Inheritance and my dead uncle’s daughter

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My Nan is 86 and had 4 children. She has 7 grandchildren from her 3 daughters and 1 grandchild from her son.
Her son died in 1996, he never really had a relationship with his daughter who moved to Australia with her mum in 1982 when she was 1.5 years old. No contact since.
My Nan has written her own will, she doesn’t want to spend money on a solicitor. She also doesn’t (wrongly or rightly) want the grandchild in Australia to receive any money on her death.
I think I read on here that unless worded correctly in the will, the uncles’s child will be entitled to his part of any inheritance, is that correct? Nan wants to split it between her 3 remaining children with a small amount to each grandchild.
We as a family would like her to get her will made by a professional to cover her wishes and save my mum and aunties having to deal with any complex issues after Nan’s death.
My mum and I feel the grandchild should be entitled to inheritance but that is not what my Nan wants.
Can anyone give me a bit of guidance in the hope of persuading Nan to make a suitable will. Thanks.

Agree it's her money, but that's quite sad.

The dc specifically named surely will receive
. If it generically states dgc then she can expect some money too.
It's hardly the bairn's fault she has a feckless df..

It is her money to will as she wishes. You need a solicitor to make sure it is worded in a way that is not open to challenge eg she states a reason in the will or leaves the child a minimal amount eg £250 as a token gesture but the main bequests are to her grandchildren she actually knew and had close relationships with.

Thank you for these answers. I thought I read a post on here where the child could challenge the will so just wanted to get a few ideas together before asking Nan to please speak to a solicitor.
I agree that it’s not my cousin’s fault she never had much of a relationship with her dad, he died young and her mum did take her to the other side of the world so put as much distance between her and my uncle. I don’t know the details of their relationship as I am only a month older than my cousin but I guess it was volatile. My Nan seems to think she may not even be his. But that’s by the by, I just don’t want the family members I know to have to deal with stuff that my Nan should have dealt with herself.

If we're talking significant sums and a wilful intent to disinherit where other family on the same generational level inherit then legal advice is really needed.

The normal protocol, where potential beneficiaries predecease the testator, is to leave their share to their children or siblings. So the son's child might get her father's share. Or she might not.

A late aunt of my Father's left her estate in equal shares to him and a cousin of his whose Mothers were siblings. Dad's brother died young, his wife remarried and eventually emigrated to Australia with his two biological children. They got a pecuniary £250 each. As Dad died before she did my sis and I got his share split between us.

Has Nan made any attempt to contact the Australian daughter (or vv) or are any of your siblings in contact with her?

He won't have a part of the inheritance. He's deceased so unless GM writes the grandchild into the will I would think she is entitled to zilch

Her money her choice.
If she wants to make sure it goes where she wants it to she should name the grandchildren and can even state why she does't want one to inherit.
Solicitor or will writer can advise

I don’t think she has specifically named her grandchildren, just put my 7 grandchildren. I know she wouldn’t want to cause too much stress after she is gone but she also doesn’t want to spend her children’s inheritance, in spite of being told she needs to buy whatever the heck she wants to buy as it’s her money.

Just need to persuade her now to speak to a solicitor.

I don't think any solicitor is needed for this. (Assuming nothing complex
You either say equal shares to all grand kids (or £5000 each)
Then Aussie child gets some.

Or -I leave it to person a b and c -ie name them.

Only way Aussie child could claim was if they were supported by gran somehow then left out.

Possibly if she leaves money to all my kids, then the uncles share passes to the child (unless it's more specific to say this should NOT happen) or "all children alive at date x"

The best way to avoid the will being contested is to leave a specified amount to each grandchild and name them all. She can specify a small amount for the Australian grandchild and larger amounts for the others. Depending on the size of the estate, she could specify a figure less than £100 to the Australian child.

I was legally advised to include a letter with my will stating x is not to inherit due to y and you have no reason to believe they’d be negatively impacted financially because of this.

I think the general rules are that if she is leaving to her living children she has to say this specifically so there is no confusion that any children of hers that predeceases her will inherit, so if one of her daughters die before her, then it wont go to their estate either. If she says something to my grandchildren i leave-- then this Australian grand child can inherit, so she has to specifically name the grandchildren who will be inheriting by name , she need to be careful to use correct names and if more than one person of same name make sure its clear who she's referring to . The missing grandchild could potentially contest the will if it looks like she had been omitted in error, so it's generally advised that a token endowment is made perhaps a person piece of property eg pictures of her dad, a very small amount of money, so making it clear she was not left out in error. that's probably the best your gran can do if insisting on doing it herself. My solicitor did my will for free, same for my husband, so why don't you call a few local firms and ask for a quote , some charities also offer a service in this area so you may be able to get her soem assistance.

She needs to name the grandchildren, not just say 'my 7 ' because she has 8.

Saying ''my 7' is deeply problematic

Based on the answers on this thread, it is clear that no one has a clue and she needs to get specific legal advice on wording etc.

I do know that my parents' will specifically says "our three children. If any of our children pre-decease us, that child's inheritance is to be split evenly between any surviving children he/she has." or something to that effect.

Definitely too vague just saying "my 7 Grandchildren " knowing that there's 8. That leaves it wide open to challenge.
She definitely needs to name the 7 she wants to receive the money and state that nothing I'd left to the named 8th with whom I presume she had no relationship.

My father had specified that his estate be split between his children (plus minor bequests), but if a child of his predeceased him then the child(ren) of that person would inherit in their stead. This happened, as my sister died 2 weeks or so before my father. Thus, follow the terms of the will, my niece inherited what would have been her mother's share. My will states this, too. So it's not automatic that a grandchild will have a share.

Your DM needs to have her will drawn up by a properly qualified person to avoid all manner of pitfalls. Her saying ''my 7 grandchildren' is a case in point - she has 8, so which 7 is it? She's assuming it's obvious which is the one to be left out but it really isn't, not if there's nothing written.

Can you frame it as DM making life easier for you all once she's gone? She seems to be viewing it as a money saving exercise, but it could cost way more if it's sorted out later rather than sooner.

The presumption is that if you leave it to your kids and one does before you, their share goes to their kids. Unless you say otherwise.

It doesn't work for anyone else -just direct descendants. If you leave to neighbour Bob and he dies first, bob's kids don't get it. Unless you say that.

Saying 7 grandkids is not useful. What if more come along? All offspring alive at tine of my death, of my kids bill and Ben, covers the situation.
That would leave out a kid who was born after date of death though.

I would agree with this, but this is more appropriate where you are disinheriting a child or a spouse.

I have heard of cases where this has been overturned by a court but those cases often involved the child having an element of disability or illness.

Also, to the people who are saying that the grandchild might have a claim, that only applies to children, spouses or ex-spouses. The grandchild won't be able to make a claim unless they were being financially supported by the GM

Thank you everyone for your help, it’s been very useful.

This is what will make the Will open to dispute.

She needs to specifically name the 7 grandchildren that she means. In a separate sentence she can say specifically that she leaves nothing (or a token £50 if that feels better) to eighth grandchild (name) because of having no active relationship with her.

Without this the Will can be disputed.

Yep, she needs to actually name people in the will rather than just talk about ‘children’ or ‘grandchildren’.

So she leaves ‘equal shares to Rod, Jane and Freddy’ as oppose to ‘equal shares to my children’, for example.

Your DM needs to have her will drawn up by a properly qualified person to avoid all manner of pitfalls. Her saying ''my 7 grandchildren' is a case in point - she has 8, so which 7 is it? She's assuming it's obvious which is the one to be left out but it really isn't, not if there's nothing written

And this. It just needs to absolutely clear, with no ambiguity.

We have been dealing with a professional will writer recently and working out what we want to do..he advised it is as important to write who is excluded as included therefore making things very clear. We still haven't written ours as we discuss now and then but don't get around to sorting it. Something we really must do