A question of wills....

[Vinomcstephens]

since DP and I are not married (we have no DC) we've got mirror wills, very simple stuff. If I die, everything goes to DP and on his death, the estate (sounds very grand, we've certainly not got much!) is split equally between my family and his. And vice versa if he dies first. So far so good.

But if, say, I die, and everything goes to DP, and he then meets someone else, could he then create a new will which leaves everything to her? I.e. My family is cut out completely? Or would my original will still stand, meaning when he dies, he could leave his share of the estate to his new partner, but my half still goes to my family?

This makes it sound like I imagine DP would be off meeting new women within 30 minutes of me dying which is not the case at all, I just think since we've finally got our arses in gear and got wills sorted, we should make sure they end up doing what we want them to!

Hope this makes sense, any advice very much appreciated!

Yes, if you die and everything goes to him he can do with it as he wishes.

Ok, I'd best warn him I'll come back and haunt him if he changes anything if I die first thanks

The only way to avoid this would be to appoint trustees to hold your estate after your death. You could then give your DP a life interest in the trust (meaning he'd get the benefit during his lifetime) and then the remainder to your family upon DP's death.

A solicitor could advise you of the various powers you could give to your trustees e.g. whether they had absolute discretion to give DP income or capital or whether you wanted to limit their discretion.

HTH.