Legal advice

[MrsHench]

Looking for some legal advice please!
Or advice from anyone who's been in a similar situation.
Me and my hubby are wanting to draw up our Wills (first time ever for both.) He has 2 grown up children, both in their 30's from a previous marriage. One is married but we have no contact. The other is living with partner and has 2 children. We have 3 grown up children together, all living with us and in their 20's. How did you navigate drawing up the Will?
The Solicitor we have instructed drew up a very shoddy draft 'Mirror' but it really doesn't say much. Cost £550. They have concentrated on splitting the house 5 ways. They didn't take into consideration our savings, shares, pensions. Any advice will be greatly received. TIA🙏

Where do you want your money and assets to go when you die?

The legal advice will tell you how to achieve that, but it won't tell you what your personal wishes are.

Mirror wills can be a problem as the surviving spouse could go on to remarry rendering the will void, or they could just change the will.

better of to split assets 50/50 in wills, and give life interest to the surviving spouse so that your share is protected from above possibilities and vis versa.

If you are not retired, it is likely that your pensions will not be part of your estate so what happens to them is not governed by your will.

Savings and shares are, of course, part of your estate so will be governed by your will. Without knowing the exact wording of the draft will it is impossible to know whether it is shoddy. It may be you have misunderstood. The term "property" in a will doesn't just mean a house. It also covers investments, bank accounts, cars and so on. So if the will splits your property 5 ways, it does cover your savings, shares, etc.

As the first poster says, it isn't the job of the solicitor to tell you how to split your estate. It is there job to put together a will that ensures your estate will be split the way you want.

Every situation is different, but a common approach is to sever the joint tenancy in the house (assuming it is owned as joint tenants) so that you each own 50%, then you leave your husband a life interest in your half of the house with it then passing to the children, and he does the same with his half of the house. That guarantees the children will inherit no matter what happens. With mirror wills, this is not guaranteed. The survivor can change their will after the first spouse dies, or they may remarry without making a new will, resulting in their estate going to their new spouse.

I would just repeat what all the other pp's have said.

At the end of the day, it is entirely down to you how you wish to leave your estate.

If you own your home as 'joint tenants' then you each jointly own the whole home (just like with a joint bank account) and the house will go to the surviving spouse regardless of what any will says.

If you change the ownership to 'tenants in common' then you each own a separate 50% of the home and you can leave your own 50% to whoever you like.

So, for example, you may choose to leave your 50% to your children. It would also be wise to make a provision that your DH can remain living in the home if he survives you.

Likewise, your DH can choose to leave his 50% to whoever he likes. How he splits his estate between his children with you and his children from his previous marriage is entirely up to him. But a will can be written to accomplish any sort of split that he might come up with.

Again, it would be wise to include a provision that you can remain living in the home if you survive him.

If you are unhappy with the person who wrote this will then you may wish to speak to another solicitor. There is a body called the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP). These are solicitors who have a lot of experience of dealing with wills and related issues, just like yours.

If you search something like "STEP solicitor [name of your town]" then that will provide a list of local STEP qualified solititors local to you.

In a case like yours this is how I would see it:

House owned as TiC.

You each have 50% of house and shared assets.

Your share is split between your 3 children, His is split between his 5 children.

Leave the surviving partner a life interest on the house - or maybe at this stage, 5 years - you can review as you get older and decide if it should be for life.

Discuss something like that with the solicitor?