Codicil

tsmiggy54

Hi.
I have a existing will, and it was a straight split between my son and daughter. Unfortunately my son passed away. I would now like to transfer what would of been his half to my grandchildren.

To me it seems a simple task, and i assume i am correct in thinking a Codicil is the answer. I have contacted solicitors around me, but when they do bother to get back, i am being told the prices are around the £200 mark. 

Is it possible to do a Codicil without a solicitor, and if so, could some kind soul point me in the right direction.  Any help would be really appreciated.

Thanks

Mojisola

Are the grandchildren all his or some from both of your children?

tsmiggy54

Sorry i may of confused you. It was my son, and the grandchildren are all mine. So it is a case of my grandchildren having, what would of been his share.

tsmiggy54

In short all three grandchildren are all my daughters, my son had no children.

Thanks

Brie

My understanding is that without making any amendments everything would now go to your daughter as your son has no children.  If you want to half to go directly to her children, and assuming they are old enough to get this directly, (i.e. over 18? 21?) then making a new will might be easiest.  You could try to do this yourself if it's a simple estate but if you want a pro involved you might be able to get someone for £75ish in "free" will month which is, I believe, November.  The ££ actually goes to a charity or is a bequest in your will to a stated charity rather than going to the legal pro.  (if it's going to a charity in the will that standard advice is often to have a percentage with a set maximum to stop the charity getting overly involved - so 1% with a max of £75 or similar)

You may want to add an extra bit about how things might be split should there be any other unfortunate deaths.  Such as "should any grandchildren predecease me their share is to be split between any children they might have at that time or otherwise be split equally between my other grandchildren."

Sorry to hear you are having to make different arrangements due to your son's early demise.

Mojisola

tsmiggy54 said:

Sorry i may of confused you. It was my son, and the grandchildren are all mine. So it is a case of my grandchildren having, what would of been his share.

I was asking because if all the children had been his, his share would have gone to them anyway (unless your will expressly said otherwise) so no changes would be needed.

TBagpuss

AS Mojisola says, the hnormal rule is that unless your will states otherwise, your son's share would automaticallt go to his children without needfor any changes . BUT if they are minors then you may need to update to ensure thst arrangents are in place for the funds to be managed for them until they reach adulthood, and you may also want to review things such as who your executors are.

You can do a codicil, but it's susuall better to update the will (Codicils made a lot of sense when wills had to be written out by hand, but these days it's generlaly no more complicated to redo the will, and it is much less like that you end up withgaps or confliciting infomration in the will and the codicil.