What do you think about this will?

[GlassTumbler]

Man dies aged 81.

He has 5 children aged 54, 48, 32, 30, 28.

The first 2 children are from his first marriage.

The next 3 children are from his second marriage. He was married to someone 17 years younger than him for 35 years. She was 65 when he died.

He left everything in his will (£650,000 house, savings and generous pensions) to his wife. She was able to downsize a bit (to a £500,000 house) and live comfortably off everything else.

She is leaving everything in her will to her 3 children (the 32, 30 and 28 year old).

The only grand children this man had when he died were the 2 children of the 48 year old from his first marriage. He left them £5,000 each. But nothing to their parent or the older sibling.

Would appreciate any general thoughts! Thanks so much.

Very sad for the older children, but not uncommon and nowt to be done about it.

yep, really unfair to the oldest siblings but I don’t think there is anything to be done about it.

Unless he was mentally incompetent when he wrote the will, I'd assume those were his wishes.

It doesn't really matter what we think of it, does it? He had 1 dependent (his wife) who he provided for. He could have left the house in trust for his children, giving her a life interest until she died, but chose not to do so.

It's hard on the first 2 children, but it's a very common story.

I would wonder why the person drawing up the will didn't get him to think about all his children not just the ones from his second marriage. Very unfair but it happens a lot with second marriages usually with a I'm sure wife number 2 will not cut them out, and them promptly does.

Well he left everything (almost) to current wife, nothing to any children. Then it's hers, and of course she's going to leave it to her kids.

If he wanted it distributed among the kids he should have done something about that.

Totally unfair but the man should have made provisions for all his children in his will.

How is the relationship between the step mum and the two eldest (and their kids)?

That is terrible and why did the father not include all of his children in his Will as it is very straightforward.

She should leave her estate equally between her children and step children. That’s what I would do in her shoes. But sadly children of first marriages often lose out in this sort of situation and there’s nothing that can be done about it. I’m sorry if you’re one of the children from the first marriage.

It’s very unfair will older children are entitled to be very upset as their dad didn’t treat all his children equally.

Why do you think "of course she's going to leave it to her kids" @heldinadream? Don't you think she would divide it up amongst all 5 siblings, given the step children were in her family for more than 35 years?

If he had a good relationship with all children then that's awful.
It seems to be a common thing nowadays though unfortunately.

Not fair on his eldest children. But nothing can be done about it now.

Entirely to be expected. He was a weak person who didn't want confrontation and so chose to pretend he wasn't disinheriting his kids
Much better in Scotland and many EU countries where you can't do this

It is a great shame that when writing his will he didn't consider his 2 eldest children and wasn't able to foresee that his wife would be likely to leave everything to her own DC only

Its good thing that the DGC got something even if it wasn't much compared to the entire estate

I think it's absolutely disgraceful that someone could do that to their children.

Anyone relying on a stepparent to ensure all their children go on to inherit is an absolute fool.

His will could have been drawn up to split the inheritance 5 ways after the death of his widow.
It wasn't, so whilst I can understand the eldest 2 feeling hard done by, the widow, leaving morals out of it, is leaving what is now legally hers to her own children.

Sad - this happened to me.

Older children can take this to court but it's unlikely to be worth the legal fees.

My father will do this to me and my sister. He will die intestate and has contributed for years to a house that he isn't on the deeds of. He's unmarried.

Everything will pass to my half siblings and their half siblings.

We are also somewhat screwed due to the set up of our mothers affairs and find ourselves surrounded by half and step siblings who stand to inherit six figure sums.

It's a real source of resentment to be honest.

Its shit for the oldest kids, but it's what happens.

This is why people shouldn't make mirror wills, but write out clearly where they want their money to go.

Mine states life interest for husband and in trust for my kids.

not a nice thing to do to your kids however, if by chance the father is Scottish then the kids and claim legal rights. They cannot be left out of the will.

I fear you hit the nail on the head here ArcticSkewer. He even got his wife to phone the older children and tell them about the will when he was still very much alive and in full capacity.

She should, but she wont.

And legally doesnt have to.

Well clearly he was an arsehole then

I'm not really asking from a legal point of view because we all know what the legalities are. Just generally, just as a human, what are your thoughts? that's what I was asking.