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.

How horrible of the deceased. I hope the children never find out that their sibling and cousin got an inheritance and they didn’t. I’m sure they already feel ‘other’ enough. Everyone needs to keep quiet about this forever. And as for the child of the deceased, I’m sure the memory of their parent is tarnished now. Such a shame.

Well yes, exactly. And look at all the trouble and resentment it’s causing, and will likely continue to cause for years.

Appalling, isn’t it?

a person can leave a will to who they want - it is a waste of money to challenge it.

Based on the circumstances, save your money, it will not succeed.

I think challenging a will of someone without significant mental decline at the time of composition, given the names specifically addressed, would be a financial disaster for the challenger.

It might be the 'right' thing to do by the parent of the adopted children, but all that will happen is that the lawyers will take a big bite via bills - money that could be invested in the interests of the adopted children. I see v little chance of success, a lot of stress proving x, y, and z, guessing the deceased persons motives and getting people involved who would rather not be involved.

My old fashioned (emphasis on that) grandparents, both sets, all born in the 1920s and 30s, would 100% view an adopted child as not their grandchild. The biological element mattered to them. They are long deceased now, but no paperwork/relationship with adoptees would convince them otherwise over the argument 'they already have grandparents'...

It was a different time.

It’s only causing trouble for one son. The rest of the family
support the GC.

It doesn’t sound from the OPs updates like the grandma had a relationship with the two adopted children - if that’s the case why would she include them in her will? It’s entirely right that they don’t get anything, they might be the son’s children but they’re not her grandchildren in relationship terms.

In these particular circumstances, no. The father and indeed his siblings, have been passed over by their mother in favour of her bio GC so they have all had to accept they are getting nothing.

The bio daughter will also have to accept she will not inherit from her dad, because if you like, she already has in a way. And I would guess his Will will leave his wife everything knowing that when she passes it will go to his adopted children /her bio child and adopted child. It does sound as if the DGP had strong views on the breakup of her son's marriage and his subsequent remarriage and adoption of 2 children and the effect that would have had on his bio child (Like why are you now adopting children to share with another woman when you already have a daughter who you've now converted to a timeshare child??? ) In any instance whilst it is very hard not to interpret a Will as someone communicating their real feelings about you, the dad and his bio daughter have to be logical. It doesn't sound as though the adult children are bothered about being left out of the legacy and hopefully in time she will appreciate what a massive leg up this has been for her even if she gets no inheritance directly from her father.

It’s probably a good thing that the dgm has done this, if the dad who wants a share of everyone’s money shares the vindictive opinion of many posters that he should disinherit the daughter.
As pp wonder if the dgm saw how unfairly the daughter was treated, sounds like there’s a significant age gap between his children, wonder if new wife is significantly younger than him.

That's very mean. Way to tell the adopted children she never considered them family.

You could talk to a lawyer. I don't know what the law says, but I know my own will is very explicit about who is considered a grandchild for inheritance purposes. Legally adopted grandchildren (which I don't have, but in case there are any in future) are listed as being treated the same as biological grandchildren.

This is what I think too. Often the husband dies before the step-Mum and leaves her the whole estate and then when the step mum dies she leaves it all to her children. I can see exactly why the the grand mother did this.

I can understand this but, if the adopted grandchildren are from the husband and not legally adopted by the grandchildren, they don't count for purposes of inheritance anyway?

My will states children legally adopted by my child are treated equally to biological grandchildren. Step children and foster children are specifically excluded. It's all quite clear. At present though, there are no complicated relationships involved.

If my DD died and left children and her DH then remarried, I might change my will directly leaving her share to her biological and legally adopted children to protect it.

Or being swallowed up in the marital assets during a divorce. None can rule out a divorce if MN is anything to go by.

Exactly. Wise, tbh. Stops any of the money they’ve worked for going to ex IL’s, second spouses, or any children they bring with them.

Obligatory: not your lawyer.

It can be challenged - may or may not be successful - but the estate will bear the brunt of the costs as they always do. The law sees adopted children and bio grandchildren the same for purposes of inheritance.

Best best would be for the estate to vary the deed and settle at an informal mediation.

They can't do a deed of variation when one of the beneficiaries is under 18, even if the other beneficiaries had all been in agreement to do so.

Best bet for who?

It's shit of the deceased, but her choice sadly.

The law sees adopted children and bio grandchildren the same for purposes of inheritance. Not if certain grandchildren have been specifically named as the beneficiaries, when the other grandchildren already existed and therefore have clearly deliberately not been named.

Exactly m, should everyone contest the will for whatever reason until all the money goes on lawyer fees?

I’d love to know the GM’s opinion of her son’s second wife. Although the will does give a wee hint.

I wish my paternal grandmother had done that.
Unfortunately for me everything she left to my father will be going to wife number 4 and her child -my step sibling- who never even knew my granny.
Maybe the Grandmother knew her son very well and could see which way the land lied there and was pre empting her beloved granddaughter being left nothing .
To say she’s ‘wicked’as a pp said is very unfair as although we know the basic bequests we don’t know why she made her will as she did.
May e we should think that Granny knew better than we did and she had her very good reasons for doing this.
And, if I were the granddaughter in this scenario I would happily have given something to the adopted children. But after the behaviour of the father I would be telling him to sod off. I have every expectation that she will be cut out of her fathers will with everything left to second wife and children of that marriage.
It’s a sad tale as old as time.

It’s not sad. It’s a good thing that people can leave their money to who they choose.

I will inherit 50% of my DGM's estate in her will. She did this to protect my interests after my DF remarried and had two more children and changed his will so the sole beneficiary is his wife. The family home will go into a will trust, so at some distant future point something may come to me from that, but the house is in disrepair as they haven't kept up to it and are likely in negative equity. But anyway.

Remarriages make things complex, and although on the face of it excluding the adopted children seems cruel, I wonder if the grandmother was concerned that her bio grandchild would be disadvantaged by her son remarrying and adopting two other children, so left her son's share to the bio child to compensate. Children don't choose for their parents to remarry and have a blended family, after all. Even though I completely get why my parents divorced and I love my siblings dearly, I still would rather have not had all that happen as a kid.

It's hard but the grandmother chose to leave money to her biological grandchildren, and is entitled to do so.
No one should be putting pressure on them to share it, it's totally legal.

I have two cousins who are adopted. My gran excluded them from her will. My uncle, who was executor, quietly included them when he was divvying up the money (they weren’t his kids), but the amount of money was small - I think we all got around £2000.