It's another inheritance one...

[Meudantte]

Mary is in her 80s. Her DH died 15 years ago.

Two children
Jane in her 60s with two grown up children.
Sarah who died a decade ago in her 50s. Left a widower and two grown up children.

Before Sarah's death Mary's will basically divided the estate 50/50 between 2 daughters with a small amount for each grandchild eg £5-10k

Since Sarah's death, Mary has made changes. 50% will now go to Jane, the remaining 50% will be divided equally between the grandchildren. Sarah's husband will also like get something too.

Sarah's children have somehow found out about this (not sure how) and aren't happy. They feel like they're not being treated fairly as the original 50% for Sarah is no longer coming to that part of the family, but a smaller share, while Jane still gets 50%.

Jane will be using her share as an extra pension as she's not got a great one. Sarah would have likely done the same so these sums were never going to be passed directly to grandchildren but obviously they would benefit indirectly.

Obviously Mary can do what she likes with her money but this is causing friction and interested in perspectives. Inheritance seems to always cause feuds.

So Jane's dc are getting half of what Sarah's inheritance would have been?
And Sarah's dc only get 25% between them.
That's not cool.

It doesn't strike me as very fair, but there is very little that can be done without causing further rifts.

What do you think should happen and do you have any influence with Mary?

It sounds like a sensible change to me. More importantly, it was her wishes for her money. The grown up GKs should be happy / feel lucky that they're getting any inheritance at all, really.

It's not very fair but agree there's not much to be done

Arguing over an inheritance when the person isn’t even dead is so grubby.

My mother died before my grandmother. My grandmothers will saw her estate split between her three children equally. As my mother was dead, her share was divided between me and my sister. I lost track of who's who in your op ..but I believe what happened in my situation was the correct thing to do

Yeah, I get why they'd be pissed off. What is the logic behind effectively discounting Sarah?

She could leave all of it to her remaining daughter. Arguing over an inheritance is awful, but doing it whilst the person is still alive is grabby. She can leave her money to whoever she wants and in any percentage

I'm not any of the parties in the post but close to a few of them and they've vented to me about situation. I feel like it's Mary's money and she wants to prioritise her only living child and make sure she has good retirement

It's up to Mary what she does. I think it would be fairer for Sarah's children to receive 'Sarah's' half, but only Mary gets to decide.

Yeah, they’re really “lucky” to have lost their mum while they were young 😢

Should be 50/50 between the children, therefore Sarah’s children should have her 50% divided between them. No other option is fair.

Has anyone spoken to Mary about the implications of her new Will, and how it makes Sarah's children feel?

I think half the problems are that people don't discuss their plans when they're around to explain their reasoning.

My brother died 7 years ago. When my mam died 2 years ago, her estate was still split 5 ways. My brother’s daughter got his share. I think that was right.

I think it should be split in 2.
50 to jane family
50 to Sarah family

Equal amounts between Jane and the grandchildren.

But that’s not equal shares.

If she hadn't written a will it would have gone 50% to living daughter and 50% split between the dead daughter's children. Living daughter's children would inherit from her in the future.

That's the fairest way, in my opinion. Those poor children lost their mum - they shouldn't lose out financially on top of that.

My will leaves everything to my two sons. If either of them predecease me and had children their share is split equally between their children (my grandchildren). If there are no grandchildren then my surviving son gets everything.

They’re technically right but morally wrong. They’ll get something now rather then an uncertain amount much later. And still have the uncertain amount depending on what their Dad leaves them.
Absolutely shitty to do anything other than mull about it privately though.

This is how wills are set up in general. If a child predeceases their parent their share flows down to the deceased’s children. The inheritance flows down to the other grandchildren via their parents. As said above it’s 50% to Janes family and 50% to Sarah’s. Ultimately, it’s Mary’s decision and quite frankly there may be nothing in the pot by the time she passes on. Personally, I think Mary should spunk the lot on cruises and living a fun and full life.

For context, Mary is most concerned with the welfare of her sole living child who is faced with a meagre retirement so she felt this was best approach for that reason.

All grandchildren already on housing ladder, no student loans so they are not in bad place financially.

I get what people are saying about what's fair on paper but these things are never that clear cut.

Sarah isn't here so can't take a share so the money has been redistributed. Seems sensible to me. Her children ought to shut up and think themselves lucky to get anything at all. Who do they think they are to feel entitled to someone else's money? Shameful behaviour.

Its pretty much what happened in my family. GPs had 4 daughters - 2 of whom died before them. Original plan was that inheritance was split 4 ways. The 2 surviving daughters got 25% each and then the grandchildren from the deceased daughters shared their own mothers 25%. My GF changed his will so that all the GC shared the remaining 50% between them even where their parents also inherited. So in my case, instead of 12.5% I inherited 5%. My cousins were very unhappy they got 5% instead of 6.25% though. It was not a big estate.

Further context, each grandchild already received £12k each from Mary's deceased sister who was childless and died 2 years ago.

Jane and Mary got a similar amount in that will also

Well quite. But apparently it's ok that they're being grubby and greedy because they lost their mum earlier than they should have.