Property and IHT pointers

Malthusian

jsh99 said:

Had not thought about brother going first - sigh - so his will needs to leave me his half and a life interest trust for mum? 

If that's what he wants to happen.

If he dies intestate, English / Welsh law applies, and he has no spouse, no direct descendants, and his mother is his only living parent, then his mother will inherit the entire estate. 

jsh99

Malthusian said:

jsh99 said:

Had not thought about brother going first - sigh - so his will needs to leave me his half and a life interest trust for mum? 

If that's what he wants to happen.

If he dies intestate, English / Welsh law applies, and he has no spouse, no direct descendants, and his mother is his only living parent, then his mother will inherit the entire estate. 

Well that's what I thought - but someone else asked about other half siblings (there is no father on the birth certificate and mum says she never knew his full name and this was in the 40s).  It was also mentioned about there being IHT issues if it all goes to mum hence leaving it to me - but asking the person who has done mums will he says it just becomes part of her estate and she gets to keep dad's allowance etc anyway so still 1 million -- which it will be well below anyway.

Malthusian

jsh99 said:

Well that's what I thought - but someone else asked about other half siblings (there is no father on the birth certificate and mum says she never knew his full name and this was in the 40s).  

If he dies intestate, and he has no spouse, no direct descendants, no living parents, and no full brothers / sisters or living descendants of same, then the estate is split equally between half-brothers / sisters. If any half-brothers / sisters predeceased your half-brother but left living descendants they inherit in their parent's place.

So any children his father had would be entitled to an equal share under intestacy as they are also his half-brothers / sisters alongside you. If any such half-siblings predeceased your brother but left living descendants they would also be entitled to a share per stirpes. (I.e. if his dad had one child who died leaving two children, you as one of the two half-siblings get half and they - the half-nieces/nephews - get a quarter each). 

It sounds like he really needs to make a Will ASAP if he wants to ensure you inherit his estate assuming his mother predeceases him. And not land his executor with the task of tracking down his father and any other half-brothers / sisters.

If his mother and father had any other children together, and he died intestate with no spouse, descendants or parents living, the full brothers / sisters would inherit the lot under intestacy (or their descendants in their place if there were any living) and you would get nothing. But I gather this definitely isn't the case.

It was also mentioned about there being IHT issues if it all goes to mum hence leaving it to me - but asking the person who has done mums will he says it just becomes part of her estate and she gets to keep dad's allowance etc anyway so still 1 million -- which it will be well below anyway.

Normally, if an estate goes from a child to a parent and then to their other child in turn, there is the potential for additional IHT, because it is passing through the IHT net twice.

However if the house is the only thing of value being inherited, it looks like this is an exception, because it appears that your mother has two RNRBs (assuming her late husband left everything to her), which can only be used when a qualifying residential property passes to her descendants.

Of course this only matters if your half brother predeceases her and leaves her his half of the property, or gives it back to her.