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.

DH, niece and 2 children of a cousin.

Nothing to charity as I have heard horror stories of harrassnent.

Most of it half & half between my niece & nephew, with a legacy to the small local cat rescue I’m involved with & some personal stuff to my sister.

Although since niece & nephew are unlikely to really need it, I’m thinking about expanding the part left to the rescue - especially since according to the adoption contract, my cat will go back into their care.

DH and I have mirror wills leaving everything to each other and then the survivor leaves 40% to DH’s sister, 40% to my uncle, 10% split between DH’s three nephews and 10% to my best friend.

Currently everything goes to my mother, with it going to charities if she dies before me.

I’m not really happy with that as there aren’t any charities I like that much, but I don’t have any close family and the only person I’d consider leaving money to other than my mother is the child of a friend, but that might be a bit weird.

I do have an adult dd but if she pre deceased me , my fairly sizeable estate goes to 2 charities. Nothing to nieces, nephews, great nieces or adult step children. Ive recently updated my will.

It really depends on the relationship you have with all of those people, and how long you want the will to last. You can make provisions to eg split it 50% to your mum and 50% distributed equally between your siblings, nieces and a charity.

It’s all going to various, mainly animal charities. (Besides my funeral, necessary fees etc)

Nieces and nephews
Charities

In no universe could I leave a penny to charity - waste of assets and awful
for living family.

Friends & next gen down, always.

plan is to die with hardly anything but in the event I fail to spend all my money

DH
best friend
charities

one sister will inherit everything from DM, other has plenty of money and my niece will inherit from her/4 sets grandparents

Similar predicament - no kids, worth c £1.5m, currently everything goes to my partner.
I have parents, a brother I don’t speak to who has a wife and they have a grown up child together. My parents are wealthy so my brother will 100% inherit from them if anything happens to me. I plan to spend as much as I can. Not keen on leaving to charities as management seems to cream off a lot of money for very little work.

How old are your nieces? I wouldn't leave it all to them if they are young, but maybe if they are age 28+ and looking to settle down then leave them enough to put down a deposit (one of my school friends inherited over £200k age 18 and had nothing left two years later, plus had to drop out of his degree as all the money had gone on drugs and parties so I'm vary wary of young people getting too much too soon!). Otherwise I'd leave the nieces a small sum, your partner the same and/or something personal, and everything else equally between siblings

leave your estate to your nieces.

If you want to leave anything to charity leave a set amount, not a percentage of your estate. Your lawyer will tell you it's more tax efficient to leave a percentage but charities are notorious for dragging probate out for years.

You don't live with your partner and if he's wealthy he doesn't need your money anyway. You could leave him, your sister, mother, friends etc a keepsake.

Don't forget to update your will if your circumstances change.

My sibling will be given free reign over any items that she wants from my belongings. And will probably also leave them 10% of the value of my estate/assets.

Will give a small chunk to the kids of a close friend. Not a huge amount, as they will definitely benefit from their parents estate, but would like them to receive something from me.

In the meantime, being child free and single, I plan on eking out every last penny from my assets. I’ll probably equity release at some point, take the 25% tax free portion of my pension. I want to enjoy my final years, not hoard it for anyone else to enjoy! Won’t be frivolous spending, will be for my final car, fixing things round the house etc.

Oh, I will definitely be earmarking some for a local cat charity, but it will be a specified amount not a percentage.

Issues with charities being greedy and holding up probate can arise if you leave a percentage of your estate. No problems if you leave a lump sum instead of a percentage. But there are tax implications so definitely talk to a solicitor and make sure you understand the implications of both options.
I changed my will to a lump sum when I realised the problems that could arise from greedy charities and beneficiaries potentially having to wait years for their share.

At the moment, husband first then split between siblings. 40 years hence (when I hope it happens!) firstly I don’t intend to leave anything, I
am determined not to be one of those people who lives in poverty counting every penny and then leaves tons of inheritance, that’s another bonus of being child free as I see it, no obligation to leave anything behind.

I’d like to pick a specific project, maybe fund something for one of the schools I’ve worked in. Although the fantasy is to go full eccentric Brewster’s Millions style and leave the most batshit will going - make people earn it! I think that would be fun to write, even if just in my head :-)

I have lots of nieces and nephews but have only included a few of them in my will, basically the ones I’m close to and have a good relationship with. There are others I don’t see from one year to the next, have no relationship with and would struggle to pick out of a line up, as they would me, so I’m certainly not leaving them any of my hard-earned assets. I’ve also included two very close friends. And I’ve made bequests to two small charities very close to my heart.

To DH in the first instance then if that fails niblings, they're all adults and most of them are on my side but DH has agreed not to change that if I go first. The nieces and nephew on his side have inherited from two sets of grandparents whereas none of mine have and I've always contributed equally.

Then again, as others have said, I intend to piss it up the wall and I may even take up smoking again!

Currently split between my siblings, may change to DP

Godchildren - all 4 of them are young(ish) adults, so the money would be useful for them!

My two brothers, although one may soon be in a home, with some for my niece. I will leave a special ring to my niece. I will leave some stained glass I have made to two friends. Then a set amount to a children's charity.
When people say siblings does that also include any spouse, I wouldn't want to completely exclude my sister in law.

We recently married in order to answer the question of inheritance. But if my DH dies first, and if everyone in my family who's older then me dies before me, then I'll only have 1 estranged nephew and some distant cousins with whom I'm not in contact. It seems weird to be that they should inherit from me, so my current thinking is to leave my estate equally amongst my friends.

DH has five siblings and I have none, so I think we are likely to give most of our stuff (including the flat) to them. Idk if we would do equal splits but maybe that is best to avoid drama. The sentimental stuff is unlikely to be worth a lot but I think his brothers would want our figurines/vintage consoles!

We don't have much other than the flat and our stuff right now in our 30s 😂 but I am keen on getting our wills done because you never know and DH has health conditions that aren't very stable at times. If DH dies before me I think I would still do the same, as I don't have any family of my own to give to really. If they don't want to keep all our crap and decide to sell I would request that they set aside some as a donation to Crohn's and Colitis UK.

We have it 100% to the surviving spouse, but on second death: 50% amongst siblings / 50% amongst nieces and nephews.

For those worried about charity pressure - just leave a charity money, but don't tell them - there is no way that they will then know until probate has taken place (and the money is ready to divvy up) = no pressure.

Of far more importance esp. if no children - is to think about who will be executor. Having just done this for my father's estate (which was a simple 100% to my mother), it is far more complex and more work than you might expect. Using a solicitor - the cost varies, but then can charge 3-4% of the estate - bear in mind that it is becoming more common to have estates above £1m due to house prices and you are in for a £40k+ bill. If you don't appoint executors (or they say no thank you), then those benefiting from the will can step up as administrators (not ideal if the beneficiaries are under-age children!) otherwise you might end up with court appointed administrators of the estate... any way you look at it, better to be prepared ahead of time...

That's a hefty percentage. I got a solicitor to do my dad's estate, and had the choice of a fixed fee or 1.2%. (And they found a lost investment account that was worth slightly more than the fee, so I was very glad I'd gone for the professional option!).