Wills - leaving to children or grandchildren?

We have said that each GC living at the time if our death should receive 10% of the estate and the rest divided equally between our children. The monies should be put in trust until they are 18.

My brother and I both have two children and both have an unmarried child and one with two children.
Unbeknown to each of us until it was mentioned recently it turns out we have each left half to our unmarried child and the other half is split between the two DGC and in my case has been put in trust until they are 20.

My grandchildren are very young yet only 6. When I divorced I made a new will leaving everything to my 2 daughters 50-50 . I have spoken to them about it and trust them to use some of the money for the granddaughters when they are older, university, cars etc . Younger daughter does not have children and does not want any but literally lives next door to her sister and plays a huge part in her nieces lives, she is named as legal guardian if anything happens to girls parents. So I have left it like that I will not have a huge estate just one small property and whatever modest savings I may have at the time.

I can't help feeling a bit sorry for your married child, nina...

We are still ,very late in the day, trying to make up our minds about changing our wills.Our family life is complicated to say the least and someone is going to be put out no matter what we decide to do.

All that is supposing there's anything left after paying our care costs

We are trying to spend it all before we go. They will have a house between them when we die and we are giving theDGCs money into bank accounts for when they are off to uni. Wills say they are executors and half each.

if I left what ever it is I have left at that time...50/50 for 2 dds, does it mean that their partners/ husbands are entitled to it as well? anyone ? one is not married has no partner at the the other is married,I understand that when I am no longer here I cannot dictate where the money goes, once it has gone to DDs.

bikergran I believe that once a dd would receive an inheritance, it is her asset to deal with as she wishes. However, should a dd and dh divorce I think this asset (and any assets she may have) would be taken into account when sorting out finances.

You can state a wish in your Will as to how you may like the money used, but it is only a wish.

hmmmm! thanks for that info Coolgran

We have left all our estate to be divided between our 3 children, with a proviso that they should share some of it with their own children if they are able to. We wanted to leave it up to them - they know we would like the GC to have something, but each can afford different amounts. If we had left a set sum (or percentage) to the GC, it might have left only a small amount for the children. There is a a huge discrepancy between them all in terms of standard of living and wealth, and we did not want the "poorer" of the children to miss out because it had all skipped a generation.

I trust the children to respect our wishes.

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If there is anything left it will go to our DC.
I would like to leave some to the DGC but DH is adamant that it should go to the DC and for them to give to their own children if they wish.
As one DC has no children I suppose it is the fairest way to do it.

bikergran the money would go to the DDs and then it would be up to them to decide what to do with it and to make a will (unless they got divorced, in which case as Coolgran said).

We have a dilemma as we have 5 children but our eldest son is disabled and has no spouse (now!!!) He is in much greater need than the others and we thought about giving him one third (ie two sixths) and the others one sixth. He, however, has a habit of 'treating' himself. We also have 6 DGC and 2 step grandchildren.

I also have 3 nice rings and three daughters - so why do they all want the same one?

I also have 3 nice rings and three daughters - so why do they all want the same one?
That's daughters for you

I have recently changed my will. I have 2 sons. I son with a difficult wife and 2 kids. So 1 son get half of the inheritance and the one with kids has his half split. 50% of whats left to him and 25% each to the grand kids. this is I am sorry to say in some way to protect some of the monies from the DIL!. Should their circumstances change i would consider changing the will back to a 50/50 spilt between my sons!

It's a really difficult one this. At the moment it is split equally between our three children, but if I turn out to be the remaining one, I think I will have it divided equally between our children and the grandchildren. I would hate to cause any bad feeling though.

Perhaps Whitewave's idea is the best way to do it.

My younger DD works hard for her living. Elder DD (the married one) does seem to have things comparatively easy. Like I say, really difficult.

I think my children having a happy family relationship is the most important thing though. I would hate my family to be at odds with each other.

That's right, jbf.

One DC has two children, one has one child and the other none (as yet).
Should we die then she has children it wouldn't seem fair that some DGC inherited but those who may arrive afterwards would get nothing.

Let the DC sort out how they spend it - I am sure their children will benefit (if there is anything left to inherit!)

I won't know so I can't worry about it.

Oh that's a point rosequarz. What if any grandchildren arrive in the future? Perfectly possible with son, at least.

#minefield

I'm not sure there can be hard and fast rules for this sort of thing - it very much depends on individual circumstances.

If a person was concerned that their sons/daughters would blow all the inheritance without putting anything aside for their own children's future needs (and I know that that does happen), then it would seem to me to be sensible to maybe even equal provision for grandchildren.

If adult children are basically sensible but are going through a particularly hard time financially or perhaps have never been able to afford their own home, I would either leave the money to the children or only make relatively small bequests to grandchildren.

I think the main thing is that people spend some time thinking carefully about these various issues rather than automatically doing an equal split between children. I also think it is extremely important that if unequal or unusual provisions are made in a Will, the reasons for doing that should be discussed beforehand so that there is less chance of hurt feelings and animosities arising between the various parties.

BTW you can make provision in your Will for any future grandchildren, to save you having to re-do Wills every time one is born!

I'm trying to spend as much as possible, then what's left will be divided among the three sons. They can do what they like!