DD's father is getting married and has a baby on the way... can I do anything for DD re: his will.

[felicitywits]

DD's father (we weren't married), is getting married, and his fiancee is pregnant.

He has fairly wealthy, elderly parents and is an only child.

He has previously said that he'd "make provision in his will", for DD should he get married. This was before he met his fiancee though. He has since said he 'doesn't see the need' for a will.

Obviously I can't sit him down and force him to write a will, nor to include DD in anything he does draw up.

He is considerably older than his fiancee, and has health problems.

As I understand it, all his assets etc will pass to his wife on his death. If he leaves her (either by dying intestate or through a will), everything, will DD be able to make a claim on his estate?

If he does through some miracle include DD in his will in his own right, what should I ask for?

Try a search for mumblechum1 she is a will solicitor, very nice and helpful and may be along to let you know...not sure what you can do though!

thankyou, I'll hope she comes along :)

And as if by magic, since it's Panto season, up pops Mumblechum!

OP, if your ex doesn't make a will, then his wife will inherit the first £250,000 of his estate and will have a life interest in the income from the rest of the capital. Your daughter and any other children of his will have an equal share in the other half of the capital, and when the wife dies, will get the the half which had been held in trust.

Therefore if you have any influence over him at all, I think you should try to persuade him to make some provision for your daughter.

If he makes a will but doesn't leave anything to your daughter, she can claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, and if she's still at that time in receipt of child maintenance from him, is very likely to succeed.

hooray! Thankyou so much!

Hmm. I doubt that DD will be under 18 when he does cark it - he's older and ill but not that old and ill iyswim.

Is there any guidance on what is 'fair'? I don't know if he's planning on having further children after this one is born. I doubt he'd think it was 'fair' that DD have an equal share, somehow.

If she's an adult will she have any recourse?

watching with interest as ds1 is in the same situation. his father has had 2 more children with new gf, who is, cough, only a few years older than ds1 and therefore could reasonably be expected to outlive him.

It's incredibly difficult to say, and I'm sorry I can't give you a scientifically formulated answer; there are so many variables in what is reasonable.

Certainly he has an obligation to support her whilst she's a minor, and if he popped off then she would have a strong claim, however once that's taken into account, anyone can leave their estate to anyone they choose, and she wouldn't automatically be entitled to a share.

The types of cases where courts find in favour of a deviation from a will are typically where the testator can be shown to have lacked capacity (ie didn't know what he was signing), was forced into signing against their will, or is likely to have intended to leave someone a gift but the will was incorrectly drawn up.

Bottom line, unfortunately, is that unless there is blatant unfairness, eg he leaves everything to the dogs home when his child is dying for lack of available medical treatment, "fair" doesn't always come into it. I've written plenty of wills where there are, say, 3 adult children and 1 is specifically excluded because they've fallen out with the testator.

Sometimes people who've been left out do succeed in getting a share, for example where they've acted to their detriment for the benefit of the testator, for example given up their job to care for them.

I think your best bet is gentle persuasion rather than anything else.

Are you able to take out life insurance on him? Is that even possible?

I doubt you can ask for anything really. Does he support his daughter?

He goes to great lengths to pay as little as possible in terms of child maintenance etc unfortunately

mumblechum1 thankyou very much - i might consider speaking to his parents (DD's gps), directly as they adore her and might be amenable to leaving her something directly?

thankyou. I will gently approach the subject with her father, but it looks like I shouldn't get my hopes up in any direction.