Will Question

[1Namechanger]

I had an appointment with a solicitor today regarding my will as I want to ammend it, but have left feeling more confused than when I started so wanted your opinions on what you would do.

For background, I have a 6mo DS with my Fiance and we have been together 3.5 years, living together 2.5. I own the house we live in mortgage free and have a life insurance policy worth half of the house price. My current will states that everything will go to my future children, and if I were to not have children, to be split between other relatives. This was created 6 years ago before I wanted children. I would now only be naming them in a disaster clause.

Initially going into the appointment I wanted to have my house left to my fiance, with life insurance and cash left to my child/ren when they turn 18. The solicitor recommended that I leave the house to my child/ren with life interest to my partner, but I would like them to have the option of moving if the worst were to happen.

My question is, would it be best to go with what the solicitor recommended? I want to make it as simple as possible. My priority is making sure my child and partner are both protected.

The same company did my last one and after asking questions today, I didnt understand the implications at the time of leaving everything to 'my child/ren' would involve whoever lived in the house paying rent, not having an appointed guardian, or leaving a lot of control in the solicitors hands as I appointed them executor to make it easier at the time so I would like to get this changed as soon as possible.

To clarify - I will be adding the relatives originally named in my will as a disaster clause but would like everything to be left to my fiance and child

If he is your fiance, does that mean you are planning to get married soon? If so, you will have to make a new will anyway.

If you leave the property to dc with life interest it prevents your dc being disinherited if he was to ever meet anyone else. Life interest can be set up in a way that he can move and the equity put into a new property. He wouldn't need to pay rent but would be responsible for upkeep

Yes we plan on marrying in 2 years. The solicitor said that I could have it written 'in anticipation of marriage' meaning that it is still valid after marriage. The current will is just for the meantime until marriage, I will then re adjust it.

Thank you for your reply. Would this mean that the property would be my childrens but my partner could live in the property for as long as he wished, and that property would then go to our children, even if our children wanted to sell the property?

Just to back up what @BaronessEllarawrosaurus has already said. I would agree with the solicitor.

For this to work, you will need to own the house as tenants in common rather than joint tenants and this will be recorded at the Land Registry.

What this means is that you each own a separate 50% (or whatever share you choose) of the property rather than owning the whole property jointly.

If you own the property as joint tenants then it automatically goes to the other owner (your fiance in this case) regardless of anything you put in the will. Just like a joint bank account would automatically pass to him on your death.

If you own the property as tenants in common then you can leave your 50% to anybody that you want. The most common thing is that your share would be left to your children (or whoever you want) and your fiance is given a life interest in the property.

The will is usually written so that the survivor is allowed to sell the home if they want and invest the money in another home while still holding the money in trust for your children.

"Would this mean that the property would be my childrens but my partner could live in the property for as long as he wished,..."

Yes. Although sometimes there are conditions placed on these things that include things like remarrying or cohabiting. eg you can put in a condition that if he remarries then the house has to be sold.

"...and that property would then go to our children, even if our children wanted to sell the property?"

Yes, the children would get your 50% share of the house when he dies (or remarries if you put that condition in). Who gets the other 50% of the house depends on what his will says.

Quite often it will say exactly the same (ie if he dies first then the children get his 50% and you get a life interest).

So, on the second death, the children own the entire house and they can do what they like with it.

If he later leaves his 50% share to someone other than the children then it is most likely that the house will be sold.

The house isn't owned 50/50 the op owns 100%.

I know you don't want to think about it but you do run the risk of giving up part of your home if anything happened and you were to divorce. If you die you can state what happens to the house 100% but in divorce there's no guarantees

"The house isn't owned 50/50 the op owns 100%."

Thank you I missed that.