If you’re child free, who are you planning to leave everything to?

[TeapotCollection]

We’re early 50s and think we should write our Wills. We’ve got family but, to put it bluntly, no one who we want to have everything we’re working hard for. There probably won’t be a lot of cash because we’re going to spend it 😃 but very likely to be a property worth at least 200k (todays prices). We did think about selling our property to one those equity release companies but I was strongly advised against this on here

If we divide it between charities will the cost of processing the Will be horrendous?

Another thing is that we know certain family members will be expecting us to split everything between our nieces and nephews. Tough shit?

Going away for a couple of nights in a few hours so apologies in advance for being quiet over the weekend

We don’t have any DC. Our will currently splits our estate between our siblings, a charity and my friend who would look after our dog.

like you will be spending as much as we can. When we get to the l60’s we plan on selling our house and renting. Obviously plans don’t always work out and if we do die with money in the bank it will go to charities. The amount of shit we received from both sides of our families regarding our childfree life...no way do we want any of them to profit from the choices we made.

Unless there'd been a big fall out, I think I'd rather family got my money than a charity.

My childless relative was talking to me about her will previously and said she was thinking of leaving everything to my cousin. My cousin isn't married or with anyone and still lives at home, so my relative thinks "she needs it most".

Yes, tough shit. Leave it to who you like. You won't be around anyway to deal with the fallout! My best mate died and I've just split up with my long term partner, so I'm leaving whatever's left to my goddaughter and a dear friend.

Do you have friends, it might be nice to leave them something? Charities yes - local ones you might even be able to change their fortunes with a modest amount.

Brother, friend and charities.

Give it to a friend. Don’t line a charities pockets OR if you do make sure you go very, very grassroots. Your money will be wasted else.

Don’t worry too much about the cost of dealing with the will, if you don’t want family to have it anyway it’s the only way on ensuring your wishes are met.

Also you’re only 50, this could well be just draft number 1 with changes to come as things and people in your life. In the meantime enjoy the next few decades spending your hard earned gains.

I hadn’t even thought of a split between family and charity, heaven knows why! Good idea that

Not any really close friends

Local small charity is a fantastic idea. 200k, or even 100 if we do a split, would make a big difference between 4 of them

Definitely leave a set amount rather than % if you are going to leave to charities, it gets very messy when a % is left as the charities will fight to the death to get as much as possible.

All to my brother and any children he may have in the future. Or to my friends to have a massive fuck off holiday at my expense!

Nieces and nephews.

If our estate is valued at £1, then that's what will be divided equally between them. It's just the leftover money after we have spent most of it. The proceeds of the house sale is what will be divided between them come the day.

We didn't get any aggro for not having children.

i would blow the house money on a lovely care home .

That's a good idea.

I would imagine because OP knows them better than you do, and therefore thinks they don't deserve it?

Much better to leave it to a charity where you know it'll go to someone that desperately needs it, than to knobhead relatives just because you share some DNA. People leaving money to family is one of the reasons we have so much inequality (sorry I'll get off my soapbox now).

From her two posts I can't see anything that indicates the OP is unpleasant.

Nieces and nephews.
But I believe they'll be helpful when we're older and need it - based on their behaviour so far. I don't mean bottom wiping, just people to advocate for us when we need it and help find us a home that smells very rarely of wee :) They're decent sorts.

If you were going the charity route, picking one specific place that you know would use the money right is amazing.
I worked at a childrens hospice and years ago a local man who had never had any personal dealings with the hospice left everything in his will to us. That money was incredible- it built a hydrotherapy pool and put tracking hoists in so it was accessible for all the children and literally hundreds of children have benefited massively from that. There is a little plaque with his name on in the changing room and I always used to think how kind it was for him to do that for all these kids he had never known.

I'm mid-50s and childfree and my will divides up my estate between a couple of charities I've supported for years. I'm not close to my brother who is also childfree and who has said he wants to retire in Thailand with his wife so I don't feel guilty about not leaving him anything.

My cousins all live their own lives and have children, most of whom I've never met, so I really don't see why they should get my money either to be honest. I suspect a couple will be very disappointed though!

Our wills leave everything to each other but if we die at the same time/in the will of the one who is left everything is left to some family (siblings, nieces and nephews, cousins) not all family have been left something though, some close friends, a few of those friends have children and they’ve been left something too and we have also left some charity donations.

Can’t believe I’ve been called unpleasant! Thank you to the people who spoke up for me, appreciate that. I’m really not unpleasant!

We barely know our nieces and nephews, and they all have parents who they will probably inherit from

Love hatsforbats story, that’s the kind of place we’d be looking for

leave it to charity if that’s what you want - it’s a great thing to do, long as you pick a good one

mine will go to a combination of step kids, nieces and nephews and godchildren - but that’s because I know and love them, I wouldn’t do it for the sake of it, and you certainly have no obligation to

Before we had children our wills were an even split to mine & DHs siblings, with a small amount to charity (Brain Tumour Trust in our case).
Maybe look into charities that support causes close to you or which have affected loved ones? As another PP has said there are some amazing small charities out there doing fantastic work.
Another option would be to approach a Grant-Giving charity who could run a grant-giving trust with your money. They'd put your money into an endowment type account & interest gained would then be used to provide small grants to grassroots charities & organisations - look at Community Foundations if that's of interest.

The only person who sounds unpleasant is you.

Read @Hatsforbats lovely post above to see how gifting you will to charity can transform lives.