How to achieve this in a will?

[LakieLady]

My DP died intestate 3 weeks ago and left me in the shit financially. I'm determined that when I go, things will be tied up as neatly as possible so that whoever is my executor has minimal hassle.

The only asset will be a mortgage-free house, there are no significant savings or anything. My only close relative is my brother, who has a house paid for and savings, and is on disability benefits. There's no point in leaving him a significant amount of money.

DP has a son and a granddaughter. His DS is no longer in a relationship with DGD's mother, but we are still close to her and see her a lot. She is a great mum, a lovely young woman, and is in a shitty rented property with no garden. She doesn't stand to get any big inheritance (she has 2 sisters, her parents live in a very modest house and aren't well off).

His son is already well set up, he inherited a 6-figure trust fund at 21, has his own house with a small mortgage and a lodger. His mother, DP's ex, is a millionaire, with at least 2 properties worth £1.6m, she has recently sold a building plot for around £300k, will get £100k from a life policy she had on DP, has a profitable business, and will inherit a significant amount (probably around £500k) on her father's death (subject to him not needing care long term and he's 83 or 84). We expect that all her wealth will go to DSS as he is her only child.

We talked at some length about making wills, and what we both wanted was some arrangement that would

a) leave DGD's mother enough money to buy a home with a garden for herself and DGD and

b) leave DGD a trust fund to finance either the purchase of a home or do a degree without getting saddled with a massive debt.

DP didn't want to leave his son anything more than a token few thou to treat himself and some kind words, as he's already very comfortably off and stands to be very wealthy when his mother and grandfather shuffle off.

Is there a way of tying up a bequest to DGD's mother so that it has to be used to buy a property, and to protect any such property from becoming the asset of any marriage she might enter into? We both hated the thought that we could leave her funds that she could lose half of in a divorce down the line. I'm guessing this would probably involve setting up some sort of trust.

DGD's inheritance will be more straightforward and will involve a trust.

I also want to leave some money for DP's utterly fabulous niece, who is like a daughter to me.

The whole estate, if I died tomorrow, would be worth in the region of £450-500k. I'm thinking along the lines of 10% to DNiece, and the remaining money, less a bit for DSS to have some fun with, split equally or 40:60 between DGD and her mother.

We have 3 trustees in mind, they're all pretty savvy financially and people who we trust 100% to act responsibly and respect our wishes.

Does this sound sensible or is it unnecessarily complex? Is it even doqable?

Apologies for the length of my OP - in trying to avoid a Jarndyce v Jarndyce scenario, I've written the length of a chapter of Bleak House.

What would happen if you don't die before the little girl grows up and becomes affluent in her own right = to her brother?
He would get nothing - I think.

Or if the little girl dies before her mother. Would you want the money to get everything as her next off kin?

You need legal advice.

As you weren't married, surely everything in your DP's estate will legally pass to his son?

JaJaDingDong - I read it as the little girl is the DSS daughter, not his sister? I imagine she will get money from her dad and his mum, but I think what Op is planning to do is lovely.

Jeocasta2018 - I think the Op is talking about her money when she dies, not her DPs. She says there will be a mortgage free house, I am guessing that is her house and is where the 450-500k will come from.

Op - there is a will write on mumsnet who may be able to advise you. I think her business names is Marlow wills, she is Mumblechum, or similar.

The little girl is indeed DSS's daughter, so DP's granddaughter. She is his only grandchild, and he loved her very much (and vice versa).

If she becomes affluent in her own right before I die, then good luck to her. She has no siblings, and if her mother goes on to have more children, they will not be related to my lovely DP. If her mother were to die before me, then I would have to revise my will.

All DP's money (I say all - I doubt if it was much more than £10k, but he was very secretive about his own money) will go to his son, but we held the house as joint tenants, so it's all mine now.

Wouldn’t you need to give it all to your DGD in trust, with the stipulation that it could be used to buy a family home for her to grow up in? The house for the mother could then be held in trust for the DGD, so it would never be a marital asset if she remarried.

Speak to a solicitor, OP.
There are various ways to do this - for example, you could leave it in a discretionary trust to a number of beneficiaries and leave your trustees to decide what to do with your estate - you could write a letter of wishes setting out what you would like to happen and they can decide to follow that. You can change the letter as and when things happen rather than having to change your will every couple of years.

Hi OP, sorry for your loss.

What you're outlining in relation to your DP's DGD and mum is actually fairly similar to a trust my DH benefitted/benefits from, which was set up by his dad on divorce from his mum.

The Trust consisted of a cash amount for DH to benefit from in adulthood, and a house which was held in his name but over which his mum had a lifetime right of occupancy. The property was protected by the Trust when his mum remarried a scoundrel, who wasn't able to benefit from it on their eventual divorce, and it will come entirely to DH on her death.

I'm no lawyer but providing you have good Trustees in mind hopefully this kind of structure would work for you too?

[The only downsides were that the property did fall into slight disrepair when scoundrel 2nd husband refused to pay to maintain an asset he wasn't benefitting from - my DH paid for renovations after their divorce to keep his mum comfy; and also I think my MIL feels a bit trapped sometimes, since there would be costly legal fees if she tried to alter the Trust by e.g. downsizing her property - we've been quoted £5-10K from a Trust law specialist if she does want to go down that route, with costs met from the Trust i.e. DH and me! But on the whole it's worked out well, I think.]

Best of luck getting what you want for the people you care about.

@NoSquirrels

Wouldn’t you need to give it all to your DGD in trust, with the stipulation that it could be used to buy a family home for her to grow up in? The house for the mother could then be held in trust for the DGD, so it would never be a marital asset if she remarried.

That sounds good, @NoSquirrels.

The two things that we were keen to avoid were restricting where DGD's mother could live, eg if she got a job offer in another part of the country, we want it to be possible for her to sell the home and buy another; and we want to ensure that, in the event of a breakdown in the mother-daughter relationship in later years, that DGD can't get her out of her home or anything.

While DGD is utterly lovely now, no-one knows what the future holds and she could grow up to be an addict or anything, or vulnerable to financially predatory partners (as DP and I both were).

Absolutely agree with PPs that you really need good professional advice. We used

https://www.marlowwills.co.ukk*

will writing service from MNs own @Mumblechum0 Having put off the whole thing for a whole, we were pleasantly surprised by how easy the whole thing was in the end.

Some background by email, a phone call to talk through what we wanted to achieve and have options/consequences explained. A draft arrive by email fir our review and then we had the final.

We did this in order-Covid times , so could have visited their offices to sign and have our signature witnessed. We did that part locally and now have wills which exactly express our will in our somewhat complicated situation

Good luck.

I can also reccomend marlow wills
They did my parents will and have sorted out trust bit of the will and property transfer when one of my parents passed away

I've used Marlow Wills twice and highly recommend them. We have a slightly complicated family and @mumblechum was very knowledgeable.

As a lawyer, my view is that what you want to do is certainly achievable but will require some deft drafting. I would encourage you to speak to a solicitor with expertise in trust and estate planning not a will writer.