How often should you update your will? And what is fair re dividing the estate?

[Wigeon]

Not sure whether it's worth DH and me updating our wills. They were made 10 years ago, pre-DC, but did have clauses about if we had DC. They don't mention who would look after the DC if we die. There are also some out of date bits in them (eg our address, and talking about a beneficiary reaching her 18th birthday and she is now over 18).

There's another question about fairness. The wills currently say that if there are no children, and we both die, the estate is divided in equal thirds between DH's two siblings and my one sibling. Is that fair, or would it be fairer to be divided 50-50 between my side of the family and his - so his siblings would get 25% each and my sister would get 50%.

This is rather theoretical, because we DO have DC now, so this clause would only come into affect if we all died together, but looking at the wills again it has made me wonder...

Does your will state who should have your DC in the event of your death? Do we need to update the out of date bits? What's fair re the division between our siblings? Thoughts welcome.

Yes but what happens when the spouse challenges that mumblechum? FIL left a clause (until beneficiaries reached 21) in several trusts to his second wife but she legally challenged them and negotiated a life interest in everything.

DrT without knowing all the ins and outs of that particular case, inc the parties' assets, income, & lots of other info I can't say why the court made that decision.

Certainly part of the skill of drafting a will is to take into account all potential beneficiaries' claims under the 1975 Act, and advise of the risks/benefits of cutting them out or giving them something to make litigation less likely.

It will be interesting to see if my children's father did his prenup and new will this summer as his aim is that his 5 children inherit (not his new wife) or if he splits he and his new wife each go back to how they were - they each have a property although his is worth more and he has more savings. Whether and how they achieved that I don't know. Time will tell. They both work full time and new children will not be an issue.

(As it's basically my money - his divorce settlement from me - I feel I have a vested interest although in law I have none at all)