Slightly morbid question about inheritance

[colaiced]

At the moment, I am not married and am unsure whether this might be better.

I own assets that outright are worth around £150,000. Obviously I would like to leave to DC. I also have a pension payout which I’d like to leave direct to Dc.

If I marry, DH would automatically inherit, but then if he was to remarry, my children would miss out.

Is there a way of safeguarding assets to avoid this? I know it’s a somewhat cold question but well, death is natural!

It’s stories like that which terrify me, penelope!

Remaining unmarried? Again (unhelpfully!) - it depends: you might need to consider tax. Spouses, and civil partners, can pass assets between themselves free of inheritance tax in life and in death. Cohabiting partners cannot. It depends on the size of the estate whether or not inheritance tax is an issue. Take legal advice! (and in my morbid and unromantic opinion, people with assets should always seek legal advice before they get married!)

[quote AdaColeman]@Sleepingboy
Read my lips,
So make sure your will is watertight[/quote]
You say no trusts or life time interests. If your will is written properly these are perfectly fine.

A fellow morbid and unromantic here - I’m right with you!

What type of pension is it? I’m assuming an occupational one. In which case: Basically you can nominate your children as the beneficiary of the lump sum, but the trustees would make the final decision if you died. They may decide to pass some to your DH, but actually they may decide to do this even if you aren’t married if you live together with combined finances. These lump sums are not part of the estate and not covered by your will.

For the regular pension payments, the spouse and children’s payments are separate and you can’t choose for all of it to go to the children.

I don’t know about private pensions though.

@colaiced - thank you! I'm so used to people scoffing at me!

In England (no idea if this applies anywhere else) you can make a will ' in anticipation of marriage ' which means it will NOT be revoked upon marriage.

It's important that the right wording is used but both DH and I did ours pre marriage through a solicitor so we knew it was correct.

If you are married then regardless of what the will says your husband may be able to contest on the grounds of insufficient financial provision.

If you’re unsure whether he would do this then don’t get married!

It is an occupational pension yes - thanks for that info.

Boo I don’t think it’s that straightforward and this feeds into Ursas point too. You can think you know a person but grief, loneliness and even just distance can change someone. If I die in 2027 when my child is 7, a lot could happen between say 2027 and 2035 and I can’t ignore that fact. I would hope their dad wouldn’t turn his back on his child but I want to safeguard everything as much as I possibly can.

Regarding private pensions, while an Expression of Wish or Death Benefit Nomination form is exceedingly helpful and should always be completed where possible (you can change them whenever you feel the need), the Pension Trustees will always look to pay to any dependents, so even if you specify to your DCs 100% they have discretion to also include your spouse.

If you remarry and buy a house do it as Tenants in Common - not joint ownership. You can then will your half to your DC and your spouse will only own half the house to will to whomever they like.

Is your child your DP’s? Do you have previous children?

If all your children are your DPs then why do you want to leave everything to them and not your partner/husband? Especially when they are so young, can’t you make a will and review every 5 years?

I don’t mean to be goody/rude I’m just interested as £150k is not a massive sum (it would be different if you had family money worth millions).

There is also the conversation to be held about guardianship for your children:

• if you were to die
• if both your and your husband / partner were to die (together, eg car crash) You think about who you would want to bring up your children, make sure they are in agreement, and leave a financial framework to assist them in that (awful) scenario.
  It's a complex, and obviously sensitive, topic. A lot to think about.

Write a will and appoint an executor who is someone other than your partner (you could appoint them jointly with your partner), make sure it is someone who cares greatly for your children so if your partner tried to do anything shifty then someone else will know about it, perhaps your sibling or a cousin.

Give this person a signed copy of your will in case the original ‘goes missing’.

Not at all Boo

My assets aren’t a massive amount but they are all I have and at least it’s a big deposit or enough to buy outright.

Baby is DPs yes. But as I’ve said I can’t possibly predict what he might do if I die. If I leave everything to him there is a risk that he will remarry and my child get nothing, I can’t let that happen.

Check how any property is jointly owned.

Joint tenancy and tenancy in common may seem like weird, anachronistic terms, but even if you've got a watertight will, with a trust, a joint tenancy will bypass the will and blow any intentions of passing property to your children out of the water.

www.butterworths-solicitors.co.uk/joint-tenants-tenants-in-common-and-severing-tenancy/

If a will is specifically written on the intention of marriage it is not voided by marriage, however to avoid contests to a will it is best not to disinherit anyone. Money can be left in trust for DD if under 18, you can chose 21or 25 for capital but you need to be clear as to how this can be done via solicitor. Regarding a spouse they should not be made homeless on your death, there should either be a period for them to move or a lifetime interest in property or an interest until they remarry . I don't know if this is legally true but if a spouse if worse off after a death than they would have been after a divorce there may be grounds to contest a will. Even if you want all your money to go to your children do you really want your partner to have to move out within weeks of your death, check your pension carefully as to who it can be paid to and for how long, normally a work pension would be paid to a spouse for the rest of life unless they remarry. But a pension would not be paid to your children for life.

What is best depends on ages of your children if they are 12 & 14, the advice would be different to them being 19 & 21. If your children are younger the assets would be in trust for them and pension would pay for their upkeep etc and so it would be fair for their guardians to be able to use pension to keep a roof over their heads food clothes holidays etc, is their father around to care for them? If they are already adults then I don't kno how pension pay out works, and if they are already adults can you put money in trust or should they get it immediately , basically you need a solicitor for advice and then writing a good will, if you marry and 15 years down the line you decide that now you would like spouse to get widowers pension and children to get cash and spouse to be able to stay in your home until death you can change will.

And there is no need to feel guilty or underhand about raising these issues and getting them sorted out. Lawyers are used to dealing with this type of thing day in, day out, with out anyone being made to feel got at, or insinuating that someone might try on something underhand.

It's merely being sensible and sorting out your affairs, and a good honest discussion to have with anyone you might be thinking of sharing your life with.

DH and I redid our will recently. We were advised about protecting inheritance from a 'marriage after death' which was made substantially easier by being tenants-in-common for our house. (Something I was, equally, advised to do to protect the amount I put into our first house upfront.)

Roughly speaking, if I die half of the 'estate' in put into a trust which ensures the children would receive at least 50%. DH could live in the house for the rest of his days. Were he to enter into a new relationship the 50% is protected and no one can challenge that. And vice versa.

You need to set up a trust in your will. Your partner is the life tenant and your children are the remaindermen. Speak to a solicitor and they'll explain it all to you. This a very common and simple issue.

Don't get married.

@treacle456

Don't get married.

I also tend towards this, to be honest. Whilst in recent decades, marriage has come to be ostensibly about true love and being soulmates and having a special day to show everyone your adoration for each other it remains, as it ever has been, a legal and financial transaction and if you truly want to protect your assets from your spouse it’s best to remain unmarried. Not least because whilst you might not want to consider it, the more likely scenario is not you dying before your DH, him remarrying and then disinheriting your DC; but you divorcing and a proportion of your savings, assets and pension you so want to protect being given to him in the financial settlement.

I've just seen this from the other side. My father remarried and recently died. His and my step mum's had wills drawn up. She got half of his estate, my brother and I got the other half as that's what they both wanted. She got the house and belongings which again was what they wanted. It's all good. Only glitch is that one of his bank accounts was in both their names so in theory she could have just kept that. But she said it wasn't what was intended so she's gifted that to us (with a bit more paperwork).

So long story short - all possible but double check names on accounts (and talk to a solicitor of course)

I do wish some PPs would read the OP properly: ‘remarry’. OP is thinking of marrying for the first time.

Give this person a signed copy of your will in case the original ‘goes missing’

Wills can and should be lodged with a solicitor, notary and/or the central service (which costs about £20) for best protection. Obviously make sure intended executors know of its existence and where it is.

Marriage is nothing to be concerned ah

Posted too soon

About re wills and providing for children - again, so long as they are written correctly. If you are concerned about management of trusts then nominate third parties (other family, friends or professionals like solicitors) as trustees. Comtesse does have a point about the potential of divorce leaving things worse off, though (and I say that as someone happily married).