to not leave the house entirely to the surviving spouse in the will should one of us die?

[TheDogAteTheHomework]

Hear me out.

DH and I are happily married with DC, both of us work and all finances are pooled.

I am DH's second wife, and he has done well through previous investments etc before we were married, so brought more to the marriage than what I did (nothing )

As a means of protecting the children's inheritance DH has said about putting a clause in our wills (we currently have mirror wills) about the house of if one of us dies instead of the all the assets and finances just going to the other surviving spouse, a portion of the house (50%) be put in trust for the children. Just in case one of us was to be 'hit that bus' before our time was up (so to speak), we have seen it happen in our own family where one parent died, there was young dc left, the remaining parent went on to remarry and the new spouse moved in and they divorced years later leaving the dc left with absolutely no inheritance from the second marriage.

He is looking to see if we can protect our children's inheritance that way I think it's a good idea but thinking that I wouldn't want to run the risk later (god forbid something happen to either of us!) of falling out with one of the dc down the line (hypothetically speaking - it does happen though doesn't it ?) and they would be able to force the sale of the family home to release the portion of their inheritance this is my only concern.

Does anyone do this ? I would imagine others would be doing this at some point as well ? Can anyone advise anything ? We will be going to a solicitor anyway, but actually thinking on it we did have a trusted friend (dc's guardian in fact) as an executor on the will along with one of the solicitors, but from reading on here about them charging a portion of the estate as a fee, I'm thinking we might remove this instruction when we redo the wills !

it isnt evading fees if you have no expectation of needing care any time soon. it would really depend on the circs.

www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/experts/article-2384774/Are-parents-avoiding-care-home-fees-gifting-45-000.html

example article about care home fees etc

God, I can't believe how many people this has happened to.

A very similar thing happened to my mother and her 3 siblings. Their mother died suddenly very young mid 40s. The father remarried a year later. At this time the kids were aged 4-11. They were never very fond of the stepmother who by all accounts was a very cold woman. Anyway he died 5 years later. No will. The children, except the youngest, were all in boarding school and there were no longer welcomed back into the house. They spent holidays with other family. The step mother later sold the house. The children got nothing.
She never spoke to them again. She died about 15 years ago and I believe the house was left to her brother or nephew.

I believe it made for a very difficult start in life, no parents and no financial back up. It affected my mother profoundly.
She passed away earlier this year and I feel heartbroken when I think about what a hard time she had because her father was so shortsighted.

It's quite a hard thing to bring up with clients, I find. No one wants to imagine that, if they died, their spouse would remarry without at least thinking about making provision for their children.

It's usually ignorance rather than malice which results in the sad cases referred to upthread.

What are the tax implications of an LIPT Mumblechum?

If you have dependent children can you assign death in service and other insurances/pensions to your spouse entirely separately outside the trust or does it assume all assets will follow?

We have done exactly this in our wills, so it is certainly possible. I think you can stipulate that the spouse's half goes to the children on their death too, and not to any new partner. The executor will see that the terms are carried out properly.

It's definitely worth seeing a solicitor and having everything drawn up properly IMO.

Treadsoftly, LIPTs don't carry any tax advantage unfortunately.

Death in Service, insurance policies etc are almost always written into discretionary trusts so that they don't fall within your estate, (thereby avoiding IHT), therefore those assets are treated entirely separately from the LIPT property.

My mum and her 2ndDH were tenants in common and had very specific wills drawn up. Both mum & 2ndDH had children from previous marriages and wanted to ensure their own children inherited something in due course but without leaving the surviving partner homeless.

2ndDH died about 4 years ago. His half of the house went to his two children but mum remains in 'control' of the house and was able to sell it. 2ndDH's children inherit 50% of the value of the house that mum's in when she dies. She has downsized from the large family home to a smaller ground floor flat and essentially pocketed the difference. However this was always covered in the will because if mum died first 2ndDH would have had to sell the family home anyway as he needed care and would have had to have gone into some sort of sheltered accommodation and to pay for nursing support. So although my mum has 'benefitted' from cash in the bank, her 2ndDH would have had to have this option for ongoing care.

The idea was that even if we didn't get half the value of the original family home, the two sets of siblings would each get a share of something. There's also a clause about new partners not being able to live in the house unless the siblings are bought out. So if mum wants her new partner to live with her she'll have to buy out 2ndDH's children. They don't have to agree to this though. So although my mum has essentially got the equity between the two properties (my stepsister isn't happy about this at all), she can stop my mum living with a new partner.

Personally, I don't expect to get anything from my mum. She's worked hard all her life, became a long term carer for her 2ndDH at the end and is now enjoying her retirement. It doesn't bother me that we might only get a share of a cheaper flat rather than a 3bed house. It's much more important to me that mum is protected and can live in accommodation that suits her needs as she gets older.