Inheritance question

[Hewlettthedogsout12]

Please can I get some advice. There are 4 grandchildren...two closer to grandparent. Two not as close. Grandparent has sadly passed away and left a large amount of money to each grandchild but split in the following percentages...33%, 33% (both to closer grandchildren), 16%, 16% to other two. Each will receive a large amount of money as there is a lot involved. I am one of the 33% beneficiaries involved. Other grandchildren are unhappy and feel it should be split 25% each. What would you do? There is around £800k involved so will make a big difference whatever is decided. Thanks

I think it was unkind of the grandparent (unless there is a backstory) but ultimately, assuming they knew what they were doing, it was their choice. Expect for the grandchildren to not have a good relationship moving forward which will also possibly impact on their parents.

You cannot disregard the will, however you could do a deed of variation but (I believe) you would all have to agree. Is that likely?
Ultimately it is the wishes of the deceased that count.

It doesn’t matter what anyone thinks, you have to follow the will.
If you choose to give them some of the money you can via a deed of variation or just send them money when it’s settled but it was your Grandads choice to do this and you should respect that

Do what your grandparent wanted, they chose to do it this way. Their money their choice

Do the 33% ones have same parents? And the 16% ones too?
Does the split give the same amount to each GC as would be the case if all money had been left to the children equally, who had then split it between their own children?

I think it was a really unkind thing of the GP to do, it causes as much trouble for the favoured GC as it does rejection for the others, but the will needs to be distributed as it was written.

What you do with your share is then up to you.

If all the grandchildren, or at least the two major beneficiaries, agree that the money should be split equally as a matter of fairness or to avoid divisions in the family, the executor(s) can apply a Deed of Variation. Whether this should be done is something only those who know the full circumstances of the legacy can judge.

Thanks all. It's such a difficult one as we had sort of been relying on that money for a house move (and given interest rate changes it's the only way it won't fall through), but I just don't want to look like a bitch and cause a fall out if we don't change it to 25% each by deed of variation (or us just doing an informal transfer to them afterwards). I wanted to know what others would do.

Yes the 33% beneficiaries are siblings and the other two are their cousins

I would share to fairly.

I would share it out in equal amounts.

Would the two 16%ers do the same for you if the roles are reversed?

I think you should follow the will as that represents your grandparents wishes.

They wrote the will knowing how they'd like to share out their money - to disregard their explicit wishes is disrespectful.

I think it's the difference of losing roughly £65k-£70k each if we change it to 25% each

@nebulae I really don't know. I think perhaps so but hard to know.

@Hewlettthedogsout12 it's a tough one then. I was in a similar situation a couple of years ago but I knew for sure they wouldn't have done the same for me. So they could whistle for it. They didn't deserve a penny of it anyway, arseholes the pair of them.

Did you know you were getting a larger share? You say you were relying on it....

Presumably the other GC may have been doing to the same. That's not to say you should override GP's wishes but if you're approaching this as a moral dillema that's an odd reasoning.

I am another voting that you follow your grandparent's wishes.
They wrote a will and this is what they wanted. You should honour those wishes.
Everyone should be grateful for what they've been given, not asking for more and disrespecting someone who has passed away.

Has the money been split according to parents? I.e. were there perhaps 3 children and the money's been split equally between each of their offspring? That would be quite usual.

I would feel extremely uncomfortable keeping the larger amount in the circumstances, and would be concerned that it would sour future relationships.

Once the money has passed from your grandparent to you you are entitled to do whatever you want with it and if you choose to share it more equably that's entirely up to you.

However it's difficult to know without the full back story. On the face of it the distribution your GP chose seems pretty unfair. I tend to favour equal shares unless there were very exceptional circumstances.

I think it would depend on the reason why some were closer.

If, for example, the parent of the closer grandchildren was the 'golden child', or they favoured their son's children because he was a son, or because they weren't as closer to some because the didn't like their mother/DIL.

Some of these issues may not be obvious to you as a grandchild.

You also have to think is that difference worth permanently damaging your relationship with your cousins?

However, if they all old enough to have looked at the relationship with their grandparents and decided they didn't want to bother getting closer (assuming no abuse/control by anyone) then I'd be thinking why not keep it as the will wished. But I think I would share equally.

I would do a deed of variation and share it out equally. I would feel guilty if I didn't. Unless there's something particularly dreadful the cousins have done that you're not telling us? They were his grandchildren too, so they should be treated fairly. If it's just a case of them not keeping in touch so much, I don't think that overrules fairness.

But what do your parents and aunts/uncles make of it (the next generation down)? Can they shed any light on why this has happened? The grandparent must have known it would create bad feeling after their death, not a nice way to be remembered. Did the children of the deceased grandparent have nothing left directly to them? I think if I was in your parent's position I would feel the need to make it fair on my nieces and nephews, even at the expense of my own dcs.

Sorry for the confusion @Comety no I didn't know anything at all before our bereavement. In fact I was shocked to be left anything as I presumed it would all go to the children rather than grandchildren so was very touched but we were close. I found out afterwards. Since then we have been been relocating and are in the process of purchasing a house and had planned to use some of the money but have been told that we can't borrow as much now due to the current financial situation so are reliant on the majority of it.

How close are the cousins? This happened in DHs family but shared between six of them. Four got 20% each and two got 10% but the latter two were basically estranged and barely saw the family so there was less of an issue.

No major backstory. Two of the grandchildren (myself included) spent more time with the grandparent as were older and a bit more bonded somehow but younger ones parent wasn't as close so that probably also contributed to why they weren't ever as close. I had thought of trying to meet in the middle somehow but maybe it's a case of all or nothing.