Trust Wills

Uncle_Vic

Good afternoon,

Our circumstances have recently changed so we need to make a new will.

It is my wife and I. We both have one (adult) child from a previous relationship. We have recently moved into a new property, which we own outright. Our previous property was in my name only. But this one is now in joint names. We are joint tenants. There are no other "complications".

Out intention was to draw up some sort of trust will making sure both children get an equal share of the house.

But is that doable bearing in mind we are joint tenants? If the answer is no, is there any other way round this?

Grateful for any advice.

poseidon1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6676086/trust-wills

You have to sever the Joint Tenancy and go forward on a tenancy in common ownership basis.

To be assured that neither child is cut out of inheriting a half share by the surviving spouse, each will have to establish an IPDI trust for the other. The following article explains this in detail, and is probably required reading for all 'blended families' like your own -

https://rlksolicitors.com/news-insights/life-interest-trusts

Uncle_Vic

Thank you poseidon. That is most helpful. Definitely something we need to look at.

A further question if I may. This is on the basis that we are still joint tenants.

I am older than my wife. Am I right in thinking that if my wife and I were to die at the same time (in an accident for example) it would be assumed that I had died first. So then consequently our house, for example, would go to my wife and then solely to her child?

Thanks

RAS

You need to get your wills written by a solicitor who will go through the scenarios with you. When you've got blended families, it's too important to leave to will writers.

Reed_Richards

See https://www.kctrust.co.uk/blog/high-court-battle-over-inheritance ?

poseidon1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82068741#Comment_82068741

You are correct with regard to the legal presumption ( commorientes) that the older spouse is deemed to have died first in the circumstance you outline, and the inheritance outcome for the surviving children does point to the child of the younger spouse inheriting the jointly owned property.

Interestingly there was a recent case precisely on this point, where children of the blended relationship battled over which parent had died first and therefore who acquired the previously jointly owned property - see below

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/all-notices/content/103859

Hopefully, the unfortunate outcome of that case convinces you that proactive restructuring action is required if you wish to ensure your respective children do inherit equally.

NedS

We have recently updated our wills to create IPDI Trusts for our property, and based on advice here we used a STEP qualified solicitor.

We had a good idea from prior research here what we wanted, but the solicitor was still extremely thorough at taking us through the choices and explaining the consequences of those choices. As part of the process, we had to sever our Joint Tenancy and register as Tennant’s in Common. The solicitor offered to do this for us, for an additional fee, but I was able to do it myself fairly easily with the Land Registry. The solicitor also looked at our IHT situation which I wasn't expecting but it was nice to see they were being thorough in understanding our circumstances.

We didn't have much choice of STEP qualified solicitors as there were very few in our area, but we were very happy with the quality of the advice we received. The cost for mirror IPDI Trust wills was £1100, so not cheap but worth it to know our children's interests are protected.

This whole process was instigated after we saw Martin Lewis mention that getting married will void any previous wills, which we were completely unaware of, so result for MSE.

poseidon1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82068980#Comment_82068980

Well done!

Cairnpapple

Not relevant to the OP, but when we redid our wills last year, I was interested to find out that commorientes no longer applies in Scotland. Instead, if the order can't be determined, each of the deceased is deemed not to have survived the other.

Albermarle

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82068741#Comment_82068741

A lot of people make arrangements around the 'what if we both die at the same time in an accident' scenario- mirror wills, provision for children, disabled family members, IPDI trusts etc. ( we have done the same).

However just for context, although this scenario can happen, it is apparently very rare/less common than we probably think.

Reed_Richards

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82069077#Comment_82069077

Wandering off topic, but how would that work with joint savings or jointly-owned property?