Protecting children's inheritance if Dh remarries.

[Rollmopsrule]

My Dh and I are drawing up out wills. I thought it would be straightforward and we leave everything to each other and then our dc inherit when the next person dies. Prompted by some of the posts on aibu I can see an issue can arise if one of us remarries and even more so when step children are involved. How do I make sure all assets go to our children if I die and Dh remarries and also the other way round? I've read abit about setting up a trust fund. Has anybody got experience of this? Dh just rolled his eyes at me and said its a hypothetical situation that will never happen but I'm not prepared to take the risk!

Dh and I have mirror wills. I'd I died and he then remarried and we had set up in our wills anything goes to our children, would he be stuck in the same house forever? I wouldn't mind him remarrying but I'd want my share in this house to go to my kids. But how would that affect dh if he wanted to remarry and move home?

if he wanted to remarry and move home?

That's why it's worth talking to a will writer or solicitor as part of drafting your will, so you have thought through all the things that might happen.

I am rather assuming that, at 68, he won’t have decades ahead of him! I also know my DDs are not expecting everything after death. We will keep enough for our needs but not everything we currently have.

It’s not naive to discuss inheritance as a family or think that, after 40 years of marriage, there’s no trust. We have taken legal and financial advice. We want to minimise our tax position. We intend to enjoy our money. We have more than enough for everyone to get some. But we make decisions together. Most people we know have far less capital than us so their decisions might vary but we were certainly told that if you leave half your house to DCs then that’s potentially their second home. They will pay CGT if it’s sold. They are responsible for their share of it and that includes maintenance and sale. Or even not agreeing a sale. We will sell to release more capital but neither of us want DC part owning our main house. What we do with other properties will be decided on good time.

@sSSD
If it’s done properly with a life interest then yes your husband can move house downsize or whatever he needs to do

“Typically, a life tenant has certain rights by law, including: the right to occupy the property; to ask the trustees to sell the property and buy another with the proceeds; and to sell the property and receive any income generated from investing the proceed”

I think the trust /life interest moves to the new house although you may have to pay to register the interest in the house on the land registry .

But if you get it done then this can be explained how it works.
I think it’s not actually your kids house at this point they are trustees so they couldn’t force your husband to sale . They are just the trustees .
My mums half was left to my son and my sister and my dad has the right to live there z
My dad my sister and myself are the trustees
I’m a trustee even though I won’t inherit anything - my son is a beneficiary but not a trustee
My sister is both a trustee and beneficiary of my mums will
At least I’m sure that’s what I read 😂

To do their wills like this it cost about £350
When my mum passed away in order to set up the lifetime interest for my dad and trustees and register it all with the land registry it was a further £280 which we did with a solicitor last year .
As long as you have a will it’s pretty easy to do in the future 😂

There is some stuff here about it
www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/pensions/article-5966805/amp/What-life-trust-family-home-trustees-duties.html

I don't know if I'm just thick but I can't get my head round this

Thanks for the link though

I think it’s relatively straightforward but the trustees have responsibilities to the tenant. The trustees are the legal owners. The surviving parent has to ask if they want to downsize. They are therefore not in control of their asset as they might have been before. It’s not something to do lightly. It’s often used by large houses to keep them in the family. Ordinary folk - not so much. It can be onerous for the trustees and if they fall out with tenant - ..........

Aahhh...so what would happen if one if the trustees wanted to sell the family house to fund a move for themselves?

@SSD -I’m pretty sure they can’t do that as the other person/spouse has a lifetime Interest in the whole house not just his half .
If it’s done properly then there isn’t a issue
The trustees are normally the owner /spouse and then the children
I don’t consider myself as the owner of my dads house even though I’m a trustee .

The trustees are often the children. Legally the trustees are the owner of their half. Everyone has to agree about what to do if the surviving parent wants to downsize. If they owned on their own, without trustees, they could do what they want when they want.

Yes. It works until people disagree. The trustees do have responsibilities and they might not be able to afford them. If they were young people in their 20s, they might be waiting a long time to get anything but have all the responsibility in the meantime.

Aahhh...so what would happen if one if the trustees wanted to sell the family house to fund a move for themselves?

They can't. The surviving partner's life interest means the children cannot touch the capital.

@ivfbeenbusy

I agree it isn't about trust

It's so easily done....you leave everything to DH and assume he will look after your kids in his will....then he marries someone else and forgets that he hasn't updated his will and wham...suddenly his new wife gets everything and your kids nothing???

When DH and I first did our wills in our 20s I actually received a call from the wills company privately afterwards advising me to protect my assets as I have the largest share

This ^. More common then you think. Men often remarry and someone younger, quickly after being widowed. Just trawl the relationship boards you also see legion of women handing money hand over fist to a bloke because love.

You are wise to ensure your children are protected in the event of your death.

As DDs, in our case, are fully aware of the need for wills to be changed if necessary, they wouldn’t be quite so laid back as to insist their dad didn’t do it. And he would. I think a lot of this depends on family dynamics and whether people talk about money and inheritance.

Just catching up with all the replies. Thankyou so much for the advice and recommendation.
It's not about trust at all. My DH is trustworthy and loves our Dc so much however I'm realistic. I would like him to meet someone else to share his life with if I pop my clogs prematurely and if that person enriched my children's life then that's more important than anything money can buy but I'm realistic and from experience know life can take some interesting, unexpected paths. Ive had a chat with my Dh about it again and he's happy with getting professional advice to protect our children's inheritance. He agrees but then as I said he's super laid back and likes an easy life

@Rollmopsrule
Like a few others I highly recommend Marlow Wills - mumblechum on here as others have mentioned .
If you write down a few ideas of what you want and would like to achieve in the event of ABC it makes it easier to understand
If anything I’ve learned is that having a will makes things so much more simple to deal with everything

Thank you @BJHair 💐