Inheritance and my dead uncle’s daughter

[Goggleb0x]

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.

Bromptotoo
I think Nan did try for several years but was ignored and then could only get info on the child through a relative of her mums that lived locally. None of us are in contact. We did link up on Facebook once but we have been unfriended for many years now.

Where does your grandmother live? That will determine the rules of succession determining the distribution of her estate. (Or, technically where she's 'domiciled', but in most cases this will be her residence also.)

The laws in England and in Scotland differ substantially. In Scotland, the testator does not have absolute free control over the distribution of the estate. One half (if no living spouse) or one third (if living spouse) is the 'bairns' part' and split equally between the children. If one of the children is dead but has surviving offspring, the grandchildren get the child's share instead. So regardless of what is written in the will, the granddaughter would be able to raise a claim. Admittedly, claims for legitim are not so commonplace in practice and she might never hear about the possibility, etc., but at that point we're in the realm of 'sometimes people don't enforce their legal rights'.

I believe there is much greater testamentary freedom/lesser protection from disinheritance in England and Wales. I don't know anything about inheritance in Northern Ireland.

She just needs to specifically state each persons name and what she wants them to have.

Precipice
Thank you, she is in England.

There was a similar situation in my family where one of the older generation specifically wanted to exclude a younger relative whilst including his siblings & cousins (they had had an enormous falling out, sadly).

The advice was to leave a token bequest, so the disinherited relative couldn't claim to have been omitted by accident or due to the older person getting forgetful, etc. My relative was told that any such challenge would be unlikely to succeed, but could cause delays & arguments, so a specific token bequest would clarify that she HAD thought of her younger relative & deliberately left him, well, nothing very much, to reflect their poor relationship.

So your grandmother could leave £10k each or whatever to 'my grandchildren Anne, Bob, Charlie, Diane, Edward, Fred & George' then specifically bequeath 'my granddaughter Harriet' £50 & her dad's christening mug, or something?

But probably worth a quick appointment with a solicitor - I don't imagine it's an uncommon problem.

In Scotland, that only applies to the "moveable estate". That is things like cash, investments, cars, jewellery etc.

It does not apply to land or property.

Children can certainly be disinherited in Scotland when it comes to land or property and, for most people, their home is the major asset that they leave.

Your grandma sounds like a rotten woman
i would refuse her inheritance if I were you.
nasty old lady who raised a son to abandon a child - then he dies and she decades later depends the wound . Ghastly ! So that ‘non grand child’ would have been raised single handed by her mum and as the very last spit in the face she is even written clearly out of wills 🤢 rotten . She was a baby when she was moved!!! Hardly her bloody fault

Would a child who had never met their grandparents actually assume they would be included in their will?

One assumes we are talking of someone with say £100k max to share out. Not rockafella?

Awful

Intriguedbythis
Thanks for your opinion, you answered my question perfectly. You make a lot of assumptions there.

Who inherited your uncle estate, if there was any?

Just pay for your grandmother to consult a solicitor and have the will drawn up properly. Have her read some old Agatha Christies’ or Dorothy Sayers’ muder mysteries to find out what happens when wills ate not properly executed.