Cowardly Will Question

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Discussion

TwigtheWonderkid

Original Poster:

44,773 posts

158 months

Wednesday 27th November
quotequote all
Mr A wants to leave a will, where his estate goes equally to his 2 sisters, Mrs B & Mrs C. But for reasons I won't bore you with, he can't leave the money to his sisters, so needs to leave it to their children. Don't ask why, just take it as read.

Can he draft a will saying "I leave 50% of my estate to the children of Mrs B and 50% of my estate to the children of Mrs C" ? And leave to at that, without naming the children? Or does he have to name them? Problem is Mrs B has 3 kids and Mrs C has 2 kids and 2 stepkids. If he leaves the money to named kids, and doesn't include the stepkids, Mrs B's side of the family 3/5 of the estate and Mrs C, 2/5 of the estate. If he names the stepkids, Mrs B's side get 3/7 and Mrs C's side 4/7.

He wants to be a coward and not deal with the stepkid inclusion issue at all. He just wants to leave 50% to the kids of each sister, and Mrs C can have the fallout over whether to split her families half between just her biological kids or her own and her husband's kids from his 1st marriage.

For the record, I am not Mr A, although I am also a coward.


VTC

2,087 posts

192 months

Wednesday 27th November
quotequote all
My Mother Passed this Feb
her will said to the grandchildren and not to include any step childrem so she was quite specific.
the solicitor etc will draw up anything as required and the executors can deal with any bickering .

bompey

574 posts

243 months

Wednesday 27th November
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[quote=
He wants to be a coward and not deal with the stepkid inclusion issue at all. He just wants to leave 50% to the kids of each sister, and Mrs C can have the fallout over whether to split her families half between just her biological kids or her own and her husband's kids from his 1st marriage.


[/quote]

Make sure you see a solicitor and do it properly, but yes it can be done. You can be as specific or ambiguous as you want.

BertBert

19,758 posts

219 months

Wednesday 27th November
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I don't think it can be done in the way stated so that Mrs C has discretion on what constitutes kids. The wording of the will will technically determine what kids are included.

LimmerickLad

2,266 posts

23 months

Wednesday 27th November
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Not sure you can leave something to somebody and also stipulate what they do with it?

eta ignore ^^^^^^^^^ I think I misread OP's post drunk

Edited by LimmerickLad on Wednesday 27th November 17:49

Caddyshack

11,924 posts

214 months

Wednesday 27th November
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You could add a memo of wishes which would be instructions, ideally to trustees and you could ask them only to consider certain people for certain reasons etc

Somewhatfoolish

4,664 posts

194 months

Wednesday 27th November
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BertBert said:
I don't think it can be done in the way stated so that Mrs C has discretion on what constitutes kids. The wording of the will will technically determine what kids are included.
Couldn't Mrs C do a deed of variation in any case?

Mr A needs to be less cowardly though. Their position is totally illogical. Either they'll be a ghost, soul tormented forever by this cowardice and forced to haunt the residence of Mrs C until released in some kind of quasi-satanic ceremony by the step kids... or it makes no difference whatsoever because they'll be dead.

Caddyshack

11,924 posts

214 months

Wednesday 27th November
quotequote all
Somewhatfoolish said:
BertBert said:
I don't think it can be done in the way stated so that Mrs C has discretion on what constitutes kids. The wording of the will will technically determine what kids are included.
Couldn't Mrs C do a deed of variation in any case?

Mr A needs to be less cowardly though. Their position is totally illogical. Either they'll be a ghost, soul tormented forever by this cowardice and forced to haunt the residence of Mrs C until released in some kind of quasi-satanic ceremony by the step kids... or it makes no difference whatsoever because they'll be dead.
Exactly, they are dead and gone with nothing to ever see, feel or hear again

Bill

54,385 posts

263 months

Wednesday 27th November
quotequote all
Somewhatfoolish said:
Couldn't Mrs C do a deed of variation in any case?
I think all recipients need to agree. And it would be Mrs C's kids who'd need to agree to splitting their 2/5 4 ways.

TownIdiot

1,876 posts

7 months

Wednesday 27th November
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When you say "can't leave to the sisters" do you mean "doesn't want to"?

C69

596 posts

20 months

Wednesday 27th November
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My understanding is that if you write a will and name "my children" as beneficiaries, then this doesn't include step children. Step children have to be specifically mentioned if they're going to inherit anything.

Not sure if that would apply if you named "the children" of other people as beneficiaries, though.

Definitely one for a solicitor, to ensure that the wording is unambiguous and the will achieves the desired outcomes.

Sheepshanks

35,128 posts

127 months

Wednesday 27th November
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C69 said:
My understanding is that if you write a will and name "my children" as beneficiaries, then this doesn't include step children. Step children have to be specifically mentioned if they're going to inherit anything.

Not sure if that would apply if you named "the children" of other people as beneficiaries, though.

Definitely one for a solicitor, to ensure that the wording is unambiguous and the will achieves the desired outcomes.
Father-in-law's Will referred to his "issue". It was a little awkward as one of his sons pre-deceased him by a couple of years, so that son's wife didn't get anything. He (father-in-law) was aware of that but declined to change his Will.

Father-in-law did have all his grandchildren named in his Will but got very miffed that he wasn't seeing one set, so he took them all out - which was irritating to us as our kids did a lot for him.

C4ME

1,489 posts

219 months

Wednesday 27th November
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Needs to be specific unless he wants them to waste money arguing over the will. If the will is to be written well enough to avoid arguments then you end up at the same place as just naming the beneficiaries specifically.

Edited by C4ME on Wednesday 27th November 19:14

Steve H

5,817 posts

203 months

Wednesday 27th November
quotequote all
Is there any reason why the will can’t just allocate 25% of the estate each to two of the kids by name and 16.6% each to three others?

TwigtheWonderkid

Original Poster:

44,773 posts

158 months

Wednesday 27th November
quotequote all
TownIdiot said:
When you say "can't leave to the sisters" do you mean "doesn't want to"?
It doesn't matter. All that matters is that it isn't happening.

dxg

8,818 posts

268 months

Wednesday 27th November
quotequote all
What age are the kids? And are the sums large?

In other words, do you need someone (other than the sisters) to look after the money until the kids are old enough?

TwigtheWonderkid

Original Poster:

44,773 posts

158 months

Wednesday 27th November
quotequote all
Steve H said:
Is there any reason why the will can’t just allocate 25% of the estate each to two of the kids by name and 16.6% each to three others?
He could do, but that's including the step kids. he doesn't want to include or exclude them. He wants that to be Mrs C's problem. If, as said above, just saying children excludes step children, he'll be fine with that. No one (apart from me) will know he knew they would be excluded.

After his death, he doesn't want Mrs C to think he excluded them. And he doesn't want Mrs B to think he included them to the financial detriment of his biological family. As I said in the title, cowardly.

Edited by TwigtheWonderkid on Wednesday 27th November 20:43

TownIdiot

1,876 posts

7 months

Wednesday 27th November
quotequote all
TwigtheWonderkid said:
TownIdiot said:
When you say "can't leave to the sisters" do you mean "doesn't want to"?
It doesn't matter. All that matters is that it isn't happening.
In a way it does
As they will have no say what happens to the dough once they are 6 ft under.
Quick family discussion deed of variation signed and that's that.
There is definitely a wording that allows for inheritance by natural offspring only

TwigtheWonderkid

Original Poster:

44,773 posts

158 months

Wednesday 27th November
quotequote all
TownIdiot said:
TwigtheWonderkid said:
TownIdiot said:
When you say "can't leave to the sisters" do you mean "doesn't want to"?
It doesn't matter. All that matters is that it isn't happening.
In a way it does
As they will have no say what happens to the dough once they are 6 ft under.
That's the point. He doesn't want a say, beyond it going to his sisters' kids. He doesn't want to take a position in the stepchildren debate.

Steve H

5,817 posts

203 months

Wednesday 27th November
quotequote all
TwigtheWonderkid said:
Steve H said:
Is there any reason why the will can’t just allocate 25% of the estate each to two of the kids by name and 16.6% each to three others?
He could do, but that's including the step kids. he doesn't want to include or exclude them. He wants that to be Mrs C's problem. If, as said above, just saying children excludes step children, he'll be fine with that. No one (apart from me) will know he knew they would be excluded.

After his death, he doesn't want Mrs C to think he excluded them. And he doesn't want Mrs B to think he included them to the financial detriment of his biological family. As I said in the title, cowardly.

Edited by TwigtheWonderkid on Wednesday 27th November 20:43
Yea, there’s not much fixing that unless he grows a pair paperbag