course you don't know what other accounts etc the children may have, and some things are limited in how much you can invest. 

However, there's also this:

TBagpuss said:

You could set up a savings account in your name but earmark it in your head from them . You would pay tax on any interest and the money would be relevant if you were claiming means tested benefits or if you got divorced, but it would be simplest, and would also leave you completely in control, so you could decide whether to gift it to them at 18 or a later age.

You could do more than earmark it in your head:

• I think you'd be able to add wording to account names along the lines of BB Marky for Marky Niece and BB Marky for Marky Nephew
  
  
• You could certainly dispose of particular accounts in your will to Niece and Nephew: "My Woolwich Equitable account no. 12345678 to Marky Niece and my WE account no. 23456789 to Marky Nephew" - HOWEVER if you subsequently move the money in those accounts elsewhere, the bequest will fail, so you need to keep on top of your will if you are a serial bank hopper
  
  
• And in either case, if you want to treat them equally then you need to ensure that both accounts grow equally, obviously, and if you have to 'raid' one of them then you need to make it up later. 

But unless there's a reason for you NOT to keep hold of it yourself, then that definitely seems like the simplest thing to do for now. And what a lovely uncle you are - my parents did not leave anything directly to their grandchildren, but one of my siblings gave each of them a small sum of money after Dad's death because they were sure Dad WOULD have wanted them to have something, even though putting it in the will was problematic. 

Bigbadmarky

Thanks for all the great responses.  
I think I will have to set up separate ban accounts and just ear mark them in my will for future reference.  It seems like the most practical solution. 

Thanks again, 
BBM

TBagpuss

Savvy_Sue said:

However, there's also this:

TBagpuss said:

You could set up a savings account in your name but earmark it in your head from them . You would pay tax on any interest and the money would be relevant if you were claiming means tested benefits or if you got divorced, but it would be simplest, and would also leave you completely in control, so you could decide whether to gift it to them at 18 or a later age.

You could do more than earmark it in your head:

• I think you'd be able to add wording to account names along the lines of BB Marky for Marky Niece and BB Marky for Marky Nephew
  
  
• You could certainly dispose of particular accounts in your will to Niece and Nephew: "My Woolwich Equitable account no. 12345678 to Marky Niece and my WE account no. 23456789 to Marky Nephew" - HOWEVER if you subsequently move the money in those accounts elsewhere, the bequest will fail, so you need to keep on top of your will if you are a serial bank hopper
  
  
• And in either case, if you want to treat them equally then you need to ensure that both accounts grow equally, obviously, and if you have to 'raid' one of them then you need to make it up later. 

But unless there's a reason for you NOT to keep hold of it yourself, then that definitely seems like the simplest thing to do for now. And what a lovely uncle you are - my parents did not leave anything directly to their grandchildren, but one of my siblings gave each of them a small sum of money after Dad's death because they were sure Dad WOULD have wanted them to have something, even though putting it in the will was problematic. 

Oh yes,  I think with most accounts you can add pretty much any name / description you want , but it doesn't affect the ownership, so if you labelled it "Savings for niece & nephew" it would still belong to you, and you would pay tax on it , an in a worst case scenario your creditors could caim on it