Wills favouring blood line only

You can include or exclude whoever you like.

However I did think it very nice that a childless aunt who left all her money to nieces and nephews, stipulated that in the event of their deaths beforehand, the money should go instead to any children, 'whether natural or adopted, legitimate or illegitimate'.
(Presumably her solicitor had advised the wording to make it 100% explicit.).

Yes you've understood me Starlady. I can well imagine that if my children in law were widowed they might not think about safe-guarding the grandchildren's inheritance, or just assume that a new partner would be fair. I think I need to have a chat with our AC.

Am I misreading? The op doesn't seem to me to be saying she is remarrying. She asked about the case where you leave assets to your ac and the ac predeceases the cil who then remarries, and is outlived by their new spouse.

Nanny, are you concerned that this may happen with your ac and cil? If so, I believe you can write your will so that it says if your ac predeceases you (God forbid), their inheritance will then go to their children/your gc. But if, sadly, you're gone and your ac has already inherited the assets? What happens to them after that? Idk. That might be up to ac and cil to decide. They can probably set up trusts, etc. that would go directly to the gc and a new partner couldn't get control of. But that's up to them, surely.

But I may be wrong. Best to ask a solicitor, Imo.

I’ve left everything to my child. My OH is not dependent on me, and he would keep his half of the house. He’d have to get a mortgage for the other half or sell up and move somewhere cheaper if I die first.

As my mum used to laugh and say ‘where there’s a will there’s a relative!’.

I know someone who gave their very large expensive house to their married daughter, as long as they could continue to live there. Daughter died, her OH remarried and the wife then kicked parents out, and pocketed the money when he died. You have to be so careful.

It can get pretty unfair. A friend’s grandmother was having an affair with a local businessman. He had been married for many years but he and his wife had no children. The wife had bought him his business and was extremely well off, with several houses. As she was much younger than him, everyone expected her to outlive him. She had several nieces who were very close to her and expected to inherit when she died. Apparently Will left everything to husband or in case of him predeceasing her everything split evenly between her nieces.
Unfortunately she took ill and died whilst still in her 50s and her husband inherited everything. He changed his will and left everything to his mistress. He only outlived his wife by 6 months. Imagine how horrified the nieces were to find that their aunt’s husband’s mistress ended up inheriting all her estate, which was worth over a million pounds and they, her closest family got nothing!

Perfectly possible. my late FIL remarried and everything was left to 2nd wife, not a penny to his 3 AC or 6 GC. C’est la vie!

When we made wills several years ago the solicitor highlighted this scenario to us, so we wrote that should any of our children predecease us, and they had children their share would go to their children but not until they were 25 years old. We also don’t want our own children to inherit until they are 25 years old should we die before then either. We’ve worked damned hard for what we have got, don5 want them wasting because of their age!

I don't think it's lawful to leave everything to your children if your surviving spouse is in any way dependent on you (e.g. living in the house you share). You can't totally disinherit any dependents. You can, however, alow your spouse to stay in the family home while it is owned by (or held in trust for?) your children. Definitely see a solicitor about the best way to do this.

My parents in law redid their will when their daughter separated from her husband and when there were two young grandchildren. Lest the daughter die before those children were of full age, her parents put her share of estate into a trust fund so the estranged partner would not have access to the inheritance even on behalf of his children.

Oh yes, I see.

It has to be a specific after I marry Joe Smith or whoever though.

It can’t just say if I ever marry in the future.

Wasn’t even thinking over £250,000?

You learn something every day.

Should have been predeceased not predecessor!

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.

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.

Eglantine, you are not quite right.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.