Advice re will please

[alma123]

I always thought making a will would be easy. My money goes to DH, his money would come to me. When both of us die, money would go to DC.

However, I have recently experienced a family member losing out on an inheritance because their father remarried and then when the father died, his new wife inherited everything.

I want to ensure my DC aren't cut out of a will because DH might remarry at some point if I die. I broached this with DH but he just doesn't see eye to eye with me at all on this although he couldn't rule out that he might get remarried if I die. He thinks I don't trust him to do the right thing by the DC.

I just don't know what to do about it but I feel I can't leave my money to him unless I can be sure it would end up with the DC.

Any advice please?

There are clauses that you can put in preventing money going to a remarriage. Mumblechum does wills at a really good price she has an ad in classifieds and I'm sure will be along in a minute to advise you on this.

Tada! 2 minutes, my radar must be faulty!

Thanks for the plug LoneCat, I'm not allowed to send a link to my advert any more, so it's much appreciated.

OP, the safest way to ensure that, even if the survivor of you did remarry/change your will to leave everything to the dogs home, is to write in a Life Interest Trust to cover your home.

Rather than the usual wording, giving everything to one another, the trust states that you are giving your beneficial interest in the property to your trustees (your husband can be one, but I'd advise that you have another two), to hold on trust for the benefit of your children until the first to occur of:

1. Your husband's death
2. His remarriage

I usually write in a portability clause so that, in the event that the surviving spouse decides to downsize, they can do so. You can specify what would happen with any excess from the sale of the original property. The trust would also set out other terms, for example who pays for the maintenance and insurance of the property.

If the house is held as joint tenants then the tenancy needs to be severed so that it's held as tenants in common, otherwise the life interest trust won't work. Severing the tenancy is very straightforward, but it must be registered at the Land Registry.

There are other options, but a life interest would seem the obvious solution to at least part of the problem.