Unfair inheritance?

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DH and I are writing our wills. It's pretty straightforward as we've not got many assets, however we are stuck about how to fairly divide our estate between our nieces and nephews should both of us and our own DCs be wiped out due to some sudden calamity.

DH has 6 nephews and nieces on his side and I have 2 on mine. This number is not going to increase. DH maintains it is only fair that we spilt the estate equally between all 8. But something in me says it would be fairer to split it 50/50 between his side and mine, then divide that equally between them?

Part of me is swayed by the fact that the 6 on his side are likely to be well provided for by rich grandparents, which is less the case for my sisters children?

What is the fairest way of dividing it up?

I have 3 siblings, my husband only one. I wasn't comfortable with the idea of a 50:50 split as it would have meant his brother got 3 times as much as each of my siblings. DH wasn't comfortable splitting it equally by individuals as it would have meant my side of the family got 3 times as much as his.

We bounced around various compromises and in the end our wills leave one third to his brother, and split the other two thirds across my three siblings. His brother will get 1.5 times what each of my siblings get.

Compromsing felt fairer to both of us, although in our case I had inherited something from my grandparents and we don't see a lot of my BIL which did influence things.

This kinda happened with my dh NAN

She had 2 kids - dh dad and dh uncle

When she died she knew dh dad (fil) wouldn't share her estate with his 3kids - so she did 50%to dh uncle and the other 50% she divided into 4 for dh dad and then dh and his sister and brother

So all got 12.5% - dh dad was livid and went round begging and asking for the money to be given back to him

Dh told him to fuck off

Where as dh uncle split his 50% between his kids fairly

Dh NAN was wise

In your case op. Very unlikely all will die but you never know .... I would split fairly with you and dh siblings and they decide how to share with their children /your neices and nephews

I would split it evenly between each nephew/niece, so they get an equal share, regardless of which side of the family they come from.

3 on one side, 2 on the other here. The three have very wealthy parents (my BIL and SIL), whereas my sister is nothing of the sort. Still didn't occur to either of us to do it any other way than a 5 way split. To be fair it's never going to be a life changing amount whichever way we do it.

Divide it equally between all nieces and nephews, i.e. 8 ways.

My DGF's will intended an inheritance to be split equally between six grandchildren. My aunt somehow disputed it, insisting it be split three ways as there are three families. Her DS is an only child so got 1/3 of the inheritance, twice the amount intended . This caused a lot of bad feeling between the families which won't be forgotten.
Keep it equal and fair, you don't want to leave bitterness with your legacy.

Why not give each niece or nephew the same percentage eg 5%, that way they all get the same, with the balance divided equally between your and DH siblings?

You do not have to leave anything to your nieces and nephews and, tbh, why would you if you have DC of your own unless you are stinking rich and your own DC are amply provided for.