Grandparents and adopted grandchildren

[ChorltonCreamery]

A grandparent has died and their will leaves everything to their grandchildren.

The grandchildren will receive unequal amounts as the estate is divided proportionally e.g. Divided into quarters. So a grandchild without siblings will get a quarter and grandchildren with siblings will share a quarter with their siblings.

The grandchildren are named individually- the named grandchildren are all biological grandchildren.

However one of the deceased’s children has two adopted children with their second wife. One of the adopted grandchildren was initially a step-child and the other grandchild was adopted from abroad.

The adopted grandchildren were not mentioned in the will.

He is pressuring his biological daughter to share with her adopted half-siblings. She refuses. He has now appealed to his nephew and nieces and again they are refusing.

The adopted children are still children.

One of the biological grandchildren is 16 (not the daughter of the son who is annoyed) but the others are all adults.

Can the son challenge the will on behalf of the adopted children who were adopted before the will was made?

In England. Estate is roughly 3 million pounds with the house included.

My DM divided her estate equally between grandchildren and children. In her case, equal amounts to 8 people. No adopted dc but no lesser amounts either. She wanted to skip a generation as children didn’t really need it. Plus one child had no dc and is leaving everything to only one set of nephews and neices on the grounds the others don’t need it! So equal shares evened it up. The grandparent here could have left unequal shares to the adopted grandchildren. Something seems less likely to cause arguments and family division. Nothing is harsh. I can see why they feel snubbed!

Also, I’m assuming there’s IHT to pay by the estate?

I understood that when a child is legally adopted it brings all the same legal rights and entitlements as a biological child with respect to inheritance.

There is no legal right for children to inherit from their grandparents. Regardless of whether or not anyone is adopted. She could have left it all to charity if she wanted to. She did not have to provide for any of them. It's entirely her choice

Her will sets out her wishes. She knew about all the grandchildren and she specifically named the grandchildren that she wanted to leave some of estate to and left out the grandchildren that she did not want to leave any of estate to. That is her right.

I can't see a judge coming to any other conclusion. Wills are not about fairness or about what anyone else thinks the testator should do with their money. That's the whole point of making a will. So that you can be clear in your wishes.

Tbh unless a clear cut case of manipulation of.the person making the will, wouldn't be even worth challenging? If you can just challenge a will why would anyone bother making one? Might not seem fair but its their wishes as to what happens to their money after they die. It is what it is....

Is there a chance
(1) he was a shit dad to he eldest, hence why granny is trying to compensate for him being a nice dad to the youngest 2 and a rubbish one to her.

(2) current wife will be inheriting all of DH's will proceeds so granny is pre-empting that by giving DGD the larger share so she doesnt end up with nothing in 30 years.

(3) was the adoption(s) only just before the will being made - ie she didnt really know the youngest 2 at this point.

My spidey senses suggest option 2 tbh!....

And of course wills are weaponised.

At the end of the day it was the grandparents’ money and their decision on who to leave it to 🤷‍♀️ if the father feels that strongly about it HE can give up 2/3 of his inheritance

The stepson has been legally adopted, I think he is in secondary school, the little girl is much younger. I don’t know what their relationship was like with the deceased.

I suspect this is what it comes down to and if the adopted children didn’t have a relationship with the deceased, then that’s likely to be the reason why they are excluded from the will. Is he still married to the mother of older boy he adopted or did the marriage end and, whilst legally the father, he stepped back?

Her money should go to who she wanted it to go to. Regardless of any moral feelings about it.
I don’t think they should share.

I understood that when a child is legally adopted it brings all the same legal rights and entitlements as a biological child

That is correct but in this case the lady did not leave her estate to be divided between her grandchildren - she left it to specified named individuals who happen to be grandchildren

My son is adopted . My Dad's will could leave his entire estate to his Grandchildren - in this case my son would get everything as he is the only grandchild and likely to remain so , equally my Dad could leave all his estate to x charity & leave nothing to my DB or myself - that if my Dads choice (assuming capacity and no coercion)

She drew up her will with what she wanted

LEGALLY the two children are full siblings to each other.
LEGALLY the elder child is no longer the elder daughter’s step brother but legally her half sibling.
they are LEGALLY HALF-siblings, cousins, niece and nephew and grandchildren to their adoptive father’s family.
No one is disputing this.

I wouldn’t say that he was a particularly bad father to the eldest BUT trying to manipulate her to relinquish her inheritance which will enable her to buy a house is truly awful.

I came on this board to talk about the legalities.

However, I believe a will is not just about money it tells the recipient how they were valued. If he chooses not to acknowledge his own daughter in his will I think that would be nasty. Because she inherited from her grandmother I don’t think she should be excluded from her father’s will.

My cousin is a nice woman who wants the best for her lovely daughter who has excelled academically and stayed on in higher education so hasn’t got a foot on the job ladder yet. She does not have a relationship with the boy but loves the little one but doesn’t see them as siblings but more importantly the grandmother didn’t see them as grandchildren. Unless their parents tell them I doubt they will ever find out about this drama.
Cousin’s ex sister-in-law did contact her to say that her daughter’s father was losing his mind over this but hope he won’t lose his daughter.

No, they named the beneficiaries so there’s nothing to argue here. Wills should be respected. No one should ever be forced to share.

My DM is not leaving anything to my DSC. Even if I adopted them, she wouldn’t leave anything to them. They’re not her DGC.

What a wicked thing for the deceased to do

The adopted children are the biological children of the second wife though? They possibly have her family to inherit from one day?

It smacks of a granny trying to bypass a son she didn’t entirely trust to me! Maybe she thought they’d be divorced in a year or two, and didn’t want her money going with them. Perfectly reasonable to want your assets to go to your own grandchildren.

Legally, the will is correct. Court will uphold the will and the distribution of share.

the reason one generation was passed over shows grandmother ONLY want to give to named individuals who happen to be her grandkids. All legal.

whoever is pushing others to share might be harassing them which is against the law.

A PP put it better than I could:

Her father has not inherited from his parent because it went to her and she in turn will not inherit from him because she has already had his share. She might have her nose put out of joint at that thought, because it will feel weird and unfair but she cannot honestly expect to come out on top twice at her adopted siblings' expense. She is lucky to get such a lot of money so early on whereas the others will probably have to wait many decades.

It would not be 'nasty' of her father to adjust his will: it would be fair.

In any case, it's his choice, just as it was his mother's choice to miss out the adopted grandchildren. She was sensible to keep quiet about it during her lifetime.

No nastier than his parent opting to disinherit him to the benefit of one of his legal 3 children.

His eldest daughter has benefited from that decision in a way that will set her up for life. He now no doubt feels like he has the same obligation to his the other 2 of his 3 children.

He could of course leave a small amount for any grandchildren via that child in his will if he wished.

Not necessarily - we don't know the relationships in this case. As MrsKateColumbo said, it may be that the grandparent was trying to protect the eldest daughter. The two adopted children are from her father's second marriage.

If she hands over a load of her inheritance now, there's still nothing to stop her father (who presumably left her at some point during her childhood, given that she's in higher education or just out of it now) from leaving everything to his second wife and from her to the adopted children, leaving her out entirely.

Presumably the grandparent made these arrangements so that couldn't happen.

If the adopted children had the same parents as the eldest daughter I'd agree that it should have been split equally.

Agreed. It’s also the fact that the first adopted child was initally
a stepchild, they may have felt the adoption was a way to make the child a legal grandchild in order to have a share of the large inheritance.

The child adopted from abroad is different, but it would be hard for the GP’s to treat them differently

This will smacks to me of a testator who has thought long and very carefully. The courts don’t like to set aside the wishes of someone like that.

Her father has not inherited from his parent because it went to her and she in turn will not inherit from him because she has already had his share.

… but she should surely have a share of her father’s own estate which is separate to what she inherited from her grandmother?

Yet another reason why disinheriting children in favour of grandchildren is a terrible idea…

But this is exactly why they’ve done it. They don’t want their money going to the children of his second wife.

Their choice.

No more than HER father should have had a share of HIS parents estate.

Fairly hypocritical to think otherwise really.

I mean if she really from a moral perspective feels that child have a right to inherit from their parents she is always free to give some of her inheritance to her father.

Or she fundamentally believes that it is the right of the person leaving the inheritance to choose to do as they wish. No matter the way cards fall in her favour.

I do agree that it would be fair for the younger 2 to get the first million split in half (for eg) then thr rest split 3 ways, so they have all had their 500k

The 3 mil Estate suggests a relativeky wealthy family...