Anyone made a will with one beneficiary?

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Question - has anyone made a will with one beneficiary? I have one son who is nearly 18 and am updating my will. I will leave everything to him. I have a partner but we own separate properties etc. Have been advised to give another beneficiary if (god forbid) something happened to my son. I have a big family but they are extended family etc. Am considering a charity but not sure what to do.

My daughter is my only beneficiary.
I have stated that if she pre-deceases me, it all goes to my sister. I have written an expression of wishes asking my sister to distribute the money to other family members at her discretion. I've spoken to her and she is happy with that.

Thanks for your reply. I do have three sisters but they are all quite a bit older than me, although that is a possibility. I do think the idea of asking her to distribute the money is a very good one. I shall give it some thought.

I know it's morbid but you should have at least one fallback option. At the risk of being flamed, charities are fine for specific amounts but can be quite aggressive when there are large sums involved and wouldn't be in a position to give anything to extended family.

Do you have nieces or nephews as your sisters are older?

Gu24 - not flaming at all, but is that not because legally they have to pursue what they're entitled to or some such thing? Could be wrong but I'm sure I read an explanation recently for why some (I suspect we have the same one in mind....) are so very aggressive in court. It read like they didn't have an option.

I would be careful about leaving it all to charity should the absolute worst happen - it could cause horrible ill feeling and fall outs in the family.

I don't know what people tend to do, but is it worth chatting over with whichever sister you're closer to?

DH and I have mirror wills, to each other first, then to 2DC equally, then (eg if all die in a car crash) a 6 way split between nieces/nephew on both sides, a godson and 2 other young relatives.

We had our wills written by a solicitor and they just added relevant clauses.

We did a DIY will for DS when he turned 18, as he had just got a reasonable inheritence. We copied some of words from our will, such that his money goes to DD first, then (again, if die together in car crash) to his 3 cousins.

Will do DD a similar will when she turns 18 next year.

We also updated ours as DS was approaching 18 primarily to take my DB off as an executor.

The solicitor worded it so, if we died together, both kids would become executors at 18, along with DHs sister.

So maybe think of doing same with your DS and one or more of your sisters?

We just thought, if the 2 of us died when they were both just old enough to be executors, it would be a lot to handle so young. Having SIL helping would be an asset. Once they are well into 20s we will probably change it to remove her.

All very morbid I know but necessary..

Thank you for all of your responses. I do see what you mean about the charity issues. It was kind of in the back of my mind. Yes I do have nieces and nephews although I would not say we were particularly close. I am particularly close to one of my sisters and am tempted to put her if only in term of then asking her to do something in particular with the money and overseeing it. Yes it is morbid but has to be done!

We have a charity set up as a fallback on ours as the only family members we would want to leave stuff to are a lot richer than us !

Belindaboom - yes, the charity trustees have a duty to maximise the charity's assets hence aren't able to be "nice" iyswim. I've got experience due to a very messy situation with a family member a few years ago: I spent hours make that days on the phone to the relative explaining over and over again that the charity couldn't just give her what her partner had intended to give her as that wasn't what the will said and it wasn't in their control.