To ask if step children are involved how your wills are written?

[Notyourusualfamilysetup]

Bit of a back story to me asking! Just me and dad for a long time, he got into a relationship when I was in my teens and they had my brother (his girlfriends only child). They moved an hour away when DB started school for him to go to a good private school and I stayed in my home town although still saw them regularly, my SM was lovely to me but haven't seen that much of her in recent years.

Sadly my dad died when my brother was quite young, he was a very wealthy man and left everything to SM (fair enough) she sadly passed recently and left everything to my brother.

She was a SAHM and the large inheritance that my DB now has was from my fathers very successful businesses and estates that he left to SM.

The money is not as much what bothers me, although believe me I could really use even a fraction of it. I would give all the money in the world to have my father back but I just wondered if this was a usual way of doing things?

It has left me wondering if my dad had just forgotten about me, him and SM were never married so as I understand he actively made his will this way.

So AIBU to ask, if you are not in a nuclear family and step children etc are concerned, what is the set up of your wills? Have you factored in all children?

Sorry it's a bit of a morbid questions really.

I would definitely look at your dad's will. He may not of had a will in which case you and your brother should each have an equal share. Or he may have left everything to you!

You are just so cold to op's predicament - like a robot! I think most people would like to see what Op receive a share

It has nothing to do with being cold, you are telling the OP lies about what she is entitled to, that is not helpful at all. The law is the law, it is neither warm or cold.
Your "you should get some money hun" posts might seem "warm", but they are not reality and are not helpful.

Whether or not it would be nice if she had a share, legally she is not entitled to anything now.

The GF wouldn't have inherited in the first place without a clear will, so you are giving more and more incorrect advice.

warm fuzzies don't matter. Or the legal profession would be in uproar.

Fact is it is o/p's dad that should have ensured his DD was left something. The fact that he specifically made a will to leave everything to his partner indicates he did not intend for her to inherit- if he's have died without a will o/p and her brother would have inherited 50/50 as living relatives. He made a choice to write a will, and leave everything to his g/f.

It is entirely her dad's choice, and if she were going to contest is should have been on his death. She can't contest her half brothers mother's will... If that were the case my kids should be able to contest their half siblings mums will- Dh's ex. And I think you'd agree they have no right to do that, despite the fact it is Dh's house and money they will inherit via her if DH dies (DH still is a joint owner of the house they live in, until the kids are 21 when she has to buy him out).

Did you actually see your father's will Op?

I think this will happen to me. DF recently remarried and whilst my new step mother is lovely I don't know her that well and would assume she would want everything going to her 2 children.

On mums side it is set up so once DM and DStepF are gone 50% is given to my half brother (son they had together) 25% to me and 25% to DStepF daughter. That was made under the assumption that step sis will inherit from her mum and I will from dad.

I'm sorry to say Bored that it seems men expect their new wives to split the money fairly but this is rarely the case.

Not an inheritance lawyer but I don't think you're allowed to rock up and just say "oh he left everything to me" to get hold of an inheritance.

There needs to be a valid will, witnessed by two independent people. If that can't be produced, the estate goes to probate and will be distributed to next of kin according to intestacy rules- As dad and stepmum weren't married this would be o/p and her brother.

I can't see how the stepmum would inherit without producing a valid will in her interest. I know when my dad died all his assets were frozen until a will was produced. Again, there are legal steps that must be followed after a death, it's illegal to just start dishing it up.

On mums side it is set up so once DM and DStepF are gone 50% is given to my half brother (son they had together) 25% to me and 25% to DStepF daughter. That was made under the assumption that step sis will inherit from her mum and I will from dad

This is the generally accepted mn "fair" way of dividing assets though?

Your mum has half, your stepdad has half. They both divide it equally between their own children. So your brother inherits 25% from your mum, 25% from his dad. You and your step sibling also inherit 25% from your respective parent.

My step dc won't inherit from their dad because he has nothing to leave. His house from their marriage was transferred into his ex's name on divorce. Who their mum leaves it to is up to her. We are in rented so no assets there.

Did your father expect your SM to look after you in her will? Maybe he trusted she would do the decent thing and she hasn't. ( there's a surprise... after my father's death, my stepmother has written a very unfair will favouring her own children)

Did your father's will state anything to this effect?- have you seen it? You can get a copy if probate was required.
Is your brother a decent guy? How is your relationship with him. Maybe he will see how unfairly you have been treated and make amends.

Did you actually see your father's will Op?

Whether or not she actually saw it, and there is no reason that she should have done, there had to be a valid will in favour of the fathers girlfriend in order for her to have inherited everything. There is no other possible way that happened.

This woman was not OP's stepmother.

"On mums side it is set up so once DM and DStepF are gone 50% is given to my half brother (son they had together) 25% to me and 25% to DStepF daughter. That was made under the assumption that step sis will inherit from her mum and I will from dad

This is the generally accepted mn "fair" way of dividing assets though?"

Sorry, can't do bold but all the above is a quotation from the thread. It's true some mners do say this is the way to proceed - , but there are usually a few dissidents (like eg me) who pop up and say that no you can never assume anyone "will" inherit from anyone. Bankruptcy, remarriage (as here), more dc (as here), financial disaster, care home fees, all mean that that is a very foolish assumption to rely on. It is true to say the mners relying on that assumption never seem to be deterred by our comments though!

micah yes I agree that's the fair way of doing it, was just stating what's happening on DMs side.

OP cannot challenge it. This is not her father's will, it is her father's girlfriend's will. Her father's girlfriend has no duty at all to provide for the OP who is not related by blood or marriage. It is far too late to challenge the father's will. This has to be done within 6 months of grant of probate.

Also, it is a misconception that parents have to make provision for their children. They do not. There is the possibility of a claim under the Inheritance Act, but this is on the basis that you are a dependent and there was insufficient provision made for you.

Therefore there is nothing that can be done legally. There is also little point in trying to see the father's will. The executors have to follow the terms of the will, so unless she is suggesting that the executors were dodgy, the will would have validly left everything outright to the father's GF.

Morally, the brother should share the inheritance. There is no way he can be compelled to do it though.

"Maybe he trusted she would do the decent thing and she hasn't."

MN and rl both demonstrate that that is not that unusual, sadly. It is an inescapable fact - if you want someone to inherit the only way is to make a will providing for that. The difficulty is that most people don't have enough both to leave the dspouse enough to live on and to leave significant shares to dc. Hence leaving life interests to dspouses. I suspect that life interests may give rise to practical problems, but at least they should prevent the scenario where widowed dspouse remarries or repartners and dies, and dc then get nothing.

There is no "fair" in wills though.

The only thing that matters, is the decedents wishes as per their will. It doesn't matter what society perceives as fair.

I don't expect my mother to leave me anything. I'd be pissed off if she left everything to my brother, of course, but if those are her wishes, that's it. I certainly wouldn't be asking my brother for my "fair share".

The o/p's dad should have known that leaving everything to his girlfriend would likely mean she wouldn't inherit. He may well have done it purposefully. Otherwise he would have made sure his own will, when he went to the trouble of drawing it up, included her.

Harsh as it is, the brother has no obligation to share. Nobody can prove that it wasn't the father's intention for the son to inherit everything.

I think people should take more note here that the man in this scenario went out of his way to make a will that purposefully did not have his daughter in it. It's all very well blaming the GF or the son, but perhaps they knew the reason he did that, because we don't.
This isn't a situation where the man did nothing and assumed his gf would pass on to his daughter, its one where he deliberately left his wealth to a gf and not to his children.
So maybe blame him, and not the other people?

But her dad's girlfriend may have been Executor and not distributed it properly. It is probably not the case but it is still worth looking at the will. I think if OP was on good terms with her DF it seems unlikely he would omit her from his will. It is most likely her thought it would be split between her and their son on her death. If the OP became somwhat estranged over the years her DFGF probably didn't think she should split the will.

I really do urge you to speak your half brother and tell him you have received nothing from your father. Even if he doesn't share the money he won't feel as comfortable with the inheritance.

But her dad's girlfriend may have been Executor and not distributed it properly. It is probably not the case but it is still worth looking at the will

There would be very serious repercussions if that were the case. It seems unlikely, as the estate would have had to fill in returns etc. For large estates (as this one was, including company assets), it is very likely that the probate would have been done by a solicitor. Also, it seems odd that the father would not then also have made provision for the brother on his death in that case. By all means, she can try to find the will (no idea where it would be if the estate has already been administered), but it is highly unlikely to yield anything. Presuming that the brother is now an adult and the father died when he was young, we may be talking about something that happened over 20 years ago. No court is going to touch that.

I think if OP was on good terms with her DF it seems unlikely he would omit her from his will

He did exactly that. On purpose.
You don't seem to have understood the scenario here.

I'm not so sure op's father deliberately left her out. I think some men people don't always think it through. Dh wasn't too bothered about his will as he felt his ex-wife and I were reasonable people and would sort it out between us . There is nothing reasonable about a mother lion protecting the interests of her cubs!

Exactly Ruperts!

I'm sorry, are you struggling with comprehension?

He made a will that gave nothing to his daughter. He did this wilfully and purposefully. He did not do nothing and hope that it would be sorted out. He did not leave everything to a wife in the hope that hsi children would benefit eventually.

A man with lots of money sat down with a solicitor and made a will that left nothing to his daughter. That is not an accident.

www.gov.uk/wills-probate-inheritance/searching-for-probate-records

A man with lots of money sat down with a solicitor and made a will that left nothing to his daughter. That is not an accident

Exactly. If he wanted to benefit his daughter, he could have created a trust whereby the girlfriend had a life interest and the assets then passed to the OP and her DB on her death. But he chose not to. A solicitor would also have explained the ramifications of this to him. It's very sad but he clearly did cut her out.