My aunt did a weird thing, or it seemed bizarre to me.
She had two children, one of whom had three children, the other two.
The money was split in half, so half went to each side. However, she split the money equally on each side between child and grandchildren.
So one of the siblings had to share their money with three children and the sum was split four ways, while the other only had to share with their two children. So one child, who’d had more children and had struggled more, got less than the other child.
Always seemed a bit unfair to me. I can see if both children had got the entire inheritance, half and half, the grandchildren would eventually have likely got less on the side with three children, but I can’t imagine effectively penalising one of my children for having had more children.
To me, it’s better to treat both your children equally and the easiest way to do that is to give them half the money, then leave it up to them whether they share it with the grandchildren. Occasionally there may be reason to do something different, such as if one child is incapable of caring for themselves, for example.
I can also see that giving grandchildren something to get them started is a nice gesture, but I feel if you can afford to do it before you die, so setting up a trust or whatever, that’s probably better as then, it isn’t part of the estate. If there’s one thing I don’t want, it’s to create ill-feeling between my children when Igo.