Wills - Who are you leaving your estate to?

[Cosmication]

I need to create a will but I'm not sure who to leave my money to. If I died now, it wouldn't be much, but if I died in older age then it might be a lot more. I have several siblings, and 2 nieces and my mum is still alive too. I have a partner that doesn't live with me who is much wealthier than I am but it would be strange to leave him out. Also keen to leave at least some to charity. Do I just leave it all to the nieces? Or shall I split it equally between my siblings? Do I include my mum and partner or is that unusual? I'm also considering friends. I'm not sure what percentage to allocate to each. As you can tell I'm just confused. I want it to feel fair and reasonable. Any inspiration welcome.

Just to make clear - I'm really only interested to hear back from people that don't have children.

You can update your will at any time. So whoever you think at the moment, you want your estate to go to, you can select.
You can also write it so it’s: person A, but in the event they are dead, Person B. Which future proofs it a little.
Just seen your update. So for me, it’s to my partner, providing he survives me by 30 days. And if not, my cash & assets excluding the house go to my Sister. And the house goes 50:50 between mine and his sister. And his is mirrored.
The 30 days was because we travel everywhere & if there was an accident I didn’t want his sister getting everything and mine being left with nothing, just because we died in an odd order.

How old are you? Personally I would leave everything to my sister and then allow her to distribute as she saw fit. If you want charities too you can leave a legacy (specific amount) or spilt that reminder (residuary) for them. I wouldn't leave money to a partner I didn't live with or my mum unless I knew I was dying. Just my thoughts though.

Split between husband and sister if they outlive me. All to either if only one outlives me. If I am last one standing it'll be split between some cat and dog charities.

Everything to my DP and if he's predeceased me to two charities. Most of my family are gone so I'd much rather it went to a good cause

I made up a Will last year. I sold the family home and am now renting, so I found myself with decent money for the first time. Figured i really should do a Will.

I have one sister but we dont get on, so I didn't want to leave her anything. I've chosen my partner of 2yrs who I don't live with, to receive 60% of my assets. The other 40% is for charity.

I can change my Will at any time for a small fee, but I'm happy with my choices for now.

My nephew. As my sister and I will share my parents estate (both 50) so better to pass it younger.
partner will gets sone if we buy together but not done that yet.

I dont have a will so currently everything will go to my mum (which is fine). When I get round to making one, it'll be divided between my nephews and nieces and bypassing siblings.

For your partner I would think it'd be more pertinent and relevant to bequeath him something personal as a memento. Agree it would be unkind to leave him unmentioned.

Everything is being split equally between all my nephews and nieces, with a few specific £cash gifts to charities (rather than %, as I heard too many horror stories about how charity lawyers behave)

Simple as that. I also have a letter of wishes with more practical information for my executor (funeral preferences and the like, amongst other more general stuff)

Everything goes to a friend, then her daughter. If neither are alive then it all goes to a specific animal charity as an end stop. No family and I don’t want it ending up with the crown.

I need to update mine but current thinking is some to friends and charity and my brother with balance to DH. Provision that if DH goes first the balance to my brother.
Ideally I would leave more to niblings but it would mess up benefits for two. Have considered trust arrangements but that just leaves someone having to do admin.

I've heard similar about charities being difficult. If leaving them a portion it's probably best to make it either a set amount, or a percentage of the cash or other fixed-value assets they can't quibble about rather than the overall value of the estate.

Yeah, I’ve heard about the trusties of any charity left assets in a will having a duty to hassle about realising the assets quickly. Especially if you have needed to finance yourself in a card home, so assets are somewhat run down, I would be sorry to have a charity in the mix.

mine is left to DH then niece/nephew.
DH is fifteen years older than me so …. I’m expecting to make some provision for his DS(s) of what he would have left if it were not for me and to niece/nephew which will include inheritance from my family only.

With mine, siblings inherit a fixed percentage if they survive me, the remainder is split equally between all my nieces and nephews

Husband and if he goes before me then my local cat charity. I’m an only child so no siblings/nieces/nephews etc

Personally, my objective is to spend my last 50p and ten seconds before I shuffle.

Realistically, whatever remains when I actually shuffle will go to niece and god children.

DH, or Nieces and Nephews from both sides. I have updated it as time has gone on - originally it was parents, then siblings, now the next generation, as siblings have enough.
Plus some to favourite charities.

But as @HappiestSleeping says, my goal is to leave nothing, but if I can I would gift something to them while living.

Small amounts to charities then half to sibling who is also childless and half to children in extended family.

I have no kids, spouse, parents, and sibling died early. I hope to spend it all but if I go early or suddenly and If I die when employed my estate could total c.500k+ before IHT so…
3 chunks to godchildren
3 chunks to cousins kids
2 chunks to niece (inc my late sibling’s share)
4 charity chunks - 2 hospices who cared for my parents, one to research into the illness that killed my sibling as it’s woefully funded, and one to my local mountain rescue team which is a small one and also needs funds.
Best mate is my executor, has been told to get a lawyer on board paid for my the estate and not do it all herself, and her kids are the godkids beneficiaries.

I have thought about this a lot!!

I have kids but we made our first will pre the kids and (other than shoving them in) things haven’t really changed things since then.

Everything to Dh if he outlives me by 30 days. Then kids. Then siblings. If siblings don’t outlive us then to nephews and nieces. Step Nephew included as he has been in our lives since he was a toddler. Nothing to parents as both sets are very comfortable so it would just mean more to pay inheritance tax on.

Debating whether to move from siblings to nephews and nieces at the moment. One sibling definitely doesn’t need the money. One doesn’t need but would undoubtedly like it. One maybe needs but not sure and I this is on Dh’s side of the family so they do not communicate effectively! So probably won’t change it. Also nieces and nephews range in age from 29 to 8 so hard to work out whether it is a good thing or not to give them the money. It would be quite a lot as we are very well insured so feels a bit risky to give 8 year old that sort of sum to get on his 18th birthday.

Currently parents, then only sibling, then nieces, then cousins if some freak accident has taken everyone else. Sibling's spouse gets a lump sum. No charities at the moment.

The OP specifically said she was looking to hear from people without kids…. 🙄

I was the executor recently for a relative who had no children.

They left half to the children of friends, who were sort-of like nieces and nephews to them.

The other half was split between three local causes that they supported - not big charities as they'd been put off by the stories of them hassling people - a small hospice, an allotment association and a scout group (they were particularly delighted!).

And for over 10 years Dh and I were a child free couple who spent a lot of time thinking about our will and who we should leave our money to. (I work in insurance - at 22 I was worth nothing alive but a fuck of a lot dead.)

My Will before having my own kids - DP beneficiary on work death in service and pension. Everything else was split between my nephews and nieces, in trust until age 25. My siblings would have also received a token amount, enough for a family holiday or the like.