To be fighting about FIL's will

[Angelofod]

So my husband's father died last year rather unexpectedly. Anyway fast forward to sorting out his will and he has put in there that there is 10k to be split between his grandchildren. When he died we were expecting our first child, he already had 3 grandchildren from his eldest son, one of which has been adopted by another family and the other 2 are in care. I'm not saying they shouldn't get their share but do you think my child should too? FIL knew we were expecting and he was so excited to be having a grandchild he would actually see and be able to have a connection with! We were all utterly devastated when he passed. The only issue is the person sorting the will out doesn't think my child should receive anything as he wasn't born when the will was made or before his grandfather died. I just can't help but think FIL would have definitely wanted our child to have a share, the will still hasn't been sorted and my child has been born now and is still a grandchild.

@onlyjoinedforthisthread that is what we are planning on doing in this case

Can the executor(s) not make an adjustment?

My mother died long after making her will (she'd had dementia for years and wasn't capable of making a new one) and although she'd included her then grandchildren, my own dd's children, who were born a lot later, weren't mentioned.

Siblings who were executors simply gave them the same as the others, which meant a little less for us siblings. Of course we all had to agree, but everybody did, since we knew it was what our mother would have wanted.

I'm not a legal expert but my interpretation of that would be 2 grandchildren to inherit, because I think your unborn child and the adopted eldest wouldn't (legally) come under the terms of the will. In practice, I'd hope to talk everyone round to 4 grandchildren.

DH has been an executor a number of times now, it is a fairly thankless task tbh. My own parents didn't make us executors of their wills after seeing us do so many of my DH's family!

@Pumpkintopf he is the eldest son and FIL was very traditional like that, and he always saw the best in his children and before his death we all got in fairly well

Siblings who were executors simply gave them the same as the others, which meant a little less for us siblings. Of course we all had to agree, but everybody did, since we knew it was what our mother would have wanted.

A variation can be made if adult beneficiaries agree. It can't be done with children's bequests though as they can't agree to take a lesser amount.

@GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER this is what we were hoping for in our case it unfortunately it everyone can agree

Angelofod
Then do it and stop being so bloody greedy.

Hmm. Listening to your account of the other children’s background I do have quite a bit of sympathy with the executor.

It sounds like the 3 other DC have had a very, very hard time. This £10k could mean the world to them so they will be able to maybe study or get a flat a car or a myriad of other things that many young people rely on their parents to support them with.

What is happing with the rest of his estate? Is your DH inheriting any? Could he give your DC part of his share?

I don’t know what the legal status is, but just morally and ethically I don’t think it is decent or acceptable to reduce the amount of money these disadvantaged children get to give to your DC who has a stable home and supportive parents. It’s a bit, well, greedy.

The adopted child’s rights were severed when he/she was adopted.
Contact CAB and ask if there is anywhere in your locate you can get free or cheap advice and get someo read the will. Are you sure your BIL
Is the sole executor? It is quite usual for both the solicitor who writes the will and a family member to be joint executors. In that case you can approach the other solicitor for an interpretation of the wording of the will.
To those who say there would never be a cut off date if only born beneficiaries counted, the en ventre sa mere principle means only an additional few months are added after testator’s death.

@GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER
You can't just agree like that the money was left to the grandchildren in a legal document so the parents can't just give grandchildren's inheritance away

Bananaramaboo is correct, however your child, by having loving parents, has so much more than their poor cousins that I’d rather the unfortunate children at least had some cash as it sounds as though they have feckless parents.

@Lovewineandchocs you cannot vary a minors entitlement in a Will to their detriment, not even with the trustees permission.

guineapiglet thanks for the information.

I wouldn't like to think the adopted child misses out if he had any sort of relationship with his gf.

@Chocolate1984 don’t be ridiculous, they’d have to wait until such a time as the DH and BIL could no longer father children before distributing the estate, which in practise would be when they died. Only people alive when the testator dies usually benefit from a Will, any grandchildren that come along after that just have to miss out unless their siblings decide to share with them when they’re old enough to make that decision.

I am not legally trained but suspect the money should technically be divided by the two kids in care. The adopted kid is out the picture and yours wasn't born. I also don't think you BIL is wrong to give the money to the existing GC. I don't think I would want to alter a will if it ended up that two kids in care received less. That doesn't seem right. TBH I can see your BILs point of view. I think he is doing the right thing morally and technically (depending on what he does about the adopted kid). However I know that doesn't mean he isnt also a knob.

It's a shame you have all fallen out over this.

Why is the adopted grandchild not included? Adopted or not, that grandchild is still a blood relative of the deceased.

Ijumpedtheshark when a child is adopted into another family all inheritance rights see forfeited. By the same token, the adopted child will inherit from his adopted family as though they were his biological family.

Adoption changes that legally though doesn't it, shark? Separates them from their birth family.

Thank you. Very interesting law.

Your child is not suffering fgs.

Ultimately your FIL didn't state in his will "and OPs unborn child" so really, you're deciding what he would want when he could have varied the will himself.

These 2 kids are in care, think about that for a second before you wage war over a few grand.

OP you are being vvvvv unreasonable and legally don't have any basis to fight this - if you've seen the will and confirmed it doesn't name your conceived but unborn child, and doesn't include your jurisdiction's wording about "conceived but unborn" children, you just don't have any basis to "fight" it.

As other posters have mentioned, at least in the English & Welsh legal system, you cannot (the executor cannot) amend distribution of the estate even if all minors and their legal guardians agree to it - it cannot be done.

Your father should have had this explained to him as part of making the will.

Which brings me onto the point that a few other posters seem to be blatantly ignoring - get rid of any notion of the BIL doing what someone considers "the decent thing" here. There is no "decent" wiggle room because the Executors role is to carry out the written wishes of the deceased, and distribute it accordingly. There's no area for personal interpretation or "oh FiL wrote this but he really meant that other thing"!

It is NOT up to an Executor to veer from the legally valid wishes if the deceased - if they do, they are (quite rightly) opening themselves up to legal challenge after the fact. That's why wills are so important - they MUST be executed properly, with a few options around varying the distribution in a few select legal cases which needs more than a layman's i-think-i-know-best-or-kinder idiocy.

Your BIL could be challenged on distribution to the adopted grandchild, that has legal standing if the adoption is above board (in fact you may wish to mention he should take legal advice on this if you're being kind to him so as to not end up in hot water later on) but put all notions about your child inheriting here... It's madness and has no legal claim.

What if someone else was 13 weeks pregnant at time of death of FIl. Would that child also be entitled to a share? This could go on and on.

If the adults want to chip together out of their inheritance so your child got something that would make sense. At that point it’s their money to part with.

Duck90 as long as it wasn't given out of the two (non adopted) grandchildren's share... None of the adults here have a legal leg to stand on if their£5k each is touched..

If we could have taken all 3 kids in we would have done, they are our nephews too, it just wasn't doable as we have very little we could have supported them with. I was simply enquiring about something that we feel would have been the wishes of someone important to us. I am not taking anything from anyone, tbh we would much prefer to have the man then the money. We will be keeping a bit of DH inheritance back although this will be less than what's left for each grandchild. FIL obviously felt the grandkids should get more as was his right. If the legalities say my dc is entitled to nothing then fair enough

Name change fail