inheritance - what's fair, what's right?

[ForGladOtter]

Hypothetical (not really) situation and I just would like others' take on it:

Two siblings inherit their parents' property which is now for sale. Sibling A is married with two children and is comfortably off. Sibling B is married with one child and is less financially well off. Sibling A would like the proceeds of the sale to be split three ways between the grandchildren. Sibling B would prefer a 50/50 split with the sibling. Sibling A thinks Sibling B is depriving the grandchildren of an equal share. Sibling B feels they are having to give up some their entitlement in favour of Sibling A's children. (Sibling B feels they also have more need of the financial windfall than Sibling A. It is acknowledged that their own circumstance is not the responsibility of the other. But it does feed into how they feel about the request for the 3-way split).

I would love to hear others' thoughts on this.

It has to be 50/50 between siblings. If Sibling A wants to give the money straight to their Dc then they can do that. But otherwise Sibling A’s family gets twice as much as Sibling B.

Sibling A is being greedy and unreasonable.

I have 3 children, my brother has none.

i would expect inheritance to be split 50:50. Number of children is not relevant to me.

Sibling A sounds like a bully. They're already better off than B, and now using having one more kid to try and reduce B's share of the inheritance. OP if you're B, please don't stand for this, insist on 50%.

50/50 split is absolutely fair, appropriate and will be how the lawyers proceed anyway

In uk law, if there is a valid will the will governs. It can specify any distribution — to children, grandchildren, charities, or anyone else.
If there is no will, (Intestacy Rules Apply) the children of the deceased inherit in equal shares. Grandchildren only inherit if their parent (i.e. the child of the deceased) has already died.

Not exactly true. You can do a Deed of Variation to directly pass your inheritance to your children, for example, if you wish.

i feel like the argument would be ended if sibling b said they intend to have another child

I'd say A is a grabby fucker.

Honestly of course the 50/50 split is the only way to go. I bet if person A only had 1 child or if it were reversed then they wouldn’t be wanting it split by no. of grandchildren.

Do what the Will says. You can’t start dragging other relatives in on a whim.

Exactly the same as my situation, only as I said in a pp, our parents have decided to split the inheritance 5 ways among DB, myself and my three DC. I don't know what my DB makes of it.

@ForGladOtter As long as the property was signed over to both siblings and is owned jointly between them with no percentage difference, then the money from the sale should be divided 50/50 between them Absolutely both fair AND morally right. No question

Sibling A cannot insist and has no right to even ask Sibling B to divide the sale proceeds into 3. Very cheeky of her and as others have said, who is better off or how many children there are is totally irrelevant!

Sibling A is a cheeky fucker.

Definitely half and half. Then put into an account for grandchildren for each sibling to use when needed. i.e. Sibling with three children splits their share three ways, sibling with 2 children splits it 50/50 for them. No one has the right to dictate what you do with your money and your children. Follow the will, respect the wishes of the willmaker and provide something positive going forward for your children. Or blow it all on a one in a lifetime hol and tell them all to *off. Whatever suits you. I'd probably go for the account in trust.

There are really only two options:

1. the estate is divided as per the will of the deceased person
2. if there is no will the estate is divided in accordance with the law on intestacy.

Even if you set aside a will, the default option is splitting as if intestate.

To split as proposed may give rise to an additional tax burden as legally it would be an aunt/uncle gifting part of their inheritance to a niece/nephew.

This

50/50 siblings. Sibling A can choose to give all of theirs to their DC iff they are in a position to do so.

A friend went through this recently, she had no children and her siblings basically wanted her to bypass her inheritance between the 8 grandchildren/her siblings' children. It has caused a huge rift. In her situation in addition to this all siblings owned a home and were mostly mortgage free, she and her husband are renters trying to afford a down payment.

If they equally inherit then A is asking B to donate a % of her share to her sister. Wealthy or not that’s just…entitled!

I've had this in the last few years....

Me - 4 dc, dsis - 0 dc

50/50 split on everything - my sister doesn't need to fund my children unless she wants to.

in my family there’s 3 siblings each with 2 kids per sibling so makes no difference to this situation but in my husbands family we have 2 kids his brother & sister in law decided not to have any kids. There’s absolutely no way in hell that my husband (or I) think that he/our kids should get more inheritance simply because we have kids & they don’t. It wouldn’t even be a consideration to me even if they did have kids. The inheritance should be equal between the siblings & if they want to divvy it up between their kids then they can. Sibling A’s family shouldn’t be getting a larger share simply because they chose to have more children

Sib A being very grabby.

Same situation with us & my husbands brother, never ever would the thought even enter our minds that we should get a larger share because we chose to have a larger family & they opted not to have children

Split between siblings. If one sibling wishes to not accept tge inheritance and it go to his/her children instead that is her choice.

50/50 between the siblings. Sibling A's position essentially means her family will receive 2/3 of the inheritance and Sibling B's will receive 1/3. Whereas really the siblings should receive half each. Then when they pass they can leave their own estates equally between their own kids if they wish!

Be very careful OP if the affected parties are still alive. Behind our backs my SIL got my DFIL to not only change the will to 30/70 using her disabled child as an excuse, but also got a 92 year old with obvious dementia certified medically sound of mind. I believe in karma so am not that bothered, she has to live with her actions. We took better care of him than she did. We also have found (still in the process) bank accounts not declared, the fact she removed the bank as the executor and made herself. She has had quite a few letters from our solicitor. Oh she also locked us out and declared the value of the house contents as zero. We let her get away with that as we stupidly had little photos, and thought if she wanted to do that to an elderly man who had lived in the same house for 50 years and whose wife was very house proud she is welcome to that. I cleaned out fridges for the bitch to sell. Some people truly shock me.