What Nephews Inherit from my Uncles will

killerkev

In My Uncle's will, it states all my living Nephews shall inherit an equal share of my Estate, there are 5. His wife died years ago without a will. The 3 Nephews on his wife's side say they should be entitled to a share as well, so 8 equal shares. I am not sure if that is correct?

Any help would be most welcome, as I don't want to do the wrong thing!!

noitsnotme

According to this legal opinion, it only refers to blood nephews…

”The general rule is that unless there are mitigating contexts or circumstances, the courts will consider a gift to “my nieces and nephews” will refer to the children of your biological siblings.”

https://sp-law.co.uk/who-will-receive-your-inheritance/

Keep_pedalling

That is a poorly worded will, and it is 50/50 whether he meant to leave a share to his wife’s N&N or just his. What the law says is clear but unfortunate that his actual intentions may have been different. 

killerkev

Keep_pedalling said:

That is a poorly worded will, and it is 50/50 whether he meant to leave a share to his wife’s N&N or just his. What the law says is clear but unfortunate that his actual intentions may have been different. 

We think that he meant to leave it just to his blood Nephews, as those on his wife's side had nothing to do with him after she died. I was his POA for the last 4 years. His blood relatives helped him out, nothing from the other side . But as you say, it would have been much simpler if he had named us all !!

killerkev

The will was drawn up by a well known company (Irwinmitchell) so could have been clearer!!

Spendless

Is there a reason why wife's Nephews believe they should be included? Sense of entitlement or what they were always told? I'm just wondering if it  has been checked that property wasn't TIC and wifes will left her share to her Nephews with a life interest for Uncle to live there and his will leaves his property share to his Nephews?

ETA - Ignore above just re-read and seen Aunt died without a will. 

Assuming not, then yes it's a shame names weren't mentioned. My DH's Uncle also wanted to write a will leaving everything to his 'Nieces and Nephews'  DH had to point out to him it would be open to interpretation who he actually meant due to the family set up and wrote names down. Hopefully he listened!  

Keep_pedalling

Where young relatives are concerned it is often not a great idea to name them in case more come along between writing the will and dying. You can still make it plain that you are excluding any from your spouses side to avoid a lay executor making an unfortunate mistake in distributing the estate to people who are not entitled to a share.

Spendless

Keep_pedalling said:

Where young relatives are concerned it is often not a great idea to name them in case more come along between writing the will and dying. You can still make it plain that you are excluding any from your spouses side to avoid a lay executor making an unfortunate mistake in distributing the estate to people who are not entitled to a share.

Ahhh not thought of that. In husband's Uncles case, all Niblings are well into adulthood and their parents not adding to them for various reasons. 

We could make a will in anticipation of any Grandchildren who came along though, so presumably that would have been  an option? 

WYSPECIAL

killerkev said:

In My Uncle's will, it states all my living Nephews shall inherit an equal share of my Estate, there are 5. His wife died years ago without a will. The 3 Nephews on his wife's side say they should be entitled to a share as well, so 8 equal shares. I am not sure if that is correct?

Any help would be most welcome, as I don't want to do the wrong thing!!

They aren’t his nephews.
It is the equivalent of someone leaving everything to their mother then the mother in law claiming that the term mother included them as well.
If he intended to include them then it is a poorly worded will.

Spendless

My guess is Uncle wrote the will after his wife died and by then her Nephews had nothing to do with him? I think then it's quite clear not only does the law say it means only  his nephews but he intended it that way and possibly didn't name them in case more came along (though if a Niece had later come along that might have caused an issue!) 

Malthusian

WYSPECIAL said:

It is the equivalent of someone leaving everything to their mother then the mother in law claiming that the term mother included them as well.

For what it's worth I agree with this analogy and the common law's interpretation. If my brother-in-law had a child I wouldn't consider them my nephew. He certainly doesn't give birthday presents to my sister's child and I wouldn't expect him to. 

A mother-in-law is not a mother, a brother-in-law is not a brother, a niece-in-law is not a niece. That's probably as remote as a family relationship gets for someone to consider leaving their estate that way; I hope nobody would write "to my cousins equally".