Wills - leaving to children or grandchildren?

There is page about Making a Will in Scotland at
www.makingawill.org.uk/articles-making-a-will-in-scotland-details-4.html

Unfortunately the law in Scotland is different to that in England and Wales, they have the concept of enforced heirship whereas we have complete testamentary freedom. Anyone living in one country and owning property in the other needs two wills.

Bizarrely, the law has just changed so an English will can now deal with property in other EU countries, except Denmark, Ireland and the rest of the UK (e.g. Scotland!). However the Will must make a specific election as to choice of national law, so anyone owning property in the EU would need to make a new will in England or Wales to have that law deal with the foreign property, rather than the foreign law (lex situs).

Just a word of warning. A friend of my DS was left money by his DGP, unfortunately when he got the money he was going through a bad time. His family had moved and then his mum and dad divorced. He was about 17 at the time and blew the lot. Went to France, drink, drugs etc. Eventually he was repatriated, but was skint. So maybe specify when they can get the money.

To Trisher: the boy could not have received the money under age 18 unless his parents gave a receipt for it and gave it to him, which was not a great idea. My rule of thumb is, "the more noughts on the end of the cheque, the older they should be when they get it."
These, and similar situations, like a child getting divorced and half her inheritance going to your future ex SIL, or a beneficiary being bankrupt and their share going straight to the Official Receiver, or losing means tested benefit, substance abuse or gambling addictions are what discretionary trusts are for. These make a Will more expensive, but give you some control over your money from beyond the grave!

They were not living in this country at the time and I would imagine he used emotional blackmail on them, or he may have forged their consent, as they were splitting up they were not communicating with each other. He could do anything really.

The Duke and Duchess of Northumberland actually went to court to ensure that their oldest son did not benefit from a trust fund until he was 25, rather than 21.
That seems to me about the right age.

In my experience dying interstate causes terrible problems.

Yes, make a will, keep it up to date, don't allow young people access to any amounts the could encourage proflicacy until at least their mid twenties

Interstate? Intestate!

Anya it is probably very inconvenient to die "interstate" too, what would happen about death certificates and all the other paperwork?

After experiencing a complicated will recently, I have re-made mine, simply leaving everything equally between my two sons. But I have asked them to give something appropiate to their respective children.
I honestly feel that this is the best way.

We really need to get our fingers out and make a will! I have one daughter and my husband has a son and daughter (Scotland, Denmark and the US just to make things simple!) with our only granddaughter coming from my daughter.
Obviously when one of us dies the other will get everything, but when the remaining one dies too all 3 children should get a third of the estate. There is quite a discrepancy in their wealth/standard of living but we agree they should be treated equally regardless.

Our granddaughter is only 2 and of course there may be more to come, but we have a standing order paying into her back account every month and will do the same for any future grandchildren. If the parents want to give her/them something from us, that's up to them at the time!

My husband has a big pension fund we don't touch and is gathering much interest, so maybe we should get spending it before we get too old to enjoy it!!! ?

A relative left his money equally between DH and his sister and brother, but left his house to my sister-in-law, as she had been especially kind to him. We thought this was fine but she immediately arranged for the proceeds to be split 3 ways, a most generous unlooked-for gesture, typical of her.

My dear OH and I plan to leave everything divided equally between our children, one of whom is likely to have children and the other not. That's their choice. I think the lady who is planning to leave money to some of her children but skipping a generation to give the other child's share to the grandchildren should think again in all justice. Imagine being the 'left out' child. How heart breaking. You would think you were unloved and slighted. I am sure the lady did not mean this.

We wanted to leave something to our grandchildren (we have ten!) so they would know how special they were to us and would have a small windfall to help them in some of the challenges of setting up home etc. Our wills specify 3% of our estate to each grandchild by name, in trust till they are 21, with the remainder split equally between our four children. All our children know our wishes and are happy with them.

Rhonab, please do make a will - both of you. If wills are not made, then surely either your child or your husband's children will inherit everything, depending on who is second to die - leaving the other child/children out all together?

Our wills leave everything to our two children, with a small stated amount to the GC and a few other small bequests. It also states that it one of our children pre-deceased us, then half of their share will go to their spouse and the remaining half be divided between their children but held in trust until they are 21.

The first bequest to the GC is small so can be made immediately. The second would be considerable (from the sale of our house) and therefore would need to be held back until they were more mature.

Auntiejantie is nearly correct. Since 2014 if your estate is worth less than £250,000 and you die without a Will everything goes to the surviving spouse, then if they die intestate just to their children. If the estate is worth more than that the survivor gets the personal possessions, the first £250,000 and half the balance, the rest goes to the deceased's children. Either way one set of stepchildren get nothing (unless you make a Will!)

All this has given me cause to reflect on our wills. We changed the ones we'd made years previously after dealing with my mother's estate 3 years ago. She and my father (who had passed away 2 years before her) had left everything to me as their only child with a small bequest to each of my children - their estate only consisted of their small property. Having been in care for the last 3 years of her life and only fully funded for the final year the council took a sizeable chunk from the balance. Our solicitor advised that to avoid a similar situation on our estate we should each leave 50% of it to the other with the other 50% being split equally between our 2 sons with the proviso that the remaining parent should be able to stay in the property until their death. This would mean that should that parent end up in care (a pretty high bet in my case!) the council could only base the costs on the smaller sum. At the time only one of our sons had children but subsequently and quite late in life (he was 40) our other son has now given us two grandsons and lives on the other side of the world. They are both lovely, caring guys and I know that they will each look out for their kids but the elder ones children are now grown and he has a very good well paid job, owns his own home and his wife works part time. The younger one has always struggled for money due to his choice of work and with two small children things will not get easier as they grow as his wife can't work until they're older. Maybe we need to revisit our decision but I can't help feeling the eldest would think it grossly unfair for us to favour his brother that way - since they emigrated they've grown apart - not for any other reason than the logistics of contact. I'd hate to think that when we'd gone they ended up falling out and never speaking to each other. When my in-laws passed on (all 4 of our parents went within 2 years of each other) they had left their estate to be divided equally between their 3 children. With each of them having their own kids (and grandchildren) it seemed the fairest way to do it and my husband gave some of his share in turn to our sons split equally between them. It gave us the greatest pleasure ever to have a small party and give each of them and our granddaughters a package containing cash (and a cheque for each son). As they'd not been expecting it it made even more special. Together with what they received from mine they all spent/saved it wisely and we know their grandparents would have approved. I think a talk with my other half today about all this might be on the cards :-)

We need to update our will to include two grandchildren.

My parents left 50% of their estate to my sister and I and split the rest fairly between their four grand children (then into their 20s).
My sister and I had two children each.

I have a girl and a boy my daughter has two small sons and my son who is not married to his partner do not look like they will have any.

My son is a fairly high earner my daughter and husband are not. I am thinking this way.

I will be 80 when my DGS1 is 18. I don't know how fit and active either of us might be then but we could potentially both need care. a

So what sort of split would be sensible? I would like to go for say 50% to our kids and to split the remainder between "any living GCS.

Yep leaving it to our two children and I hope they put some aside for the GC for uni etc . Thankfully I will not be here to worry about it . There was such a todo when DH father died ( he left the lot to his eldest son from his first marriage ) that we know it can cause real rifts if some get more than others or a percentage goes to the GC thus leaving less to a child with no kids . Best to leave it up the the DC .

It certainly makes sense for a couple to sever a joint tenancy so they each own half of the family home, each then creates a property trust in their Will so that the survivor has a right to live there for their life(and can downsize if needed), but on the second death it passes to the children/gc in whatever proportion you wish. This means that if the survivor needs care only their half of the property (which is arguably worth less than half because the other half is owned by a trust) is available for means testing and the other half will not be taken by the local authority.
If there are step children each spouse could leave their half to their own children if wanted.
I would sometimes then recommend a discretionary trust of the residue so your trustees can decide who gets what in the future, to cope with changing family circumstances (divorce, bankruptcy, receipt of state benefits, substance abuse or whatever).

I wish we had had this advice years ago so that we made proper provision taking care into consideration. My H will probably need care and I would be left in a very difficult financial situation. Our income comprises mainly his two pensions and I could not afford to run the house we currently live in and would get no help until I had spent all my savings except for £10,000. If we sell the house that is more to go towards care costs. I am not trying to avoid care cost, just trying to ensure I don't end up with nothing to live on.

I would second trisher's warning above. A young person I know was left some money by his GF and has found himself being exploited by drug-takers who know he has access to money.