Second marriage and wills

My husband and I own our house as tenants in common. His proportion of the house will go to his children and my proportion to mine. We have said to all our children that we have done this to protect their inheritances but the surviving partner must be well treated by the other's children.
All the savings in my name go straight to my daughters and my husband's to his. We just have a joint account for household bills.

Thank you for your replies. The house we live in is mine and my husband has 2 properties in his name that he rents out. I am now thinking about putting my property, savings and investments into a trust for my children. If my husband also puts his properties, savings and investments in a trust for his children, would that be a simple way of making sure that our children inherit what is rightfully theirs? (and preventing either my husband or myself spending each others money on potential new wives/husbands!!) Are such trusts expensive to manage and would it be difficult for the children to access their inheritance at the end of the day? Sorry for all the questions......it is a bit of a minefield out there!

You should make sure your home is registered as tenants in common, not joint tenants. If you own it jointly all of it will pass to the survivor on first death and then pass under the survivor's Will (possibly to just their children or to a new spouse if they remarry). Tenants in common own a share (in your case half) each. You then need a Will including a property trust or flexible life interest trust which allows the survivor to carry on living in the property although half is now owned by the trustees. If properly drafted it will also allow for downsizing.

On the second death the half in trust can pass to your children and the other half under the survivor's Will. You can also put your own savings and investments into the trust or into a discretionary trust, so the survivor gets the income from them for their life, put the capital eventually passes to your children.

Mirror Wills incorporating trusts should cost around £400-500 plus VAT.

I'm not an attorney, but I think you (general) can name anyone you want in your will. But I suppose it's possible that he could contest your will after your gone, if you die first, and vice versa if he does. I don't know if either of you would win in those cases - a lot depends on the laws where you live. But hopefully, you can agree on this and trust each other to honor the decision later on.

Another idea would be for you each to put your assets in trust for your respective children, wherever possible. That way, again depending on the laws, they would probably go straight to your children when you pass (or his when he passes), w/o having to go through probate and so on.

A third possibility is to start giving out some of your assets - you to your 2 kids, he to his - while you're still alive, if possible.

To make this easier, I think it would be best if you and DH kept most of your assets separate. If there's a house you own together or something, that might be more complicated.

Hopefully, posters more knowledgeable about these issues than I will soon be in here...