Conditions in a will

[Hakunatomato]

DH and I looking to get our wills done. Total estate including house and investments just under a million.

We want to leave around £10k to a niece and nephew, and BIL, who will be appointed executor we will leave £50k in recognition of having to sort out house sale etc. The rest of the estate we want to leave between a local hospice, and the dogs trust.

I have heard of people who have left very large bequests to charity, and once the charity is notified of this, they get quite brutal and put pressure on the executors to force through house sale and finalise things as quickly as possible so they can get their money, which is understandable as charities are cash strapped.

We would like to give BIL time to properly clear the house, distribute small things to people (with very low/value, apart from sentimental) and put the house on the market.

Is there any way we can instruct this to be done with no pressure from the charities and in his own time, say 6 months to a year? Has anybody written this into their will?

That depends how close they are to siblings, nieces and nephews. Why would you leave large amounts of money to people you barely know and rarely see, whether due to family disagreements or simply moving away from eachother?

Me and OH have left only small/token bequests to our siblings, nieces and nephews, and only if our son isn't alive to benefit. Besides those small bequests, the majority of our estate(s) passes to a variety of local charities. Hopefully, son will outlive us and will inherit everything, but if not, we really don't want substantial monies going to nieces and nephews we've not seen for years.

That isnt the same
You have a main 1st beneficiary- your son and I assume his heirs

Leaving to charity beyond that point is a bit pie in the sky and quite petty as the chances that he pre deceases you is very very very low

Slightly off subject but just been looking at getting wills done, asked one of our local solicitors about storing of the wills and they did not do it. Long term cost saving of storage? Did not use them at the end of the day.

What we did find was this
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/store-a-will-with-the-probate-service/how-to-store-a-will-with-the-probate-service

Our will was the same before our son was born, i.e. majority of estate to charities. We changed it once he was born to bring him in as main beneficiary. The rest of the will remained unchanged, i.e. the token/small bequests to specific family members. We'd not have left our entire estate to distant relatives anyway. We didn't even leave anything to our respective parents when they were alive as they didn't need our money. Basically ever since we married, our "estate" had always been planned mostly to go to charity! Neither of use were "close" to our siblings, neither emotionally nor geographically, hence only token/small bequests to them.

I agree, chances of him pre-deceasing us were low, but chances of all three of us being killed at the same time much higher, as we used to do everything together when he was a child, i.e. flying abroad several times a year, long drives in the UK, etc.

Statistically still incredibly low.

This comes across as massively ungrateful.

No, it really doesn't. The absolute stress, headache and countless, thankless hours he will have to put in ... all while being liable if he fucks up ... isn't worth £10k for his child.

Then they can resign as an executor, they don't have to do it but to say the amount being left isn't worth it is massive mercenary.

Also it's £50k to him and £10k to nieces/nephews.

How about

I am leaving your kids 1% but I want you to be executor and spend a year plus sorting this out with hours of effort and hassle from not 1 but 2 potentially aggressive charities

Please spend hours sorting through our incontinence pads, used pants, kitchen utensils etc whilst 2 charities argue that they were worth X amount

No way from me. £50k wouldn't be worth it.

Have you very been an executor? For a will with charity beneficiaries?

Anyway the OP hasn't been back so probably yet another MN wind up thread

@ReclaimedHouse

"How about

I am leaving your kids 1% but I want you to be executor and spend a year plus sorting this out with hours of effort and hassle from not 1 but 2 potentially aggressive charities

Please spend hours sorting through our incontinence pads, used pants, kitchen utensils etc whilst 2 charities argue that they were with X amount

No way from me"

Are you reading the same OP as me as it says the BIL will get £50k plus £10k to nieces and nephews?

Yes

He gets £50k for being executor - for a will with the main beneficiaries as charities .

A year plus of work with the charities arguing that the chattels are worth XXX amount. He has to secure the best price for everything. Nothing can go to family.

Everything from a dress upwards has to be sold for the best possible price- nothing can just be thrown in a skip-everything has to be sold,

A lawyer probably wouldn't do it for that much

It's a I hate you all will. Leaving 7% to family and expecting them to do all the work whilst the charity gets 93%

In reality unless they listed specific valuable items as executor I would probably take any sentimental things and send the whole contents to auction- but that would be failing in my duty as executor for many charities as that isnt securing the best possible price.

You don't understand people leaving large sums of money to charities who could do an immense amount of good in the world, instead of passing down generational wealth to relations who haven't done anything to earn it, embedding inequality further into our society?

I think a lot of people will disagree. He's not good enough for the OP to 'remember' and just leave them something that will mean something to him or help him and his family, but good enough to do the grunt work for everyone and take on the liability on behalf of the OP's estate. Presumably, without discussion about OP's intentions up front.

Look the Op hasn't been back
So probably a fake post

Yep, reading the same will. And as other's have said, thanks but no thanks.

Depends on the charity, though, doesn't it.

And nothing stopping OP from make large donations now, before she goes, rather than dumping the responsibility and accompanying headache and legal issues on a family member she barely considered.

The best option would be:
Give away all surplus assets to charity ideally 7 years before your die
Leave any property to nieces and nephews without any reservations
Ask BIL to be executor for no fee

This. It is a ridiculous amount of work. and hassle. Leave it the other way around. Charity gets 7%.

Dh and I have several bequests to charities in our wills, but they are for named sums rather than percentages and will not form a major part of the inheritance - most of which will go to dds and Gdcs.

Except she hasn't got the money for a large donation now, it's tied up in the house. The executor is getting £50k which (for most people!) isn't to be sniffed at. He can always refuse.

As a combination of acting as an executor, helping a relative who was executor for someone who donated a huge amount to charity and having legal training, I'd echo most of the PPs that sadly it can be very stressful dealing with a charity. Charity trustees have a duty to collect in money and they can end up feeling (and being) heavy-handed.

But it might do if you need ongoing care
The La might (and I stress might) pick up care when you less than £23k in cash assets

Named sums rather than Percentage is a crap way to write a will
See my real life examples nam3 above but chances the your family will get zero and the charity will get whatever you leave

I used to work as a legacy officer for a big-ish charity (£7-10 million in legacies each year). I can honestly say I tried very hard not to harras
executors, I would check in with them every 3 ish or so months to ask how things were going and if we could help (we had charity shops that would take furniture and electrical things and would be easier to deal with than furniture clearance if we had the whole or a portion of the residuary coming to us). Was also a solicitor and happy to offer advice to lay executors if it helped them, as frankly it can be a bugger of a job!

its important that charities do check in though - we once uncovered a theft from an estate by a crooked solicitor because we sent a letter asking for an update and it was picked up by a junior while the senior was away on holiday. Turns out the senior had been pocketing monies from the estate!!

i know some charities had a reputation for being more ruthless than others (one in particular I will not mention but I hated it if we were co-beneficiaries with them as their legacies team were frankly a PITA to deal with and would frequently get executors backs up). The only problems I ever had were when people asked us to give up legacies or accept less than the will stated, we legally we couldn’t do it it did make us look grapsy at times. I hated those cases because sometimes there were good reasons why the family wanted or needed us to decline, but our hands were tied because charities aren’t allowed to do that.