Wills favouring blood line only

Of course it’s possible. You can write your will however you like.

This is something you have to be really careful about. It can happen. I would think the best way, if you see any possibility of this happening, would be to leave everything to your grandchildren in your will.

I believe there are laws in Scotland that allow for some lee way but in England you can write your Will how you like. Something like this has happened twice in our extended family. Second partners or a friend rather than children or grandchildren inherited. In both cases there were no grounds for contesting the Will (the grounds are very difficult to prove).

You need to have a will, and advice from a lawyer. For instance my mother remarried several years after my father passed away. She owned her house, and her new husband had grown children, as did she (he came into the marriage with almost no assets).

She had a trust whereby her husband could live in the house as long as he was able, but then it would be sold and dispersed to her children. Any assets gained while they were in the marriage were split with half to him and half to her children. As it turned out, her husband was in the early stages of dementia when she passed away, and he did not last very long living on his own in the house. My sister whom he was close to helped settle him in an assisted living home and worked with his family to settle any savings he and Mum had.

Good advice and advance thought can solve so many issues with estates.

You have to make a new will immediately, as you old will is not valid upon re-marriage.

I've had to think about this. What I did was consult a Solicitor and she sorted things out for me.

Thanks for the replies. I want to be clear in my own mind what I want to achieve from a new will before I go to a solicitor.

If you own your house as tenants in common, rather than as joint tenants, each spouse can bequeath their share to their children, or whoever, and a carefully written will can allow for the surviving spouse to be able to stay in the house, or to sell it, so each side can( eventually) inherit their share. A solicitor will make sure things like insurance, maintenance and repairs are covered too.

My husband and I made a new will soon after we married, both for a second time, both with children and he had previous step children too!
It can get quite complicated and the question of one partner remarrying after the death of the other and with possibility of assets disappearing to the new family is quite an unsettling conversation! Some sort of trust was written into our will to cover this. You definitely need to use a solicitor.

Yes it is possible - we were in fact advised to do this so that if my AS predeceases his wife the money goes to the GC.

Yes it is possible we have just done it. First you need to be tenants in common, easy to do, then each of you leave your share of the house to your bloodline. So when one of you goes, their share of the house goes into a bloodline trust. The person still living is still able to live in the house, or sell it. If you sell to downsize then the cash left over from the sale is divided between the trust and the person still living. You have an executor for the trust , we have my son, who can if he wants put money from the trust into the new house. The trust only starts when one person has deceased. The money is held in the trust until the last person goes. You can state how you want the trust ones divided between your bloodline. Say 90% to your son and 5% to each of the two gc or as in our case the whole lot to one one person. By doing this you are also protecting yourself against all of your assets being used if one person is left and has to go into care. We went to a solicitor who dealt with trusts. New wills were also included in the set up.

Nannyx3 you may be thinking about some European countries which definitely have legislation in place requiring certain blood relatives (usually children, whatever their age) to gain from wills. In England (I'm unsure of Scotland, Northern Ireland & Wales) I understand that you can leave your money and assets to whomever you wish, although a legal spouse is entitled to receive at least some of it.

In Scotland it’s automatic from your child then to grandkids unless you put in a codicil

Your husband may make all sorts of promises that he will treat the children equally or favour yours if that’s what you want, and no doubt mean it, but a few years down the line anything can happen - he may remarry, and/or need to be looked after. If he is invited to live with one of his own children it might be on the promise or his choice, to reward them with more or all of the property etc. . And/or, on the first signs of dementia, he may be manipulated by family member's to change his will in favour of his own family. You need a watertight will that makes sure what you want to happen to your share, is safeguarded.

I had my will written exactly like that. Everything goes to my two sons and then down bloodline we did this as one son has no children.

You can do it all in the wills. You each need to make a will separately, covering the same points. There doesn’t necessarily need to be a separate trust, as the will creates a trust.

My will states that in the event of my daughter dying before me the inheritance goes to get children in equal measure.
This is because ( unlikely ) but not impossible we could both die at the same time, her inheritance they may pass onto her husband, even if I did Say die a day before it would go to her then in her death her next of kin ( husband) He could remarry, spend it all, have more children etc etc and the money that has been left from me could in theory go to people I don't even know.

Will can still be valid when you 're marry.
My solicitor wrote mine along the lines as should I marry ( long term partner's name ) the wishes of the will are to remain unchanged.

Are you in England Hellesbelles?

If so your solicitor is wrong. All wills are revoked on marriage and if no new will is made then you are considered intestate and the laws of intestacy will apply. Which, in England, is the entire estate to the surviving partner. Regardless of any former wishes.

A Will does not make it watertight, a bloodline trust does. If one of ou remarries after the death of the other the will becomes in valid and you need to make a new one. There are all sorts of connotations as to what could happen. e.g. Estate goes to son but son dies, has he made a will or will it go to the wife and thereafter to goodness knows where. If it in a bloodline trust then it can only go to his children. My advice is don't just rely upon a Will and seek good legal advice from people who also deal in trusts.

Eglantine, you are not quite right.

A will is normally invalidated on marriage, but not if it makes specific reference to an intended marriage.

Intestacy rules for England & Wales are -

"The husband, wife or civil partner keeps all the assets (including property), up to £250,000, and all the personal possessions, whatever their value.
The remainder of the estate will be shared as follows:

the husband, wife or civil partner gets an absolute interest in half of the remainder
the other half is then divided equally between the surviving children
If a son or daughter (or other child where the deceased had a parental role) has already died, their children will inherit in their place."

If there are no children the whole estate will go to the surviving spouse.

As DH has PD with related dementia, we consulted a solicitor as I was concerned that if I predecessor him, anything that he inherited from me would then be paying for his care. I felt it would be unfair for my assets to pay for someone else's care. A trust was formed, ensuring that if I die before him, my half of the house and my assets will go to my AC. He is now in care for which he is paying. I am so glad that we did what we could. In the event of his death being the first, his half of the house will be in trust for AC, but I can live in it. We are in Scotland.

Should have been predeceased not predecessor!