Inheritance split if one spouse have more children than another one

[Orange2]

Betty and Mike are married, live in Scotland and have 2 daughters. They have joint property and savings. Mike has an older son from before they were married. Neither Betty or Mike have wills put in place as they believe in case of their deaths all the estate will be equally divided between all 3 adult children. Is that correct or will each spouses' 'share' be divided equally between the amount of children they each have?

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/family/death-and-wills/who-can-inherit-if-there-is-no-will-the-rules-of-intestacy/

The number of grandchildren does not matter.

Why don’t people just write a will!!!

Yes, it will be split between the 3 adult children. But there could be problems if no Wills or no Executors to sort the administration of the Estate, you will be trusting whoever sorts it out, will do so properly. It’s always best to do a Will so there’s no delays or arguments as to who gets what.

What if one dies before the other?
Just write wills.

As far as I'm aware step children are not included in the intestacy rules, so if Mike dies first his older son is shit outta luck with inheritance.

It's something like the first 470k in value of your home passes to your spouse, plus 50k of cash plus a third of the rest of the estate. Then the children share the remaining 2/3rds.

If Mike dies first it is likely if Betty dies without a Will everything will go to her DD’s and nothing to Mike’s son.

It is just stupid and irresponsible not have a Will covering exactly what you want to happen in every eventuality

Betty and Mike should engage a qualified solicitor rather than posting on MN.

How does ‘they took their advice from some anonymous people on the internet ‘ sound to bereaved kids dealing with a mess of bodged plans?

Careful with the Citizen's advice link. Scots law is different to England and Wales.

General principle is that Mike's son has no right of inheritance from Betty because Betty is not his mother, and no legal relation to him. He is in trouble if Mike dies first.

Oh ffs just get a damn will. It’s not that expensive and it saves a whole lot of sh1& for whomever after the person dies.

Betty and Mike need to write a will. 🙄

These are the Scots intestacy rules, as summarised very nicely in Acc0untant's post:
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/all-notices/content/103535
Mike and Betty should put Wills in place if they care about Mike's son. Also to make things easier for all the children. And frankly, for whichever spouse outlives the other.

JUST WRITE A WILL. THE END

Just seen this is Scotland. Sorry so this is not quite right

As PP said if Mike dies first then his estate will be split between Betty and his 3 kids. Dependings on value but basically the first £322k of the estate and then half of the remainder.
Then when Betty dies hers is split between her 2 children and nothing for step child.
If Betty dies first then her estate passes to Mike and her kids and nothing to step. And when Mike dies the 3 inherit.
If they want the 3 kids to get even share then this wont happen if they die intestate.
Scenario 1: step kid gets 16pc of the bit over 322k, others get 16pc plus half of Betty estate
Scenario 2: other kids get 25pc of the bit over 322k plus a third of Mike's and then step kid only gets a third of Mike's

Just get a bloody will written up. For the sake of saving your kids a lot of stress after you’re gone.

Either of them could change their will after the other one dies.

Write a will. It's silly not to.

This.

The number of grandchildren is irrelevant.

The law in Scotland is also very different than in England. Spouses and children have automatic legal rights . You cannot disinhwrit a spouse or child.

You're assuming they will die together which is un likely. One will die first. The other has automatic rights and the chuldren whose has died has rights too.

The easiest thing is the couple just make Wills.

I agree the best thing to do is to write a will however I'm in no place to dictate, I can only advise. I'm not an immediate family, just found this out when having a conversation with them. I assumed they had it sorted out. I'm related to Mike.
They are also convinced that in case one of them dies first all joint assets like house and savings automatically go to surviving spouse as they both are owners.

"They are also convinced that in case one of them dies first all joint assets like house and savings automatically go to surviving spouse as they both are owners."

This is correct, depending on the ownership of the house.

You can own the house as "joint tenants" where you both equally own the whole house (just like a joint bank account).

Or you can own it as "tenants in common" where you each own a separate and distinct 50%.

If you own the house as joint tenants then the house automatically passes to the surviving spouse regardless of what any will might say and it is also outside of the Intestacy Rules. The same thing happens with any bank accounts in joint names.

In contrast, if you own the house as tenants in common then you can leave your 50% share of the house to whoever you like. In this case, the Intestacy Rules kick in if there is no will. In that situation, Mike's son will only get a very small share of the estate if Mike's share of the house is worth more than £470k.
.

Regardless of that, what happens when the second person dies depends on who dies first. Whoever dies last then the estate is divided between their own children only.