Who should I leave everything to?

[SnickersWasAHorse]

I have no family to speak of. Only distant cousins who I’ve not seen in decades. DH has siblings and 6 nieces and nephews.
We have no children. We don’t live near any family.

Of the 6 nieces and nephews we are only really in contact with 2 of them who are older and have their own families. Would it be wrong to leave everything to them and not the others?

Of course OP
Leave it to people you know, not just people because youre related to them.
So the 2 you are in contact with.
To be honest if I didn’t see them / talk to them that much I might leave some but not all.
Sometimes the postman ( example only ) that stops for a chat every day is more worthy. ( ps I’m not a postman🤣🤣🤣)

To be honest I would probably make efforts to spend and enjoy it, relatives that distant certainly wouldn't expect to inherit and therefore won't be missing out when they don't. I think if it were me I would consider good friends in the mix or those who would actually benefit from the money in respect of their financial situation before it fell to distant relations; particularly if we weren't close or they didn't actively involve themselves in my life.

I was appalled by a conversation I had once with a colleague who said they kept a contact with an elderly aunt and uncle in a similar position (no children etc) because they thought it put them first in line for an inheritance. They actually said that they thought the return might well be end up being worth a few christmas cards and occasional pop in at christmas so they made a point of keeping it up- then laughed as though that was funny.

Ultimately leave it to who, or what feels right OP, be that a charity or an individual. There aren't any rules.

I went to a talk from a legal person about wills and trusts, it was very interesting and informative.

Only 40% of people have wills

1/4 of wills are contested

If you die without a will and no relatives can be traced the money goes to Prince William and Prince Andrew. That shocked a lot of people as we assumed unclaimed estates went to the government.

Trusts can not be contested and run for 125 years.

It doesn't matter who you leave your money to, it's yours to do as you wish.

Thank you all. I’ve seen a few threads on here recently with people complaining about unfair wills and I wanted to get the feeling if this was ok.

We don’t have loads, but we do own our house and I stand to inherit from my parents (assuming it hasn’t all gone in care etc) so it’ll be enough to make a difference to whoever has it.