My dad died very suddenly after a short illness in May. He was trying to finalise a divorce but it all happened very quickly so was still married when he died. Everything will go to his wife as the only named beneficiary and his children from their marriage. They did not have a good relationship at the end and he often said he felt like she was prolonging the divorce.
He doted on his children from their marriage and was a stay at home full time carer for them (they have disabilities). The children lived with him as she left 2 years ago after dad discovered she was cheating.
My concern is that the money and house will all go to her and she will use it to live on meaning the kids will benefit from living in the house but not see the money. She has already told me she is giving up work (earnings are between 60k-£80k but she was secretive about money with dad) and she is entitled to that money because she needs to put it towards raising them. However, her mum does all the childcare and my ‘stepmum’ is unable to look after the kids alone. When I called her to tell her my dad would be put into a hospice the first thing she said to me was the divorce needs to stop because I want my kids to get his money. She has never liked me or my other siblings (from first marriage) and has caused a lot of pain and upset for us over the years.
Before he died my dad told me he had taken a life insurance policy out. He said it would cover the funeral and that he wanted me and first marriage siblings to have the policy. This was not specified by him at the time of taking out the policy (late last year and completely coincidental that he took this out). However, I can’t prove this. We organised the funeral and wake with no help from stepmum but she still made out to people she was involved in it and did not offer any money. She did invite her family that have not spoken to my dad for years and years and do not know the details of the split. She said at the time she would make sure the funeral was covered but it’s come out that she has lied which is not a surprise to us.
Would we have a chance at contesting the will? All we want is the life insurance money. We can put money aside for his 2nd marriage children and his grandchildren. We have been through his emails and it’s obvious he was trying to finalise the divorce and she was dragging her feet. He referenced that he was putting money aside for the grandkids but there are no names bank accounts. It’s obvious he did not have a good relationships with her and very obvious how close he was with us. We have extensive messages, evidence of a great relationship with him. We looked after him at the end and we’re always by his bedside, at appointments and he even lived with one of my siblings temporarily.
We are not money grabbing people - I feel dirty even talking about his money when all I want is to have him back. I’m so angry at the injustice of the whole situation though. She paid dad a monthly payment for him to live off as he was looking after the children. At the end she was going to leave him with nothing as she realised he would no longer have full time care of the kids (too ill). We found an email from her suggesting she would completely stop payment. When I spoke to her she suggested if she struggled could he commit benefit fraud and live off the kids disability money.
The life insurance is obviously not mentioned in the will as it was set up before they were separated and he only took it out late last year.
If anyone out there is willing to offer any advice I would be really appreciative. Prepared to be told we have no chance at all and am fully expecting this to be the case.