My mum's 2nd husband has died, but he never updated will

[SweetFemaleAttitude]

My mum is 76 and met her husband when she was 62. They were married for 9 years.

They had an amazing life in their older years and made each other very happy.

He had cancer on and off for a while, but his death was sudden and not expected.

He had applied for documentation to do a new will, but got took into hospital with sepsis and sadly died after a short time, without changing his will.

His wishes though were that his home, which my mum moved in to, went to his only child, on the proviso my mum could stay there as long as she wanted, whilst my mum had any other money in his bank account. They did have a joint account, but he also had his own account.

His child is the executor of his will that he made after his first wife died and sadly never got round to updating.

His daughter has already started talking about how she wants to redecorate the house (even though she resides in another country in Europe), will be travelling over to engage a solicitor and basically intimated my mum will be getting nothing.

I don't think my mum would contest the will or anything like that, as she just wants a peaceful life and has already started making arrangements to move closer to her children, but I feel like her poor husband would be turning in his grave seeing how she is being treated and that his wishes are not being followed. She cannot afford to buy and will need to rent somewhere now for the rest of her years.

Would it be worth us encouraging her to get a solicitor or with the daughter named as sole beneficiary and no updated will, would it be a waste of time?

Sorry that was long and thank you in advance to anyone who responds.

The daughter would have to apply for probate, and it would be up to her to tell the probate service that her father had married after the will, thereby revoking it. If you have any concerns that she may not do this then your mum can enter a caveat with the probate service. This puts a legal stop on any grant of probate issuing for 6 months, and is only £3. It can be done online, so would prevent the daughter getting a grant to access the assets or sell the house.

As there is no will, your mum can apply for the grant, and would have to renounce her right to a grant if the daughter wanted to apply, by signing a legal document, so the daughter could not just apply without her if she tells them the will has been revoked by marriage.

However, some asset holders like banks will pay up to £25k without asking for a grant just on sight of the will, so she needs to let them know that the will was revoked by marriage to prevent them paying out, as it's much harder to get the money back after it's paid out than to prevent it happening.

I think the responses here has assumed you are in England. IIRC the rules around intestate deaths are different in Scotland in terms of division of assets.

We don't actually know that the will is invalid until OP confirms which UK jurisdiction.

If Scotland, the Will would remain valid, but legal rights and prior right apply, which should give protection for the widow

Differences between an English Will and a… | McEwan Fraser Legal

I agree

@SweetFemaleAttitude can you please update ? I'm personally interested in this.

This. You don’t need to “encourage” your mother to seek legal advice. You need to sit her down, put the phone in her hand and make her arrange an appointment with a solicitor who specialises in estates.

Then you need to get all the legal and financial paperwork together and go with her to the appointment if necessary.

Once she’s had the benefit of legal advice and has talked it over with you, she can make an informed decision about what to do.

I know she is a competent adult. But she is 76 and her husband has died suddenly , she will be traumatised and in shock , she needs your help. her step daughter is acting illegally and trying to railroad her into decisions that she may regret a year from now.

It's a difficult situation so I do sympathise but at 62, what had your mum planned for her old age? Had she not got married then?

My mum had her own home, but sold it to move in with her husband. It was in quite a deprived area so she didn't get much for it.

When our dad died, he just had his pension for her, although she was working and had her own money.

My mum has a pension from working all her life, so would have got by. That's what our family do. We are working class, so no inheritance or anything like that.

But this is by the by as she did get married, not to a wealthy man or anything like that and they lived a modest life, but they were young at heart and she didn't expect to lose him so soon.

There are 5 of us siblings, so my mum will always have been okay. We will look after her when we need to, but she's got years in her yet god willing!!

Anyway, my sister has gone the solicitors with her this morning and she is waiting for the solicitor to give her a ring. In the meantime, she is with my sister at the bank now.

Thank you everyone

@SweetFemaleAttitude
I'm pleased to hear that your Mother is taking some action re a solicitor and the bank.

How long ago did your Stepfather pass away? Has your Mother got the death certificate? If so, she should hold onto it, rather than giving it to the daughter, as sometimes banks or insurance companies will require a view of it before your Stepfather's affairs can be finalised.

Definitely a will is invalidated after a new marriage. Your step dad died intestate. I believe it means your mum has 50% and the only child 50% of all asset.

If OP is in Scotland, the new marriage did not invalidate the will.

If she is in England, OP's mother is entitled to the first £270k of the estate and all his personal possessions. Anything over that is split 50/50 between OP's mother and his child.

If he married your mother then the will is probably invalid. When you marry, an existing will automatically becomes invalid unless you intended to marry when it was signed. I would say there are strong grounds that he died intestate.

Sorry, just seen a lot of people have already said the same as me. I'm a trainee solicitor and I can confirm that the advice given by myself and others is correct.

Well done @SweetFemaleAttitude , sounds like you and your sister are on the case.

It sounds like your parents were like many couples of their generation - got married young, had a family, worked hard all their lives, saved and bought their house , paid into their pensions and raised their kids to do the same.

It’s a shame that some posters have implied that she is feckless or didn’t make plans for the future. They obviously have no idea how hard it was to be a working class woman, work and raise 5 kids and then be widowed twice.

I hope your mum is able to get this sorted out ( I’m afraid it will take a long time ) and then be able to buy a place near you and the rest of the her family.

If the boot were on the other foot and the DD complained that the family home owned by her DD had been left entirely to his new wife, the answers would be different.

So basically your mum inherits everything and then you inherit from her and this man's DD gets nothing from her dad's estate.

So unfair.

--- which is why we should all make sure that we have made a will.

As I once heard a judde say, fairness doesn't come into it; the bottom line is what the law says.

But there's nothing to stop the OP's mum claiming for the estate now, then bequeathing the house to the daughter, which would more closely respect her husband's wishes than the daughter turning her out of the house asap.

Yes but morally her husband wanted her to be at least to be able to live in the house . Say she is entitled to the house she still might come to an agreement with the daughter that suits them both . She may be entitled to the house , does not mean she will accept it does it ?

a wife of 9 months would be a new wife
this was 9 years

If the DD was well aware of her DF's wishes despite not having an updated will I would be strongly advising DM not to start handing over more than is legally required under interstate rules. She may well want to respect her husbands wishes but his DD has shown she isn't about to. DM can always make a will herself to benefit her DSD later and better reflect DH's wishes.

Somehow, I think that the daughter will not see any of it. Despite her father's wishes.

Which is why he should have made a new Will as soon as he got married.

And from what the OP has said her Mum will want to respect his wishes… so will likely leave the house to his Dd in her own will.

I'm not sure a marriage invalidates life insurance held in trust though as that ordinarily falls outside of the estate (for estate planning/IHT)

So any life insurance policies would still go the the named beneficiary as far as I'm aware.

THisbackwithavengeance· 19/10/2023 14:04

If the boot were on the other foot and the DD complained that the family home owned by her DD had been left entirely to his new wife, the answers would be different.

So basically your mum inherits everything and then you inherit from her and this man's DD gets nothing from her dad's estate.

So unfair.

OP’s mother gave her husband love, support, care and companionship for 14 years. Why should she be left with nothing? Have you considered that the step-daughter was free to get on with her own life abroad without having to consider or worry about her father, because of the presence of OP’s mother?Life could have become very stressful for her if she didn’t have a stepmother dealing with things in the U.K.

They were together for five years before getting married. They could have continued in the unmarried state but for whatever reason decided to get married. Every adult knows, or should know, that marriage comes with rights and responsibilities. So we have to assume that the husband was a mentally-competent man who wanted to confer rights on his wife, not just lump her with responsibilities.

A marriage invalidates a previous will. If he is legally married his wife inherits his estate apart from anything already put in trust for his children.
She needs to see a solicitor who will advice how best to sort it all out. She will need to find all the financial and property paperwork.

I am a Probate practitioner. Enter a caveat at the Probate Registry quickly. It’s cheap and easy to do and undo. That gives you breathing space. The intestacy limit has recently increased to the first £322,000 in the estate to your mum and half of anything left after that. https://www.gov.uk/stop-probate-application#:~:text=You%20can%20do%20it%20yourself,to%20visit%20a%20probate%20registry