How enforceable is a will?

[bucksmanuk]

On reading threads like this, it’s good to hear that internecine family warfare after a death and/or “unsatisfactory will” is alive and well and living elsewhere.

A picture which was a family heirloom promised to me in front of all and sundry many times, went elsewhere when my granddad died. Its worth about £1/4M today, so mustn’t grumble… it’s done and dusted now.

But I am amazed as to how others bring up the subject 40 years later. I can’t miss what I never had.

So my rule is - if it isn’t written down in the will, you ain’t getting it…

[anonymous-user]

oldbanger said:

Breadvan72 said:

oldbanger said:

...Can we each specify that, if we are the surviving party, the estate is split between the two kids instead? Just in case we both croak at the same time ...

That is a request for specific legal advice about a specific estate. Perhaps ask yourself this: who would you expect relevant parties to sue for negligence if the advice that you receive from some anonymous person on a car forum is negligently and damagingly wrong? The question also contradicts itself, as it refers to a surviving party but also to simultaneous deaths. There is by the way some law about the assumptions that are made as to order of dying when two people die in the same incident, for example when both are passengers on an aircraft that crashes. I reiterate, however, that you would be unwise to take estate planning advice from here.

Edited by Breadvan72 on Friday 30th October 13:10

No worries, it was a semi rhetorical question. I know I need actual legal advice. It’s just something which occurred to me recently- if we’ve both left everything to each other and wind up with a situation where intestacy rules kick in, then one of our kids gets everything and her biological sister gets nada

May I add that you get a specialist solicitor and not a general one that does conveyancing and drafts Wills as a sideline.... i.e a STEP member.

I say this as an executor / beneficiary in the 3rd year of a contentious Will dispute.

https://content.step.org/step-directory

[Osinjak]

Ayahuasca said:

I cannot understand how a parent could leave their children anything other than equal shares.

Quite easily really, especially if one child is a monumental bell end and the other isn't (or is less of a bell end perhaps).

[wisbech]

Osinjak said:

Ayahuasca said:

I cannot understand how a parent could leave their children anything other than equal shares.

Quite easily really, especially if one child is a monumental bell end and the other isn't (or is less of a bell end perhaps).

non bell end reasons I have seen:

One kid has more needs than the others (disabled) and the parents want to make sure they are OK
One kid has taken all the burden of looking after parent(s) in old age, so gets paid for it
The family has an asset (usually a farm) that just won't work if split, and the parents don't want it to be sold 'out of the family'. One kid is groomed to be the heir

[zedstar]

Ayahuasca said:

I cannot understand how a parent could leave their children anything other than equal shares.

'Equal' is a very broad term and not easily defined. Unless both children have had an equal input into what is being inherited then an equal split may not be 'fair', in the asian community it's very common for sons (or one son) to be given the responsibility of helping/working in the family businesses etc, living at home and looking after the parents/their investments/growing the family 'wealth' and I've never seen one be paid a proper commercial salary for it, so IMO they deserve more when there's an inheritance.

Although when there's fallouts I don't think its ever about the pounds, its more about the 'fairness'. A lot of this could be avoided if parents actively had a conversation about the will and asked for their children input.

[Mr Tidy]

Ayahuasca said:

I cannot understand how a parent could leave their children anything other than equal shares.

I'm about to find out how it works out as my dear old Mum passed away this morning at 98 in her residential home before any of us could get there.

But I'm pretty sure it will all work out OK as all of the beneficiaries knew what her will contained and it was equal handed - we've also always been on speaking terms.

[anonymous-user]

I am sorry for your loss.

[Mr Tidy]

Breadvan72 said:

I am sorry for your loss.

Much appreciated BV.

As sad as it is I feel like we had already lost her in March because of Covid as the first lockdown didn't permit visits to residential/care homes, whereas the latest version seems to be encouraging visits. Too late now.

[hidetheelephants]

Mr Tidy said:

Sheepshanks said:

He didn't have to do it at all - he could have renounced his position as Executor, or even handed it to a solicitor to deal with.

I've done it myself once and jointly a couple of times and it's not a job I'd do if I didn't want to.

No I realise he could have walked away, but thankfully he has a bit more self-respect than that.

More a case of finding a solicitor to take it on? Meanspiritedly make it one with a reputation for shanking the job of executor, handing it to them in the knowledge that the deceased's estate will be squandered through incompetence and not much will end up in the hands of the widow? If neither party had much of a relationship with him why feel any sense of duty?