Why don't sole beneficiaries of a will share more?

[malificent7]

I mean in cases where it's clearly unfair. Such as the step mum inheriting all when there are children about or one sibling unexpectedly inheriting everything.
Jusr a bit shocked about inheritance threads ( and concerned about my own stepmum getting everything).

But once you're gone and whoever you chose to inherit, they can give away what they want though despite your wishes,

How much are you leaving your step daughter?

But once you're gone and whoever you chose to inherit, they can give away what they want though despite your wishes,

Of course they can. It'd annoy me to think they did so in a manner intended to redraw up my will in a way they think works better. But then, I'll be dead so....

I just think honouring a will is about the last act of respect you an show someone who has recently died because it is, be definition, their final wishes.

However, I am unlikely to ever face that problem because my own Dad remarried a women younger than himself from a long lived family and so, assuming nature takes a normal course, she will inherit everything they currently have and may or may not outlive me.

Such is life.

I thought a will was made so that your estate goes to who you chose to leave it to. What is fair or unfair about that?

100% agree.

It's not exactly hard to change a will and protect assets or deliberately exclude someone from inheriting.

And, ultimately, people are selfish. If they inherit everything from their partner and the kids don't get anything then 99% of the time they won't share and anyone with a shred of common sense knows this...

I think some people either don't make a will, don't change it if they remarry and wrongly assume that a second spouse would make provision for any previous children.

OP

Look at it like this and it is purely hypothetical

Lets say in xx years time you draw up your final Will. The scenario is you've been physical unwell for a few years and alone and everyone you knew, in c family stopped visiting you and rarely call you but your second cousin who lives 50 miles away calls you a few times a week and visits you at least once a week to chat, help a little if required. This 2nd cousin has always been a balanced friend/family, sends birthday cards/xmas cards invited you to their events etc. You decide to leave all of your estate to this person

You pass on. Everyone else is upset you left them naff all but all of it to this cousin. Court over-rules your Will even though you made it when of sound mind/e/tc/etc ie legal. How would you feel?

Because they don't want to and legally they don't have to. There are times when that's absolutely awful, but those are the reasons.

Think very carefully before marrying if you don't want to complicate your children's inheritance. It may be better not to do it. Sort your will out. Never assume your partner will do as you wish without you having to lay it down. If they don't mind doing it, they won't mind you willing it.

Some do, my DH for a start shared everything equally with his brothers. Some don't, and there’s many reasons why that would be the case. .

But the person to blame in that scenario is your dad, not them.

Its on every individual to think carefully about their wills and who gets what.

This.

This.

Once the money is yours you can choose to share it if you wish .
What i think is unfair is that when a divorced or widowed person remarried and fails to update a will and all the money goes to a step family and the bio children get nothing.

My dad inherited everything from my grandparents. I'm pretty sure he'll leave everything to his wife (who he married after I'd left home) who in turn will leave it all to her kids and me and my brother will get nothing. Which pisses me off massively. I have no problem with him leaving it all to her, and it going on say, her care home fees. I don't even mind them splitting everything between her kids and us (she came into the relationship with nothing but she has looked after him for the last 20 years) but I know she will likely outlive him and then write us out. I also know my grandparents would have hated that to happen.

I suppose if it mattered to them where their estate went then they would make another will. Perhaps they may prefer their new partner to inherit - who knows?

Inheritance issues can bring out the worst in people.

Because when someone remarries and has no will, assets automatically go to new partner and in their own will, they can leave to their side of family.

So if someone is married for 20 years, feeling lonely and vulnerable and marries someone else, if they don't do a will and die a year later, new partner and their their kids can get estate

If people don’t make a will I assume it’s because they are happy for everything to go to their next of kin which in a marriage is your spouse.

I don’t have a will and it’s not because I’ve forgotten. It’s because I’m happy at the moment for my husband to inherit my assets. If we died at the same time in a car crash say, our children would naturally be joint beneficiaries.

If my situation got more complicated I would make a will but if people are happy with the idea of their wife/husband inheriting everything, they may not bother but it doesn’t mean they haven’t thought about it.

If you make your will properly and with good legal advice this can't happen.

At the end of the day, you can't expect someone to prioritise you and your family over themselves and their family.

I think a lot of people are either ignorant of the laws of inheritance and assume things will go the way they want, don't want to confront the realities of death or what their beloved partners are really like, or a mix of these things.

I'm married and hope to remain so, but I will never remarry, whatever happens. My estate is going to my children without question.

This isn’t so easy with a blended family though is it? In this case the OP’s dad could leave everything to the Step-mum, and she leave it to her own kids or friends and family if she has none. In this case there will be no ‘trickle down’ to the biological children.

I would never move in with someone or get married without protecting my child’s inheritance. People need to give more thought to it.

My dad inherited 80% of his brothers estate with remainder being. Split equally across his 8 nephews & nieces (including me). Arguably massively unfair but he left a letter with will detailing he’d done it to repay my mum and dad for caring for him over the past 15 years while he’s been unwell and for sorting out care for my grandfather prior to that.

None of the rest of the family much bothered to visit or help with jobs elderly relatives were struggling with and our family were not the only ones who could have. If my parents hadn’t done so much there wouldn’t have been an estate to leave as it would have almost all gone to a care home He never expected a financial reward for it and every other family member he and my mum helped out split their estate equally (most of them having very little money). To suggest my dad or any of our immediate family helped out extended family to get their money was pretty offensive. My dad was initially thinking of sharing it so it was more equally split between all the nephews & nieces but then some of them suggested he’d deliberately set out to deprive him and were really unpleasant about it and he just decided sod them and kept it. They in any case got more than would have been available without my parents having my uncle live with them for last few years of his life. I often wonder if it’s not the same with stepparents who are long term partners

Blended families are not a modern phenomenon. However, often everything would go to the eldest son in the case of an entail. The second wife and other children would be left with very little or nothing at all. A lot of Jane Austen revolves around this.

Everyone should sort their will out properly and let the family know what it contains so it isn't a surprise. It is foolish to leave it to the good will of the beneficiaries to be generous with those who weren't included.

Because people are on the whole selfish and greedy. This is why my money goes directly to my children, yes there are potential IHT implications but frankly I don't trust DP, sad as that sounds.

Everyone's circumstances are different. In 3 of the situations I know about personally, the second spouse was a much younger person, clearly taking advantage of an older, vulnerable, lonely person who was ignorant of the need to make a new will on marriage. One new wife literally put the teenaged children out of the house. Everyone saying their partner won't marry again cannot be sure of that.

Isn’t it perfectly normal for someone to leave everything to their wife/husband/partner in the first instance? Surely any children get what’s left when the partner dies.
That’s what we’re doing. We’re gifting our children a lump sum when we downsize but thereafter, the surviving partner will receive everything. If there’s anything over when they’ve gone, the kids will receive that.

Standard, I’d have thought.