Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Money matters

Find financial and money-saving discussions including debt and pension chat on our Money forum. If you're looking for ways to make your money to go further, sign up to our Moneysaver emails here.

What’s usual for wills with stepkids?

33 replies

Jajajaj · 18/02/2022 14:18

My and DH have 2 young children. He has 2 older teenagers from his previous marriage. We need to make wills but I’m on sure what’s the norm? Mirror wills with it all equally split between the 4 kids when we both die? Or if my DH goes first, leaving a percentage to the kids then and the other percentage to me?

OP posts:
Sparkle123r · 18/02/2022 14:34

Your will can have whatever you want it to say. You need to think about what you would want to happen in the event of your deaths. Whatever you do, you would have to name his children in yours, otherwise they would be beneficiaries as they are biologically not yours.

If your husband dies first, leaving a percentage of his entire estate to all children and a percentage to you, this may mean selling your home to meet this. Is that something you are both OK with? It may all seem amicable right now, but money does crazy things to people.

You really should get proper legal advice. Our wills are mirror wills. We leave everything to each other in the first instance. If we both die, everything is for our children and in the event (of some freak accident) we all die together, we have named the siblings our estate should be split between (not all)

PolkaSpace · 18/02/2022 14:38

Go to a solicitor. We have it so his half is goes to me in trust then split between his kids. My half goes to him in trust then to my child.

Chasingsquirrels · 18/02/2022 14:41

You each have to consider (and preferably discuss) what you each want to happen in the event of your death.
There are lots of different scenarios you could each put in place.
Have a read around, think and talk about your options, then make wills.

Jajajaj · 18/02/2022 14:49

@PolkaSpace

Go to a solicitor. We have it so his half is goes to me in trust then split between his kids. My half goes to him in trust then to my child.
Do you have a house together? When you say his half goes to you in trust is that his money? Which means you can’t touch it?
OP posts:
OverFebruary · 18/02/2022 14:50

Definitely see a solicitor. Both of my parents have remarried and both couples have set up trusts to protect their money for their children from previous marriages, especially should someone re-marry after a death - ie should my DSM re-marry, my father's money is protected from being willed by her to her new husband, and vice versa.

Jajajaj · 18/02/2022 14:57

@OverFebruary

Definitely see a solicitor. Both of my parents have remarried and both couples have set up trusts to protect their money for their children from previous marriages, especially should someone re-marry after a death - ie should my DSM re-marry, my father's money is protected from being willed by her to her new husband, and vice versa.
When you say your fathers money is protected, does that mean none of his money goes to your DSM?
OP posts:
ViceLikeBlip · 18/02/2022 15:00

My mum and stepfather did it so that everything passed to my step father when my mum died. When he dies, his previous kids and her previous kids will each get one "share" and their joints kids will get "two shares". Just an example of one way to do it.

PolkaSpace · 18/02/2022 15:14

Do you have a house together? When you say his half goes to you in trust is that his money? Which means you can’t touch it? we do we own half each. It's set up so I can live in the house until I remarry or die and can choose to downsize if the trustee agrees.

PolkaSpace · 18/02/2022 15:15

It's important to get it written down with a solicitor. It needs to be as watertight as possible. DH for example was expected to show he had provided for his kids elsewhere so sorted out his pension beneficiaries so they benefit

coodawoodashooda · 18/02/2022 15:21

Id get separate life insurance so your two kids end up with substantial monetary assets that are guaranteed to go directly to them. Im assuming your earning potential took a hit because of pregnancy, maternity leave etc. I wouldn't want my kids penalised because of that. Equally i can't imagine being loyal to step kids to be prepared to fund them but can imagine not everyone feels like that.

Jajajaj · 18/02/2022 15:30

@coodawoodashooda

Id get separate life insurance so your two kids end up with substantial monetary assets that are guaranteed to go directly to them. Im assuming your earning potential took a hit because of pregnancy, maternity leave etc. I wouldn't want my kids penalised because of that. Equally i can't imagine being loyal to step kids to be prepared to fund them but can imagine not everyone feels like that.
How do you mean my kids could be penalised because my earnings took a hit? Not being confrontational just wondered if I have overlooked something.
OP posts:
Jajajaj · 18/02/2022 15:32

@ViceLikeBlip

My mum and stepfather did it so that everything passed to my step father when my mum died. When he dies, his previous kids and her previous kids will each get one "share" and their joints kids will get "two shares". Just an example of one way to do it.
Interesting. How do you feel about this? I think I’d feel not as important as the kids they’d had together.
OP posts:
Justbecause88 · 18/02/2022 15:39

I have just done my own will because I own a property separate to DH and he has 2 DC from his first marriage. My flat will be in a trust for my biological DC with a lifetime interest to DH. So he can live there/sell it and buy somewhere if equal/greater value/rent it out but ultimately when he dies it will all go to my DC. I also have life insurance to pay off the mortgage. When we buy together we will do something similar with the proportion of the house we each own.

TeapotCollection · 18/02/2022 15:46

This comes up quite often on here. It’s not something that affects me but I’ve always thought the fairest way is that you divide everything in half, your half is split between your 2 and his half is split between his 4. Yes that means yours will get more but his other 2 may well inherit from their other parent

ThatPosterIsSoRight · 18/02/2022 15:53

@ViceLikeBlip

My mum and stepfather did it so that everything passed to my step father when my mum died. When he dies, his previous kids and her previous kids will each get one "share" and their joints kids will get "two shares". Just an example of one way to do it.
That puts the mum’s own children at risk of not receiving anything - the step dad could change his will so it all goes to his biological children. Or to the cats home.

(Happened to FIL. His step mother’s nephew got everything).

maxelly · 18/02/2022 15:55

You do need to talk to (a) your DH and (b) a solicitor about this really, MN is great for advice but people are not always totally clear about what they mean and it can be confusing so don't base any major life decisions. I also don't think there's a singular 'norm' as everyone's circumstances are different and you also need to distinguish between physical assets (usually the marital home but sometimes there are other properties such as a holiday home or investments to take into account, also cars, any valuable jewellery or antiques or similar), then there is cash assets like savings, stocks and shares and so on, then there are pension funds. How these things are treated can vary, you don't have to leave everything to one person or into a single trust so you might want to leave your house to your spouse but your cash and savings to the DC, for instance.

So for example, it's very common that spouses want the surviving partner to be able to live in the marital home for the rest of their lives/until they need to go into care but ultimately to pass on to their children, so you can create a property trust for the DC giving a life interest to the surviving spouse. "In trust for X with a life interest to Y" means X owns the thing but Y can use it for the rest of their life, so if it was a house Y can live there but can't sell it, when Y dies (or remarries or moves out of the house or whatever conditions you have put onto the trust) X gets to either live there or sell it and take the money. It's normal to nominate trustees who have a responsibility to look after X's interests and make sure Y doesn't try and sell up and pocket the cash or damage the asset. The trust can be for all the children in whatever shares you like, so DH could leave his half share in equal %s to all his DC including the SC and you could leave yours just to your DC, that's fairly common. So for example your DH has 2 children from his previous marriage, you have 1 and then you have one child together. Your DC has 3 children so he divides his 50% in 3 equal shares to them both, you have 2 and do 2 equal shares, so DH's 2 children with his ex get 17% of the house each, your child with your ex gets 25% and your child together gets 42%. This is usually the fair thing to do where the step children can also expect an inheritance from their other parent, if not it can feel a little unequal so you might want to consider equal shares, it's up to you.

To do this though you usually need to own the house as tenants in common, not joint beneficial tenants so you may need to investigate swapping the ownership around if you don't already. If you own it as joint beneficial tenants the ownership automatically passes in full to the surviving partner on the death of the other tenant, it's then theirs to do as they like with, you and DH could make mirror wills so whatever order you die in the house is left first to the surviving spouse then to the DC in whatever proportions you decide is fair but there's nothing stopping the survivor subsequently changing their will and they could in theory then choose to remarry and leave everything to their new spouse or cut the step children out or indeed leave it all to the donkey sanctuary so this involves a fair amount of trust/risk which the life interest system avoids.

Cash assets/ 'Money' is often treated differently, you can in theory also leave these in trust for the DC with a life interest to the spouse (or an interest until remarriage or whatever) but this usually means the spouse can't touch the capital, they can only spend the interest, so if you are relying on the money to live off in old age this may not work. And again it only works with separately owned assets, if it's in a joint bank account for instance everything will automatically go to the survivor. You can also leave other assets in trust, e.g. if your DH had some family jewellery he eventually wanted to pass to his DD but for you to be able to wear and use in your lifetime, this could be included in a trust so you wouldn't be able to flog it off - normally people trust one another over this kind of thing but I have seen it go wrong so anything particularly precious it is worth specifying in your will.

ViceLikeBlip · 18/02/2022 15:57

@Jajajaj I'm completely fine with this because a) I also have my own dad, and b) we're not talking enormous sums of money! It seems the fairest way in our particular situation. My stepfather brought more financially to the marriage than my mum, but then his ex married someone very rich, so my step brothers have a very wealthy step father of their own who they might inherit off.

You can't account for every single possibility. Maybe my dad won't have anything to leave, maybe my step father won't end up with anything to leave. Maybe he'll sneakily give it away bit by bit to his own children before he dies. At the end of the day, I think of inheritance as a bonus, not a right 🤷‍♀️

ditalini · 18/02/2022 15:57

In fairly blunt terms, will your step children's other family leave money in their wills to your biological children? If no, then you should consider why you would leave money to them?

Obviously there are lots of good reasons why you would feel that you wanted to leave them money and you should do what feels right to you, but you are under no moral obligation, neither is it "unfair" to leave your half of the family assets to your biological children alone.

What is much less reasonable is for your stepchildren to have nothing from their parent because everything transfers to you, so your dh should reflect the fact that he has four children in his will.

The tricky issue can be (in the worst case scenario of your dh's early death) how your stepchildren would access this inheritence in a situation where you might still have two small children to raise and not be in a position to give them many/any of your dh's material assets. Life insurance can help with this. It's reasonable for you to have a life interest in an important asset such as your house.

coodawoodashooda · 18/02/2022 16:13

Okay. Wife and husband get married. He already has 2 kids. At that point you'd have made up a will and his children, the only children at that point, would be likely to inherit most of the marital pot. Say at that point you are both equal earners. You go on to have a baby. Your earnings would have been affected by mat leave. Oh im going on. Im not sure how to explain what i mean. I guess with the variables you describe id want to secure my children's future by eliminating the variables.

coodawoodashooda · 18/02/2022 16:43

@ditalini

In fairly blunt terms, will your step children's other family leave money in their wills to your biological children? If no, then you should consider why you would leave money to them?

Obviously there are lots of good reasons why you would feel that you wanted to leave them money and you should do what feels right to you, but you are under no moral obligation, neither is it "unfair" to leave your half of the family assets to your biological children alone.

What is much less reasonable is for your stepchildren to have nothing from their parent because everything transfers to you, so your dh should reflect the fact that he has four children in his will.

The tricky issue can be (in the worst case scenario of your dh's early death) how your stepchildren would access this inheritence in a situation where you might still have two small children to raise and not be in a position to give them many/any of your dh's material assets. Life insurance can help with this. It's reasonable for you to have a life interest in an important asset such as your house.

This is kind of what I was trying to say. Equally if you die first and your h remarries, maybe even to someone who also has children, where would that leave your children? Or what if your h remarries someone who turns out to be horrible. Your h then gets divorced and has to pay money to his xw. That money could be money that is from your current marital pot and wouldn't therefore be available to leave your children. Wouldn't you rather guarantee those variables wouldn't impact on your children getting something, for example from life insurance.
OverFebruary · 18/02/2022 21:07

So basically my DSM can access money via a trust as and when she requires it but I has to be approved by the trust, but it means that what is left cannot be left to anyone other than his children, and vice versa.

OverFebruary · 18/02/2022 21:10

I would like to add that obviously the trust is a completely third party to any children involved.

coodawoodashooda · 18/02/2022 21:24

That's why I think your own life insurance would be good. It would mean that you make provision for 2 children. He makes provision for 4 and the rest of your assets are protected, as best as you can, with the varying circumstances that could become a possibility.

coodawoodashooda · 19/02/2022 09:46

I hope this thread hasn't upset you op?

HollowTalk · 19/02/2022 09:53

@ViceLikeBlip

My mum and stepfather did it so that everything passed to my step father when my mum died. When he dies, his previous kids and her previous kids will each get one "share" and their joints kids will get "two shares". Just an example of one way to do it.
But what if he remarries? And what if the person he marries has children?
Swipe left for the next trending thread