Drafting of Will advice - leaving property and contents

LilyVla

I need to draft a new Will. I have spoken with a solicitor but I would appreciate some help from anyone kind anything to give me advice on this forum.

 I have 3 children (2 sons and a daughter. I live with my daughter and grandchild. She has given up everything to help me and she cared for my late husband with me if I had been left alone, my husband may have gone into a home.. My sons didnt help at all and 1 son was estranged from my husband for years until his death.

I want to leave my house and its contents to my daughter. I don't want her to have any hassle when I die from my other two children.

 I want to leave whatsoever is left in my bank account to my children in shares.

 I also want to make it clear in the will that all my real and personal property (save what's left in my bank account or any other legacies in the will) which I am entitled to anywhere in the world should go to my daughter.

How can I phrase this in a willl so its clear and unambiguous?


Also, I want to make my daughter executrix. The solicitor that I spoke to told me that I don't need to write the address details of my children on the Will because my daughter will be ny executrix.  My old Will had alm my childrens addresses. I don't know if I should remove their addresses in my new Will.

Please advise

Keep_pedalling

If you make your daughter your sole executor ( do solicitors still use the defunct term executrix anymore?) then you also need a back-up in case she is unable to do it at the time. How old is your grandchild? Addresses are not required on wills with regards to executors or beneficiaries. 

Although with your daughter living with you, you are unlikely to to need residential care there is a risk that you could accidentally disinherit her if for any reason you no longer own a home at the time of her death so any will would need to consider that possibility.

One other approach you could take is that rather than leave your home to your daughter leave you sons a fixed amount and make your daughter the residuary beneficiary with your grandson becoming the residual beneficiary is she dies before you.

As the house is your shared home you could avoid your sons challenging your will by making her a co owner now. If you owned the property as joint tenants your daughter would become the sole owner on your death automatically. The risk here is that if she died first you would be the sole owner again, so you would need to cover that risk with a clause in your will in favour of your grandson.

if you explain to your solicitor exactly what you want to achieve then they will draft up the will accordingly and will cover any what if situations you may not of thought about.

LilyVla

If I make my daughter a co-owner, would she have to pay for her "share"? Or can I just change the deeds? 

LilyVla

My grandson is  7 years old. 

Keep_pedalling

LilyVla said:

If I make my daughter a co-owner, would she have to pay for her "share"? Or can I just change the deeds? 

No you are free to gift her a share no money needs to change hands. Because this is her home there are no issues with regard to gift with reservation or capital gains tax if you decide to sell at some point in the future.

Keep_pedalling

LilyVla said:

My grandson is  7 years old. 

So you might be advised to uses the solicitor as back-up executor, and will also need to think about trustees should he inherit.

Your daughter should also make a will.

Have you made lasting powers of attorney yet?

Mojisola

LilyVla said:

I live with my daughter and grandchild. She has given up everything to help me and she cared for my late husband with me if I had been left alone, my husband may have gone into a home.

My sons didnt help at all and 1 son was estranged from my husband for years until his death.

I want to leave my house and its contents to my daughter.

I don't want her to have any hassle when I die from my other two children.

Any reasonable solicitor would be able to phrase your will so that only the cash gets shared between your three offspring and everything else goes to your daughter.

Your will also needs to cover the eventuality that your daughter dies before you - presumably you want what would be her share to go to your grandchild?

As your grandchild is so young, your daughter should also have a will.

Don't specify the address of the house you currently live in case you move.  The will should just say something like "any property I own" - again, your solicitor will know how to phrase it.

I would make her an owner now.  Discuss with the solicitor whether you want to own the house as 'joint tenants' or 'tenants in common'. 

If you become joint tenants, you both own all the house so the survivor is automatically the full owner. 

If you are 50/50 tenants in common, you can still leave your share of the house to your daughter (and your grandson if she dies before you) while your daughter's share would automatically pass to her son.

I have put a list of current address and other contact details with our wills but the addresses are not in the wills.

LilyVla

Yes. I have made a LPA. My daughter doesn't have one however.

LilyVla

My solicitor has drafted a Will stating that my children get after death duties taxes etc "the residue of my estate...of whatsoever nature" in shares of 60/20/20.

I instructed him to draft that my sons only get a 20%  share each of the cash on my bank account and my daughter to gets 60% of the cash in my account and all the residue of my estate. 

Separately the solicitor drafted that I'll give my property to my daughter absolutely but didn't make any reference to the contents of my home which I want to go to her, too.

My questions are - Does residue of estate of whatsoever nature mean that when I die they'd get more than a share of cash in my bank account?

Do you gave to specifically refer to the contents of a property if you're giving the property and contents all away?

I've already paid for the Will which hasn't been signed yet but I don't feel confident in his drafting. Any advice would be appreciated.

Brie

You're right in giving percentages rather than set amounts.  If you said Son1 gets £20k & Son2 gets £15k and there was very little money left then Daughter might get nothing which is not what you intend.  

If your solicitor hasn't done as you've requested make sure why this is.  Did he misunderstand you?  Second guessed??  Or knows there's a good reason for drafting things as he has.  Also ensure that should you gift your daughter anything significant before you die that it can't be assume to be deprivation of assets.  

AND talk to all your children to tell them what you are doing and why.  Otherwise you daughter may get an earful (or worse) when the others realise what they eventually get.

Silvertabby

Do have your Will drawn up by a proper solicitor, and not some cheap Will writing service, as so much can go wrong.

There was a similar case to yours some years ago - from memory, the house specified as '1 Acacia Avenue' was left to the good daughter, while the residual cash was left to the bad son, just so he couldn't claim that he had been left out of the Will.

At the time the Will was written, the house was worth a considerable amount, while there were just a few pounds in the bank account.  Only income was the State pension, so this wasn't expected to change.....  but the house had to be sold to pay for nursing home care, mum only lived for a few months, and on her death the good daughter got nothing whilst the bad son got the contents of her now substantial bank account.