Quick qu re. wills and leaving money / assets to a minor

[MamehaSan]

DH and I have got an appointment with our solicitor to get our wills updated now that we have a DC to consider. I am just trying to get the bullet points of what we want reflecting in the wills, to save thinking time at the actual appointment.

In summary, I think we're going to say that we'll each leave our share of the house (tennants in common) and all of our other assets (cash, investments, etc) to the other spouse.

In the event of us both of our deaths, we want eveything to pass to our DS(1). I presume that the money etc will need to be held in trust for him until he reaches 18? And that we'll need to state who we want as trustees and who should look after him?

Is there anything else we need to consider, or is that it?

TIA

Mine is held in trust till DD is 25 her trustees can use it for her benefit, but she can't spend it wildly.

If you have significant assets it might be worth seeing about protecting something for your DC's eventual inheritance in the event that one spouse dies and the other remarries and/or has more children.

Also, miserable topic to think about, but consider what happens if all three of you die together, say in a car crash. Our wills specify our wishes then (as we'd already written wills before we had kids we just continued that).

Thank you both, a bit more for us to think about.

Something that DH and I have just been talking about is who we get to look after DC if we both die. I understand that if it isn't specified in the will, the courts decide. Does anyone know if it's possible to say in a will that DC's trustees will decide, rather than naming individuals now? The reason being that I have two siblings (who we will ask to be the trustees). Depending on their family circumstances at the time it may be better for one or the other of them to take on our DC, and we would prefer to leave them this latitude to decide (fwiw, we trust them both implicitly).

MamehaSan,

You do need to specify guardians in the will, however I suggest that rather than just appoint one, you appoint several guardians.

I'm a will writer and frequently this is the one thing which people get stuck on; few have a perfect guardian waiting in the wings and so I normally recommend that they appoint several guardians who will decide between them who would be best placed to have the day to day care of the children. This will depend largely on the children's ages and educational stage.

The questions I normally ask my clients (as in your OP you were asking for guidance are:

(obv full names, addresses, dob and I check their ID)

1. who is financially dependent on them and therefore may have a claim against their estate

1. Whether they own any property abroad

1. Whether they own their own limited company

1. Their residence and domicile status for tax

1. A rough idea of their assets to work out potential IHT liability (death in service, life insurance and pensions fall outside the estate so don't count)

1. I give advice about IHT depending on 5 above

1. Whether they wish to make any gifts of personal possessions to anyone

1. As above for specific sums of cash.

1. Who they want to appoint as executors and trustees

10. Who they want as guardians, and whether to have stand-ins as well. also whether they wish to state that the guardians encourage contact between the children and both sides of their extended family

11. Whether they want to say anything about funeral wishes

12. Whether they wish everything to go to one another with no strings attached, or to protect their share of the house by making a life interest trust (this prevents the second person's remarriage allowing the new spouse cutting out the children)

13. Assuming that on the second death, the joint estate goes to the children talking about what age the children should be when they inherit. Also touching on what happens if one of the children dies as an adult and leaves children before the client's death

14. Whether they wish to make a disaster clause to cover what would happen if they and their children died together.

15. Any other questions

Hope this helps!

Wow, thank you Mumble, that's so kind of you to post that. I'll go through it with DH this evening. I think most of our answers to your questions are fairly straightforward, it's just the guardians question that we will need to ponder. Like you said, who actually ends up taking in our DC will depend on lots of things, like his age at the time, whether DB or DSis have any similar aged children, whether they have space in whatever house they're in at the time, etc etc... We were trying to avoid having to make the decision now, for that very reason, but if naming both DB and DSis as guardians will allow them to make decisions at the time, that might be the best way forward. We'll discuss it with them and our solicitor of course!

Thanks once again for your verh helpful post

No problem! I write hundreds of wills every year so know the questions off by heart

Thanks for this, have been thinking about it this week. Do guardians/trustees etc have to be available to meet in real life? Just wondering as one possible lives in New Zealand.

silk stallings, no, they could make the arrangements remotely if necessary.

She's very good. I would add make sure if you have life insurance through work and also a pension that you fill out the form which leaves it in trust so it is not subject to inheritance tax.

Also I know someone whose wife was dying. She was worried her husband might spend her half of the house/money on a new wife or waste it and she wanted their children to continue at private schools.She left her half to her children in trust with her sister and mother as trustees to educate the children privately. Her husband was very good about it and felt it was the cancer which was stopping her fully trusting him but it does show that you may not always want to leave your half to your partner for his new wife to grab away from your children when she kills him off.

My parents appointed my uncle as guardian and he went off to Tasmania for 40 years so just as well they didn't die until we were grown up. I support the suggestion of several guardians just in case.

LL