Arranging a will when you don’t have children

[Serialcatmum]

Hi,

I don’t have children, looks like I probably won’t be having children. My husband and I were recently discussing our life insurance/ what will happen to our house when we pass.
I have suggested we write a will and identify that in the case we don’t have children we identify our nieces and nephew (2 his side, 1 mine) as the ones that will inherit everything. So, what’s the best way to do that? As in should we split it 3 ways? Or should my half go to my blood nephew and his half be split between his 2 blood nieces?!

I just don’t know how people usually do this!!!

It seems overly complicated to split things according to blood relation as it is unlikely that you will die together so presummably your spouse will inherit when you die and vice versa. As you don't know how many nieces and nephews there will be when the surviving spouse passes away, you write it along the lines of 'my sister Mary's and my husband's brother Andrew's children will get an equal share of my estate, bar legacies X, y, z (should you wish to leave certain gifts to other people or charities and so on). If no children survive, then their issue will get the share of their parent, (and so on), if there is no issue then the share will pass to surviving cousins (blah blah).
Though you can write your own Wills, it is prudent to get it done by a lawyer, who could advise you on the correct wording.