Should we update our wills now our kids are adults?

[CornflakeMum]

Our sons are now 18 and 21.

DH and I wrote wills about eight years ago which covered all the usual things, including who would look after the boys in the event of our deaths, naming execeutors etc.

Our youngest turned 18 this year, so guardianship arrangements have lapsed and I wonder if there are other reasons we need to renew our wills? Should we now make them joint executors (perhaps with a more experienced wider family member for example).

They have also both inherited money over the last few years. Do they need their own wills?

We asked about this only last week and our Solicitor said once the youngest is over 18 it's often easier to keep it in the family and let them be their own executors. They can still ask other people for assistance if they need it. We're young enough, healthy & now it's all sorted and we don't need to renew the will ever if we don't want to. Life can get complicated if your adult children are having to rely on another person to handle the executor work - what's important to your children to get it settled fast, may not be a priority at all to the executor at all. We don't intending popping our clogs off anytime soon but as at least now when the inevitable comes along, everything is sorted fairly cleanly.

@Brissiegirl - ooh thanks - how interesting that you're also doing it right now!
Did you discuss it much with your kids, as in who else they could ask for help if they needed it etc?

No didn't discuss it with them but they know it's simply split 3 ways, no special requests. They also know who our Solicitor is and where we store a copy of the will and all financial documents as we went on a long haul hols on our own last year and made sure they knew everything "just in case" something happened us. We have named the eldest 2 as executors (we've 3 kids). They can work out who might be best to help them, if needed, when the time comes - but hopefully not for another 30/40 years though

We rewrote ours a year ago. DDs 24 and 27 at the time. DD1 is a barrister and both DDs are executors and they inherit everything. We formerly had a family friend as executor but DD1 would be much better! So they both know and we are all happy with the arrangements.

DD1 should write a Will. I need to remind her.

We have done our wills several times since DC were born.
When the youngest reached 18 we re-wrote them to make both DC executors as well as us.
Prior to that there were complicated trusts and restrictions in place until they were older but we decided to remove all that and if we both die they just get the lot.

Me and DH went on holiday without DD a month after her 18th. On the off chance that the plane went down, we refreshed our wills before we went, ditching the trust that had been in place and making her a joint executor (with her godfather).

We chose a Godfather first time around. Having now seen him dealing with his own family finances, removing him from our wills became urgent! Indecision doesn’t describe it. DD is used to money now - does high net worth divorces - so we are happy she understands what to do. And what our financial arrangements are.,

Can I ask what folks do generally - you've mentioned it gets split between the kids - but say your dh dies and you then have the whole estate, if you marry again then that old will becomes invalid doesn't it? And can go to the new husband? I find it terribly complicated to think of what ifs and I have seen this happen to people i know to great distress.

I'm possibly overthinking it but ours need redoing and I need to think about it a bit!

My dad never changed his will after I and my sister turned 18- he died when I turned 20 and his life insurance was left to my aunt to help raise us, devastated that being left an orphan at 20 my aunt and her husband (the executor) thought she deserved the money. Update your wills, leave nothing to chance!

@bestbefore, it happens! I’ve lost both parents and my step mother inherited a substantial estate, I’ve never had a bean.

If you are with your DH, you leave your estate to them to avoid IHT and obviously provide a home for your DCs. In the event of the second death, you leave the whole estate to DC. We have not considered, in this will, what might happen if either me or DH remarry. We would tackle that in the future if necessary. I rather think it might not arise!

Many people tackle that problem by leaving the second spouse a life interest in the house (so they are not homeless) and DC inherit after the death of that spouse. If the second spouse doesn’t need the house, because they have kept their own, then there might be an agreement that they do not have a life interest and it passes immediately to DC. However we have not considered any scenario such as this because right now it’s not relevant. We have kept it simple. No gifts to anyone. DDs get everything.

I redid mine when my twins turned 18 (and also got wills for all 3 sons including the 18 year olds at the same time). However it is not legally essential. If they don't need guardians because they are 18 then that is just irrelevant. However as someone said above I did the same - made the children the executors. In my previous will only the children over 18 were so one change was to make them all as now all 18 or over.

If you remarry it is best always to make a new will.