Help - how much is someone entitled to after 25 years of marriage?

[Putneydad7]

Are there any divorce lawyers on here who can help with some guidance?
An elderly friend is 85 and was widowed, as was her husband (95) and they both had children from former marriages. They have been married for 25 years.
Going into the marriage he was very wealthy, the house alone is £7-9m I would imagine.
She told me that his will left everything to his children/grandchildren, including the house and that she was only to be given a de minimis amount for a small cottage to live in.
The kids are the executors of the will, so it is in their best interests to push this through uncontested.
If she divorced him (which she isn't going to do) I'm guessing that after 25years she would be entitled to half or at least that would be her opening bid.
I would love any advice from someone with experience in the field to the following questions;
Is she entitled to more than just a small amount from the will and should she do anything about it now, or just wait until he dies and then contest the will?
I'm sorry if it's cheeky to ask for free legal advice, but I think she is being screwed over and I feel sorry for her and MN folks are so nice 😀
Thanks in advance.

Its classed as a long marriage and ignoring their ages as not relevant they would be entitled to 50% of marital assets. Friend should definitely seek to start divorce proceedings if they want out. With someone with that much wealth however, its uncommon they would own a house worth upwards of 7mil in their own name and its probably owned in a trust or a Ltd company which means the individual might not really "own" it. Thats much wealth will have excellent inheritance and financial planning (you would expect) so first step would be understanding the ownership of the assets and go from there

Is her thinking is that if she divorces him, she'll get a large share that she can pass on to her own children/grandchildren?

This would make for a very stressful divorce, also likely to last many months.

Is it really her wishes or are her children after a piece of the pie? Money that ultimately has nothing to do with them?

I can see why he would want his house to go to his children and unless she plans to divorce she probably won't get it. She should ask him to provide funds for care costs though. Would she be entitled to spouse pension?

In a divorce, 50/50 is a starting point.

In death, a will is a legal document. However, as a spouse she would be legally eligible to contest the will and say she is financially dependent.

Either way, it will be a legal battle that will be time consuming, expensive and potentially stressful.

At 85, it’s for her to decide what she wants/needs.

The fundamental concept of marriage is to share everything, so she should get something. However it is entirely possible that the bulk of the wealth is tied up in a way that she has no claim on it in any case. When remarrying at the age of 70 he would have given careful thought to this and I would expect it to be pretty watertight. Whether it's worth fighting for more depends on what this "de minimis" amount for a "small cottage to live in" really means - if that's actually enough to reasonably provide for her needs (say £500,000 which is obviously a very small amount of a substantial fortune) and if she has her own pension that will mean she can adequately live out her final years without descending into poverty then it probably isn't worth the fight. If the situation is going to leave her in poverty then she should talk to him about this while he is still alive!

Im sure someone more knowledgeable can answer this - surely one person in a marriage cant just make a will leaving the majority of assets to whomever they like when they die, as unless the partner signed some kind of agreement to this, its all marital assets and therefore not one persons to give away?

I have no idea about any of this. But it’s an interesting idea that she would be a lot better off if she divorced him than if he died.

Is she in his will at all, has she seen a copy and what it does detail?
no, 500k is not a small amount for a single old person to buy a property in the UK. There are decent properties needed for a single person you cab buy for under 100k

Was the will written prior to the marriage? My understanding was that a marriage negates all previous wills, assuming they are in England. Unless it was specifically written 'in contemplation or marriage'. If he has not changed his will subsequent to marriage, intestacy laws kick in and she gets everything.

After a long, albeit second, marriage involving wealth, she should be left very comfortable for life by him, even if he wants the remnant to revert to his children/grandchildren. Under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, she could apply to the courts and could be awarded a substantial amount, similar to a divorce.

Is she actually asking these questions or are you? Are you one of her children with an eye to your future (apologies for being a cynic)?

It's not likely, given the age he married at, that his wealth was accrued subsequent to marriage, and therefore, what he's intending to leave her may be entirely appropriate.

She must book herself an appointment with a solicitor (cost will depend on the area she is in and the solicitor she chooses). Even for a sum as low as £200k, never mind 7M+, this would be the most cost-effective option of obtaining fact specific advice.

solicitors.lawsociety.org.uk

Yes (in England and Wales at least) anyone can make a valid will leaving their assets to whoever they want to.

In a case such as the OP describes, where a late second marriage is involved, it's probable that much of the husband's assets such as the house were acquired prior to the current marriage (even possibly inherited from his previous wife), are in his sole name and he wants them to go to his children from the first marriage, which is an understandable position - I'd imagine that the wife may well have a similar will that protects her own children's interests. .

As others have said, the current wife would have the option of challenging the will on the grounds that she was financially dependent on him, but it sounds as if she is being left something in the will, so it would be up to a court to decide if that is sufficient for her needs gong forward.

Thanks for the responses, so kind. Wrapping up all the questions into one;
I have absolutely no vested interest. We share a cleaner and I get all this inside info from her. I’ve spoken to her but never about this, they seem like nice people, so I’m surprised she is getting (in my opinion) a bit shafted.
she lives in SW London, so £500k gets you a 1 maybe 2 bed flat. Sure she could move out to the country, but she is elderly and has friends who live nearby. £500k will be a massive step down in lifestyle.
she definitely isn’t getting divorced nor is it even on her radar. I just threw that in as a comparator as to how much better off she’d be vis-a-vis the inheritance.
Im not 100% sure but I don’t think the house is in a ltd co. They’ve had it donkeys years and it probably wasn’t a thing back then.

So in summary it looks like she would need to contest the will and contend that she wouldn’t be kept in her lifestyle. I think the will specified that the house is to be sold and money divided. At the very least they could let her live out her days there, if that is what she wanted.

Who knows he might outlive her!!

It’s a shame if he has a house worth that much it can’t be shared between his children and his wife of 25 years. If you’re getting all your info from a shared cleaner , you don’t really know the truth

Blimey. I wouldn't be worrying about the legal ins and outs of this couple's situation, Op. I'd be worrying about the fact that I have a cleaner who is so utterly indiscreet and disrespectful.

So in summary it looks like she would need to contest the will and contend that she wouldn’t be kept in her lifestyle.

I'm not sure that she could ask/demand that she be kept in exactly the same lifestyle, just as it wouldn't necessarily be the case if she divorced.

In Irish law a wife has a legal right to half their spouse’s estate if there are no children and a one third share if there are children.

If she isn’t intending to divorce him then a divorce perspective isn’t the most relevant one. He’s made provision in his will for her, and contesting his will if he dies first isn’t something I can imagine wanting to do at her age, so ultimately it’s a discussion for the two of them to have now, whilst alive, about whether it’s sufficient and what she’d like it to be increased to if not. As she approaches 90, an amount sufficient to buy a small suitable property and a lump sum for her ongoing living costs may well suit her needs better than a life interest in a large property that’s expensive to maintain and run or difficult to adapt for mobility.

But if you’ve heard all this through the gossip of a very indiscreet cleaner, you’ve no idea whether she’s being “shafted” or whether the provision that’s been made is with her full agreement, was agreed upon prior to marriage, or what her own will states about the assets she brought into her second marriage herself. She hasn’t spoken to you about it, likely doesn’t want you to know, so keep out of it.

When I wrote my will with similar considerations, I was advised that it was fine to leave the majority of my estate to my children as long as provision had been made for my husband. I was led to believe that if he tried to contest the will, he would likely be unsuccessful as long as he was left adequately housed.

OP there is some confusion and misinformation on this thread. I would suggest reviewing the below link and advising her to seek legal advice on the basis of the Inheritance Act

https://www.birketts.co.uk/legal-update/provision-for-family-and-dependants-act-1975/

Gosh if it’s true she’s quite the money grabber isn’t she!
be given a de minimis amount for a small cottage to live in.
she’s getting a home, how was she planning at 60 before she married him to live in retirement? Did she make any plans? Has a pension?

"she lives in SW London, so £500k gets you a 1 maybe 2 bed flat."

Why would she need more though?
Not that I necessarily think it's fine that she doesn't get a bigger share of his fortune.

If they are not in Ireland, this is totally irrelevant.

To clarify further, she asked her cleaner for advice and the cleaner didn’t have a clue so asked me.
I get the points made about going in to a marriage with eyes open, but 25 years seems like a long time and she has definitely done her fair share of waiting on hand and foot all unpaid.
I suspect that by the time comes she won’t have the heart to contest the will. Unless her kids push her to.
The fact that she is asking for advice does imply that she doesn’t feel it is equitable.

I’m not sure anyone would be chuffed to be in their late 80s and husband dies and then they are chucked out of the family home so the money can be divided amongst his kids.
i dont know any married couples who would evict their spouse, just seems a bit spiteful.
May have made sense when they first married but not 25 years later.

Thanks that is very useful, I will try and communicate this.