Potential issues with leaving an estate directly to biological grandchildren?

[ChorltonCreamery]

I am driving a neighbour to a solicitor’s appointment next week.

I refused to attend the appointment with her but will sit in the reception while she is in but I have been talking to her about her options though,

She has three children:

One son is divorced and remarried with stepchildren.
One son has a stepchild who has been adopted by him.
One daughter married for nearly three decades.
They all have children.

She wishes to bypass her sons and as a result feels she has to bypass her daughter.

She wants her biological grandchildren to inherit .

She wants to divide assets into thirds so each set of biological grandchildren share a third. So the grandchild who has one sibling would inherit more than the grandchild with two or three siblings.

Are there potential issues with this?

Would the former stepchild who was adopted have any grounds to challenge if the grandchildren are named in the will?

Would her own son be able to challenge on his behalf.

Two of the grandchildren are not yet 18.

She thinks that one son could potentially have more children.

Can anybody think of anything else that needs to be talked about or any potential issues?

Anonanonanonagain

I think she is a lovely lady who is trying to do her best. How is it moral and right to deprive your grandchildren in favour of their stepsiblings? Or for step grandchildren who probably have their own grandparents to benefit from your and your late husband’s hard work?

Why not leave equal amounts to each grandchild? Legally adopted children have the same rights and the same standing as biological children and should be treated the same

I don't think it is moral to exclude an adopted GC.

Really she should leave to the DC, if they want to do a deed of variation straight away for money to go to their own DC then so be it. She should trust her own DC unless she has very good reason not to. Otherwise she is throwing a grenade into their lives.

i agree, though tbh the OP was asking a pretty broad question about potential issues and although the legal side is one specific aspect, the whole moral issue of how you treat your children (or grandchildren) is pretty important.

This woman intention sounds thoroughly despicable. Unless there is a very specific unusual situation any decent parent would want to leave their estate equally among their children, who would then pass it on to their own children in time. What this woman intends sounds likely to cause a whole lot of pain and division.

imo this lady needs to relinquish control. In these days of multiple marriages and blended families we cannot control where the money will go. One of the grandchildren might die before her( or just after) , without children their portion would likely be split between both their parents, meaning an estranged partner might get half. I think in this case it is very difficult to control what happens. It is best for her to split her will between her actual children and request the money be kept in the family and to encourage her children to ensure they have a will.

I would imagine property is worth £900,000. She has spoken in the past about an ISA but have no idea at all re: actual money.

I know this isn’t AIBU and I only wanted to cover bases to ask a proper solicitor but a small holiday home was inherited and her lovely house was bought in the ‘70s in what was a normal suburb but the value has exploded exponentially. She and her late husband worked all their lives.

While she is fit and well now it all might go in care home fees anyway and all this will be academic.

I appreciate you are trying to help your neighbour OP but I really wouldn't try and get legally clever like this, especially as you're not going to be in the room with her and if there's a chance she'll get muddled up with the latin terms. It doesn't sound like an especially complicated will and getting the wording correct and in accordance with all legal principles is the solicitor's job that you/she is paying them for.

She needs to go in and explain in very simple and straightforward English what she wants to happen and why (not the full dramatic history but in outline). I'd say something like;

"Hi Solicitor. I would like to leave all my money to my grandchildren Anna Benny Charlie and Danny in the following divisions (33% to Anna, 33% to be divided between Benny and Charlie and so on). Anna is my oldest son Fred's daughter, Benny and Charlie are my younger son Gary's children and Danny is my daughter Hatty's son. I specifically don't want to leave any money to my own children or to their stepchildren Ian, Jane and Katie. This is because I believe the step children have been provided for adequately by their birth parents (or whatever other reason). Anna and Benny are adults but Charlie and Danny are teenagers so I would like to discuss arrangements if I should die before they are grown up."

That's all the solicitor needs to know (or will enable them to ask the right follow ups subsequently). No need to get fancy with ex partes and ad hocs and trusts and so on, if anything that is more likely to cause confusion and the will to be misdrafted...

This.

She will have to make clear to the solicitor that one of the step-grandchild has been adopted however, as that will need dealt with specifically so as not to leave it open to challenge.

And the adopted one doesn't get anything?

I guess this is the reason for her decision - to ensure that wealth is kept within the bloodline. There is no other way to ensure that her sons don't leave it to second wives who in turn leave it to their kids.

Sons can leave their estates to whomever they want, but it's understandable for grandparents to want to leave it to own DCs.

And yes, such move makes a lot of sense from IHT point of view.

A lovely lady? She sounds like a bitch, not recognising an adopted grandchild or step grandhchildreb.

She is massively, massively overthinking it (with a dash of cruelty thrown in). She should just leave it equally to her children. What they do with it in a generations time when she is long since dead is none of her business.

Should her children choose to leave their estate to their stepchildren and adoptive child that speaks to the loving bonds they have forged over years.

Really not nice to exclude adopted grandchildren
In Scotland her children could claim legal rights in the moveable estate regardless of what the Will says

FGS! why should she leave it to step children??? will their grandparents leave anything to her DGCs?

Sensible lady !

I don't think she should bypass her children at all to only give it to blood grandchildren. She should give it to her children and allow them to split their own inheritance any way they see fit. This i just mean and a way of making sure her own children can't make decisions on their own families.

Legally she can absolutely do this. Has she discussed with her children? Either now or will she after she’s seen the lawyer? She needs to be transparent with the children. However I strongly suspect that there will be ructions in the family that have the potential to very destructive.

Mother of my close friend was coming from a very wealthy family. She inherited a lot but died when my friend was 21. Father remarried and new wife had own kids. Father died and left everything to new wife expecting her to leave it equally to all children.
You can guess the rest.
My friend didn't see a penny from their grandparents multimillion estate. If their grandparents did what this lady wants to do this wouldn't end up like this.

And just to reiterate again the point about IHT. Two IHT on the same estate would practically wipe it out.

Presumably the step grandchildren also have grandparents who will remember them in wills? Would you expect them to leave money to their step grandchildren? FWIW I'm a step child, I was left nothing and expected nothing. My half sister got it all.

To be clear the former-stepchild/ adoptive grandchild was not a baby but around 7 or 8 when her son met his now wife and adopted the child later. This child is now at secondary school year 8 or 9???

Of course she doesn’t see him as a grandchild equal to the others. As for the stepchildren of her other son they have their other parent and grandparents.

I can’t imagine treating an adopted child/grandchild differently. I am in my sixties.

Your friend should will her assets equally to all surviving grandchildren except the one she intends to lose out. I can’t understand why she is dividing it three ways like this.

She might have to do her will again/add a codicil if any of her DC have more children, which you said is a possibility.

She sounds like a horrible woman.

To be fair it's not unheard of for someone to die and thier second spouse get the whole estate as is natural between spouse. Then they change their will to benefit only their children at a later so the spouse who dies first family get nothing. My MILs step mum did that. Her dad died and then her step mum lived quite a bit longer and just didnt leave anything to her, it all went to her step siblings. The sentimental items hurt most as they were nothing to do with the step siblings.

So i sort of see why a grabdparent might want some sort of security that wouldn't happen.

As others have said, assuming she is in England or Wales there are no obvious problems with this from a legal perspective. The only issue would be if one of her children was financially dependent on her or in a very difficult situation financially at the time of death. They may then have a claim through the Inheritance Act.

Whether it is a good idea to leave out her children completely and exclude adopted children and step children is another matter. I can see this causing problems within the family.

However, you shouldn't be trying to give her legal advice. That is what she is paying her solicitor for. Her solicitor will be able to give her much better advice as to the ramifications of her decision than anyone on here.

In England and Wales. In Scotland you can't disinherit your children

Sorry, I didn't know that.

Because, if you were leaving say 100k, in our family one set of grandchildren (6 kids) would get 60k, and the two other families (2kids each) would get 20k. I don’t see why my Bil who has had more kids than he can afford and has already cost my Pil a fortune in bailouts should benefit more! It’s right to give the grandchildren what would have been the parents share imo. Sensible in IHT terms too. I would include the officialy adopted child though.