if you and dh/p both die will you dcs' named guardian need to move house? what did you put in the will?

[hatwoman]

should the worse happen we would like db and sil to look after dds. they live, with my d. neice, in a 2 bed house. so they would definitely need to move. obviously we would need to provide for that - but I can't quite work out how it should be done. we can't be unique - I'm sure most potential guardians don't have a couple of spare bedrooms up their sleeves. is there a norm here? do people leave funds directly to the guardians? or to the dcs? I almsot feel a bit uncomfortable with the idea of dcs having a (financial) stake in db/sil/dn's house iyswim. I certainly couldn't have anything that wd enable dds to claim that stake at some point and, effectively, force db to sell. I want db to be fully secure. (I do trust my children! I don't think they'd thrwo db out....but just want to think through alll eventualities!) perhaps it can done so that such a stake is only realisable when db and sil go their mortal way....

We are in the lucky position that my DB and SIL have room for my two. I would imagine that you could leav your house to your DC's therefore providing a roof over there head or else stipulate that the house is sold to provide a larger house for their guardians and your DC's. Would suggest you talk to a solicitor about this one.

I'll watch this with interest. We are just in the process of getting our arse in gear to sort this out too.

We've set our will up so that DB & SIL will get immediate funds to take leave from work etc to get the DCs (kind of like an insurance policy).

Our estate will be in trust for the DCs until they are 25, but DB is the executor while the DCs are under age. As such he can use the money as necessary to buy new car/renovate house/move house as necessary to accommodate DCs.

We trust DB so not an issue. Theoretically he could take the entire estate and blow it, but the GPs would step in before that happened

we've done something similar to potoroo - i.e. leaving in trust to dc and having provisions for the guardian to access funds where necessary for the benefit of dc (e.g. to fund bigger house/education/holidays/etc) it's quite common and your solicitor should be able to advise on appropriate clauses.

We've also done similar to potoroo - dcs get everything in the will but DB4 is an executor (he and SIL are guardians) so can technically spend money he sees fit to ensure that they are taken care of. They live in a decent-sized house but already have 3 dc themselves so if they got our two as well, they meay want to move/extend and I wouldn't complain about them moving dcs inheritance to help fund it. We trust him, but DB2 is also an executor so there is some sort of 'independent' check that he isn't just blowing the cash on something else.

Yep, we've done similar to the others - our kids would go to SIL & BIL, with my brother and another BIL as executors. The estate would go into trust, and the executors would release cash as needed -say to extend a home, or contribute to buying a new larger one. I think this is the standard way round it.

thanks all. so...let's say your dbs/sils etc need £50k to move to a bigger house. is that £50k - released from the trust - considered spent, and the house owned by db/sil? or is £50k of the purchase made kind on behalf of the dcs? so it's almost as if they part-own the house?

A will? My will?

Do I need to write one? Can I just write it in a word document or does it need to go via a solicitor?

Yet another thing I have failed in

hatwoman surely the norm is that you don't die? It is all hypothetical and won;t ever actully have to be implemented?

Good point hatwoman,one I know my will doesnt cover.If I'd given it any thought I'd presume my dcs were treated as dcs of the "new" family and accorded the same rights as their cousins.

Agree that inheritance funds should be made available to guardians for housing purposes, if needed.

But what happens to those funds when the dc are grown? Do the guardians keep the bigger house/house with extension etc as a 'thank you legacy' or is there some provision for funds to revert to dc?

TBH if DB and SIL have been good enough to raise kids that aren't their own then I won't begrudge them the larger house/car/whatever once my dc have left home (they'd still have whatever else is left from our estate, which with life insurance etc should be plenty). DB won't go and buy a mansion or anything, just something of a suitable size and I know my other DB who is executor wouldn't let him take the p* anyhoo....

My parents will have DS if anything happens to us. They're still in the two-bed bungalow they were in when I was growing up, so I assume that they would just turn my room back from their computer/DVDs/ironing/guest room into a child's room.

We don't own our home so don't have a lot to leave - just really a life assurance thing through my pension which is 4x my salary (not much as I'm part time). I've set it so 75% of the total will go to my parents for the costs in raising DS, and 25% will go in trust for him.

doubleinstructions and carikube - you're both confirming my thoughts. clearly this (hypothetical) situation is not at all unusual and i guess the solicitor will know what to do. - double - yes, in the long term dcs wd inherit it via db/sil i guess. and yes, all i really want is to ensure db/sil and all 3 kids are as secure as can be...in the long term.