Situation is well to do parents in their 80s have 2 daughters now in their 50s. Both married with 2 children each. Both the daughters and both the husbands had decent white collar jobs, not high earning professionals, but higher than average salaries.
Parents have offered both families lots of practical, but not financial help, over the years which is fine, the daughters never wanted or needed money, but appreciated the help.
All good, on the face if it very easy to split equally between the daughters, the grandchildren or a mixture.
However, DD1 was widowed young while her children were still teenagers. There was some life insurance and she earns enough to support herselfbut now nowhere near as comfortable as before. There will be much less available to support the grandchildren with e.g. a first car or a first home. Her husband has no parents so DGC won't inherit elsewhere.
DD2's husband has just had a large inheritance (six figures) from a "spinster" aunt and his parents are very wealthy. He has one sibling. So those DGC are very well placed for the future.
Would you be "fair" by splitting your legacy equally or would you see fair as weighting it in favour of the more "disadvantaged" DGC?
It's causing the couple some trauma in deciding what's right.