Wills and Inheritance - Minors

[SultansOfSwing]

This is going to sound rather unpleasant and unfair but here goes...
DH has a daughter from a previous marriage. Daughter is 13 and they are now mostly estranged. Without going into it, she is exceptionally difficult (verbally and physically abusive, damaged cars and smashed windows etc) and although he has tried his best, she does not want to know him or her siblings. The house she lives in with her mum and her DH is mortgage free and the daughter will be the sole beneficiary of that house when the mum eventually passes. DH was the one who paid off the mortgage when they divorced with a view of his daughter would be provided for with the house.
We have a mortgage on our house and we have children together. We are going to update our wills and set things out formally. DH wants to leave a set amount of money only to the daughter in his will, and does not want her to have a share of our home as she will benefit from her mother's home that he paid off for them. I agree to this as our DCs will be the beneficiaries of our home. However, when I mentioned this to the solicitor they told me that minors will benefit regardless of if you state they are not to benefit. I am not sure if I misunderstood but how can this be? Why should one child get a whole house plus a share of another and money / assets when the other children share a house of lesser value and get significantly less? It makes no sense to me. Sorry, it must sound very cruel.

I would be thinking that all of dh's 50% should be split equally between all his children. Otherwise she will feel like the odd one out. I don't see what her behaviour has to do with anything. She is still his child.

Where are you? The law is different depending on which part of the UK you live in.

I don't think you're in the UK are you?

Assuming you are in England or Wales she will be able to challenge the will and be awarded more if she can establish that reasonable financial provision has not been made for her from that will. Lots of circumstances would be taken into account when assessing this. The amount your DP is considering leaving her may or may not be considered reasonable.

My friend had similar. Her dp took out life insurance to benefit his first dc to even it up.

You could write a will now and then change or update it when she turns 18.

You could write a will now and then change or update it when she turns 18

If the OP is in Scotland that may not help. Under Scottish law it is not possible to disinherit your children, regardless of their ages. They are not entitled to a share in any land or property but they are entitled to a share in the rest of the estate.

If he paid the other house off surely your dc will benefit from that also?

No, the other child is an only child on maternal side and the house is in the name of the mother and she will get that house that my DH paid off when they divorced. He does not want to disinherit her as such, just not to gain from the house we live in as she gets her mum's house. Why give one child a whole house plus a share of the other when our children get a smaller percentage between them for our house. To us, it does not seem fair.

Behaviour was mentioned in a previous post - the daughter is violent, she lies, she steals, she has cost us a fortune in repairs for damage she has caused and even makes malicious calls to police about him which are disproven every time (things like making up that he has hit her when he was actually at work and could be proven he had not seen her that week let alone hit her).

We live in Cornwall, so Scottish law won't apply.

It does seem odd OP.

My understanding of your post is that
You have a house together worth (say) £200,000 and 2 children, A and B.
You would like A and B to get 50% each on death, £100,000 each.

The ex-wife also has a house (again for example) £200,000
The daughter C will get 100% of that (£200,000)

But you have been told that the daughter will/should/might also get 1/3 of your house which leaves
A with £66,000
B with £66,000
C with £266,000

As you are in England your DH can do whatever he wants in his will. However, the daughter (or her mother on her behalf) can make a claim under the Inheritance Act, arguing that the will he has not made reasonable provision for her. That does not necessarily mean she will get a share of the house. However, the courts will not assume that she will inherit from her mother. After all, her mother may change her will and disinherit her.

We are going down the road that my husband's 50% of our house will be split between his 3 children. My half will be solely for our son. This is because my stepchildren will also benefit from their mothers will.

He can state in the will that he made reasonable provision for his DD during his lifetime and mention the house.

His DD may never inherit anything from her mother. What if the Mother's home is sold to pay for Care and there's nothing left? What if she falls out with her Mother and is disinherited by her? What if the Mother remarries and gives her new husband the house on her death?

If your DH was to die before his ex, then his DD could end up with nothing in your scenario. How would that be right?

Dd's mother is already married is my reading of the first post, so yes she may decide to leave her dh the house - and as other pp have said there's the possibility of care home fees, bankruptcy, estrangement, etc. (Though predeceasing the spouse is perhaps the most likely reason for a dc not inheriting anything)

Basically as pp have said you can never be sure that a dc will inherit from anyone, until they have!

The issue is that your dh cannot insist that the mother leaves the house to the daughter, she could leave it to her dp, donkeys, cats whatever so the courts will disregard this. That said you can put what you like in your will

It's very early to be thinking of these things now. By the time DDs mother dies, DD could be middle aged. And many things could have happened by then. The house could be long gone, mother could have sold it, spent all the money and died a pauper. Or married and left the house to her husband. You should make your wills to be fair now , not imagining what DDs mother is going to do.

If he leaves her the equivalent of the child maintenance he would have paid then surely that would count as adequate provision?

If you are worried talk to a solicitor about what you can do to protect your children from losing out in your will. In Australia you can set up trusts to protect assets. Not sure how it works in England.

It seems very unfair to treat his first DD differently to your DC on the basis that "she will inherit her mother's house". If she's only 13 now, her mum will presumably have a long time left to live. What if she remarries and dies without making a will, meaning that her new husband would inherit? Or what if she does make a will and decides to leave it to her new husband? Or develops a gambling problem and loses her house? Or needs care and the house has to be sold to pay for it?

You simply cannot make assumptions about what his DD will get from her mother. Behaviour aside, she is his child just the same as your DC and they should all be treated equally, unless your DH wants his first DD to feel less valued/loved by him than her siblings, in which case what you propose will probably achieve that outcome.

Without knowing the detail, it's difficult to comment fairly on her behaviour issues, but it is not normal for a 13 year old to want no contact with her dad and half siblings and I wonder if perhaps that and her behavioural issues stem from already feeling unloved and "less than". Poor kid sounds troubled. She is only 13.

She's only 13, and you've both written her off. Hideous.

Your husband's assets should be split equally between all of his children, including her.

How old was she when her parents broke up?

it's actually an interesting question and I think the key point has been made a few times by posters - you cannot possibly predict what will happen to the first house. Maybe she will get left it all, maybe the mother needs it sold to pay for her care and there's nothing, maybe the mother disinherits her.

And on that basis, all his children should be treated equally and should get an equal share of your house.

I can see it being challenged in court if the first house wasn't available to her to inherit and then your dh has left nothing to her in all his 'current' assets