Will

[ifelttheearth]

My sister had been asking my opinion on writing her will and I'd be interested in opinions please.

She has three children. One has four children, one has three and the other has one.

My sister would like to know how to leave her money.

The options are:

A) She leaves her money to her three adult children

B) She splits it between her three adult children and leaves a hefty amount to each of her eight grandchildren

Personally I think she should just leave it to her adult children as it seems fairer. If she includes the grandchildren too, one part of the family receive a lot less than her two parts.

I’m with you. Leave it to her kids and they can leave it to thieir kids when it’s their time. Or choose to spend some of their inheritance then and there on their kids.

I might be inclined to leave 20% to each child and then 5% to each grandchild.

A - leave it all to your kids. Grandchildren inherit from parents. Much easier in case another child is conceived…..

I would probably be inclined to do 25% to each child and split the remaining 25% between all the grandchildren.

Leave it all to children and perhaps £1k -£2k to each grandchild as a token

Standard common practice is to leave it equally to the children. The children can then either give some or all of it to their children, and their children (deceased grandchildren) will inherit when their parent dies anyway.

Sometimes, a small bequest to all grandchildren, say £5k to £10k just to show they're not forgotten.

However, if there are potential marriage issues among the children, it may make sense to by-pass them and bequeath that child's share straight to their grandchildren to avoid the spouse getting a share upon divorce etc.

Lots of issues to consider really, including family dynamics.

I'd leave to adult children with a clause that in the event of their death their share goes to their children.

A family member has left a sum to grandkids where there is already a massive difference in wealth and number of children. It doesn't affect me but the wealthiest has a lot of kids who are already going to inherit large amounts from both sides.

I've just been an executor of a really badly written will which didn't take into account that people might continue having children after the will was written, meaning that some grandkids got nothing.

Leave it to her own Dc.

You can’t account for the ‘fairness ‘ aspect.

In our family the sibling with the most money (by far, from high salaries, from inheritance from the spouse etc) is the one with the most children.

You can’t predict what circumstances will be when the Will is enacted. There could be more grandchildren, there could be a baby great grandchild, someone could have faced financial difficulties due to disability, illness or divorce. Someone could have won the lottery.

So avoid attempts at ‘engineering’ and just leave your money in equal parts to your own children.

She needs to consider the issue of subsequent grandchildren being born too.

I would split the estate equally between her children so they can pass on as they see fit.

Depending upon the size of the estate perhaps leave a small amount to be divided between grandchildren so they can use it immediately.

I hope she is doing this will through an actual solicitor

I agree the easiest is just to split it between the children, perhaps with a token (equal) amount to each grandchild.

However, if your sister wants to skip a generation then she should leave it to the grandchildren equally. I never understand why people say that is unfair because one “side” is getting more - the grandchildren are their own people, not property of their parents, so why would a grandchild with more siblings deserve less than a grandchild who is an only child?

Very good point. You can know for sure that you won't have any more children, but you can't know for sure that you won't have any more grandchildren - especially if you have sons.

I think leaving it equally to your own children is the natural, fairest way. Your children who have chosen to have more children themselves know that their choice may come with having to share everything between more people; or it might be that they're very well off and could afford more, whereas those with fewer wanted more but had to cut their cloth; thus the latter are effectively being 'punished' for being poorer!

To begin with definitely drawn up by a solicitor

Then the rest depends on family dynamics eg if all her children are still youngish and grandchildren are quite young now there is space for maybe quite a few more to be born between will being written and her death whereas if all her children are fairly old less likely to be many more grandchildren plus depends how much your sister has to leave

I think I would leave each grandchild and any future grandchild born after will written but born by time of her death say £10k and then split the estate between her own children equally with the provision that if any of her own children predecease her then their share goes to their children

Any will can be problematic so I would try to leep it as simple as possible and try to cause the fewest issues.

Whole estate split between the children. Ensure that should any child pre-deceases you that there share is split between their children not to their siblings.

If you decide to will anything to the grandchildren. Don't will a specific amount to anyone. If you need to go into a care home and your estate is sold to pay for this then the amount will be depleted and when a will is enacted the specific amounts will be paid as a priority. Ie.g. if the depleted estate is 100k and you have willed 10k to each grandchild and the remaining to be split to you children. Then the grandchildren's amounts will be paid first and you children will get less then their children. Better to allocate a percentage to everyone.

My mother is weathy and i know that her estate is split between us three children but i also know that large amounts have been willed to charity. If for whatever reason she loses most of her wealth. the charities likely take the bulk of the estate and we get little-nothing. There's nothing wrong with that if it is what she wants but i don't think that's the case. She is basing the will on her current assets.

The issue of willing to grandkids is the possibility of 'illigitimate' children turning up and claiming a share (more likely if you have sons). You can avoid this by naming all the grandchildren you want to inherit but this will cut out and children that have not yet been born.

As i said, simplest to just leave to the children.

Splitting equally between her three adult children with a clause that if one of her children dies their share is passed to their own children is the best and most neutral way I think. She could always leave a token amount to each grandchild if she wanted to.

DH and I have both lost grandparents and in both cases they did leave a (relatively) small amount to their grandchildren. In my case my grandmother left £5k to each of her grandchildren and DH's grandmother left £1k to each of the grandchildren, with the rest split equally between the parents.

This is overly complicating a very simple issue. You leave your money to your children. They can distribute it to grandchildren (their children) fairly within their family unit during their lifetime if they don't need it themselves. Why try to interfere and skip generations etc, it will always cause family rifts that are unnecessary.

If one child has a particularly hard life, disabilities or chronic health issues then leave that child more and the other siblings would be awful people to complain. But otherwise you leave your money equally to your children, and leave your grandchildren something sentimental and try to ensure you leave enough to your children - their parents - to help them.

Agree.

My grandmother's will left everything to be split equally between her children with £100 each to her grandchildren (it was the early 80s). Certainly for my parents it made a difference to how comfortable they were at that time and therefore improved our lives as children. Skipping a generation would have been rubbish.

My parents wills are similar in terms of what happens when the second spouse dies. They also have a term that allows us to vary the terms relating to our share in favour of the grandchildren if we wish to for tax or other reasons. This can also be achieved by a deed of variation.

Thanks everyone.

Looks like most of us feel the same!

Certainly for my parents it made a difference to how comfortable they were at that time and therefore improved our lives as children. Skipping a generation would have been rubbish.

This is also a very good point. Unless the children are already very well off, leaving money to grandchildren rather than children will actually likely do more harm than good to their quality of life/ life chances.

This is great ^

I too, would divide it equally between my 3 dc.

If the dc are little, I'd leave it at that.
If the dc are teens / 20s or older, (and it was fairly unlikely there would be anymore), I would probably leave the same amount to each Grandchild ( £500 or £1000 or £2000 depending on how wealthy I was) as a gift.

Skipping a generation, as such, isn't an option.

She spoke about leaving to the children AND the grandchildren!

I think the fairest and easiest way is A), definitely. All three of her children deserve an equal share and it's up to them how they spend it.

I’m just doing a new will. It’s a simple everything split equally between my kids. If anyone dies before me, their kids get their share. That’s it.

I have the most kids out of my siblings and even I think it's fairest to leave to the kids and not the grandkids, with maybe a token bequest to the grandchildren if unlikely to be anymore. The token bequest doesn't have to be money, it can be objects of sentimental value, jewelry, etc.