Inheritance

[tigertummy]

Hi there,

This is a bit morbid but I wonder if anyone could tell me what happens in this scenario

A man has 3 children. 1 from a previous marriage and 2 by his current wife. If he dies first and she inherits everything where do things stand for his first child?

Thanks in advance

Nothing happens. The wife inherits unless otherwise stated in his will.

He needs a will.

Whatever he's stipulated in his will or are you asking assuming he hasn't made one?

All goes to the current wife unless there is a will in place

Is this in England?

And is the first child financially dependant on the man?

It depends on whether the man has made a will. If he has the will applies.

If he has no will then the rules of intestacy apply. If there is a surviving spouse then they inherit unless the estate is over a certain value - in which case the children inherit a portion. See citizens advice.

Actual no. I'm in the same situation and according to my solicitor my ds has a claim under the Provision for dependents Act. Ds is under 18 and in full time education.

You need to speak to a solicitor.

If he doesn’t have a will it will got to his wife.
We have this problem at the moment with my in-laws.
Mil remarried and fil has four dc from his two other marriages. They haven’t made a will 🙄 complicated by the fact mil still owns half of fils house, as they didn’t sort this in divorce.

When the man divorced his exW took her share of the assets.
If this child is an only child they inherit from the mum.
The New wife has maybe a house she and the Dad financed between them, the wife should get her home and not be made to move at such a time.
The Dad then owns half the assets of the new marriage, so could leave 1st child what a mounts to a 1/3 of this, but to me it would depend on the relationship if they never spoke I would just except the wife to inherit everything.

If he dies first and she inherits everything where do things stand for his first child?

If he dies without a will, his wife inherits and the first child will get nothing.

If he dies with a will that says his wife inherits everything then the first child will get nothing.

If he dies with a will that says his wife inherits e.g. the right to live in a property until her death but upon death his children get equal shares of his 50% of the house then that should happen.

There are 101 ways a first child can not be forgotten in a parent’s will, but the parent must make a tight legal will and also make their first child aware of it and set up with a solicitor.

A lot of times the children from a first marriage are just disinherited by the second marriage. My DH was.

This has happened to me!

My mum and dad divorced, mum got together with another man who had two kids. I have a brother. They wrote a will which stipulated that when 1 does the other gets the full amount but when they die it'll split between the 4 children equally. My mum died first, my step dad has just died and it's following the plan as set in their wills - so the key is to write a proper will with a solicitor to ensure it's correct

If the man and second wife haven’t made wills then when he dies the wife gets the first £270,000 plus half of anything above that, with the remains going to his children in equal shares. However if the majority of his assets consist of a house owned jointly with his wife that will pass to her as well.

On her death, assuming she hasn’t remarried, everything will go to her children, and nothing to her stepchildren.

It depends on the age of the first child: if still dependent a will leaving everything to wife 2 can be challenged. But if a will had been made a competent lawyer will have strongly advised to take account of the needs of child 1.

It depends where you are. The laws surrounding inheritance are different in Scotland and England, for example.

Many people seem to make wills where everything passes to spouse 2 on the understanding that spouse 2 will then act fairly to their children and late spouse’s children. However in every single case I know of amongst my friends the step parent had not honoured this and they have inherited nothing.

Men in particular seem to carelessly disinherit their first children on remarriage. Possibly because they often remarry a younger woman and tend to die earlier anyway.

The only way children of a former partnership can be protected is if the parent leaves them money there and then, or leaves them a share of property whilst wife 2 is allowed to stay in it until she dies.

Some of the posts on here are incorrect.

Assuming they are in England or Wales, if he dies without a will his wife will inherit the first £270k of his estate. The remainder of the estate is divided in two. Half would be split between the three children equally, his wife would have a life interest in the other half which would then be split between his children when she dies.

If he makes a will and leaves everything to his wife, his first child may have a claim under the Inheritance Act. A claim is unlikely to succeed if the first child is no longer dependent on father. The wife's will decides what happens when she dies. If father wants to ensure that his eldest inherits something, he should write a will giving his wife a life interest in part of his estate with it passing to his eldest when she dies.

You are all so so so helpful! Thank you. I'm so grateful! He has a will but I've looked at it and it's not clear to me if there's anything stipulated other than everything goes to his wife. The children are all adults.

@NoSquirrels you mentioned there are lots of ways the 1st child could inherit - could you tell me some please?

See the reply from prh47bridge, just prior to your last post.
You've got some free legal knowledge from a properly qualified poster!

I’m not a lawyer, OP, so I’m not really qualified to say. But a properly drawn up will can leave money to anyone, it just needs a solicitor who knows what they’re doing and the person making the will to want it to happen and communicate their intentions clearly.

If the person in question has already died and the will just says Wife 2 Shall Inherit then I’m afraid there’s not much you can do if the estate is under a certain value as more knowledgeable PPs have said.

Depends on joint assists aswrll

The key question is whether they were in England. The rules are crucially different in Scotland (and most of the rest of Europe).

Is a will writer just as good ? Is it necessary to have a solicitor ?

Will writers are not regulated in the way solicitors are, so you have less protection if things go wrong. They may not be full legally qualified.

Having said that, @mumblechum0 is, IIRC, an ex-solicitor who now works as a will writer and has received a lot of recommendations from Mumsnet users.

Thanks , our will writer is part of a solicitors firm

Thanks everyone!

What if he changed his executers and trustees to include his wife and all 3 children?

That would make no difference whatsoever.

As his will leaves everything to his wife, what happens to it when she dies is entirely down to her will. If she chooses to cut his first child out of her will that child would not inherit anything. The executors of his will do not have any power to alter her will or force her to leave part of her estate to the first child. Similarly, the executors do not have any power to alter his will. The mother, as sole beneficiary, can alter his will after he dies if she wants regardless of who is acting as executor, but no-one can force her to do so.

If he is capable of changing his will to appoint different executors, he is capable of changing it in other ways. If he wants to ensure that his first child inherits he needs to alter his will so that his wife gets a life interest in some of his estate rather than inheriting it outright. His will can then dictate what happens to that part of his estate when she dies.

Executors are just people who execute the wishes of the deceased I.e. they carry out the instructions in the will.

Trustees are different - a trust would need to be set up and this is specialist stuff.

Beneficiaries are the people who inherit - do you mean that?

I think you’ll need to start a thread being clear about what is in the will that you want to change- what the outcome is you need. It doesn’t work to do ‘general advice’ when situations can be so different.