Wills and leaving to grandchildren

I don't think anyone has asked about the OP's house? She says " I 've got some savings plus half the house".

Will this mean forcing a sale to release the inheritance?

What about the surviving husband?
Is the house held as joint tenants? If so, it will pass straight to him outside of the will.
If tenants in common, presumably the husband has a life interest so he can continue to live there, and half will be protected against being used for care fees, so will eventually be the inheritance.
So we may just be talking about the savings, in the first instance? Does this make any difference?

NO. My mother in her wisdom decided 15 years ago to leave her money to be split between my niece and nephew as house prices here are high, They are 10 and 13 years older than my eldest, I have 3. Said niece and nephew and their parents have all moved abroad to far flung corners of the earth and highly paid jobs. I have had to become my mothers carer. My children phone her regularly and visit whenever they can. Nothing from the other 2. This has left a very bitter taste and I have times where I find it difficult not to say something

My friend's parents did just what you are thinking of doing. Three children had done very well in life and one sister had struggled and husband had a lowish income. They left more to the needy child and the other three turned into monsters and didn't speak to their sister for more than ten years.

These things are not straightforward at all. Our solicitor got us to think about all sorts of possible/improbable scenarios, such as what if my husband, our son and I were all killed in the same accident. Would we want all of our money to go to our (surviving) daughter, or should half of it go instead to son's children? If the latter, what if DIL remarried and her new husband was a rotter? Or if DIL went on to have more children with new man who was not a rotter but also had children to bring to the rapidly expanding family? Should her family be unbalanced by having some children with money in the bank and others not? What if all of us (us and both children) died in the accident?

These and numerous other permutations of doom were explored in depth. It took ages, and we were traumatised by the end (), but we decided that life can't be foreseen, so went for a simple split between our children. It will then be up to them to make provision for their own children with a combination of their own money and their inheritance (which may, in any case, have been hugely eroded by possible care fees).

We’ve split ours between our children. Some have children themselves and some don’t - we’ve left it to the discretion of those with children to look after them out of their inheritance - it’s unfair to penalise those that don’t have children.

We have 3 children, all martied.
One has 3 children one 2 children, the third is childless .
We have both left wills where, on the death of the one who lasts longest , after other small bequests, our estate will be divided into 4.
Each child will receive one quarter.
The remaining quarter will be equally divided between the grandchildren

Leave equal amounts to your children. That is The fairest way to do it. My two AC both have children. One has two the other three. Leaving it to them would mean it isn’t a fair split. The GC will have their inheritance to come from their parents.

one note of caution. If you leave money for grandchildren, to be saved until they are adults, make sure you tie it up so it can't be touched. Not because your children want to touch your grandchildrens money, but if the children ever lose their jobs/become disabled, and reliant on benefits, DWP class the childrens savings as the parents if it is only in an childs bank account with the parents name alongside.

My colleague has just done the following in her will. Both AC get half her estate with the son getting 50%of his share the other 50% divided between his children the daughter getting 70% of her share with 30% to be divided between her children if she has any. This has been discussed with both and agreed as son had a private education and the daughter did not.

That is - 10% of my estate to EACH GC.

Not read all PP but I have just made a new Will leaving 10% to my GCs. I don't know if you will have to pay IHT but leaving for grandchildren means this is not paid twice. I don't see how leaving to GC to inherit when they are 18 can be objected to by your childless children. There is a very simple Trust for minors that does not incur any extra taxes if they inherit at 18 and it can be used by parents for them before that age.

My brother has no children whereas I have two. My father (mother predeceased him) left specific legacies to my two children, and the remainder of his estate was left to bro and I. He did also set up a Trust which avoided IHT

Definitely leave it as it is.
Putting myself in the place of your older childless children, I wouldn't be happy if the youngest was given more than me because he/she had.
Maybe they were unable to have or chose not to have children.
All three should have equal amounts in my opinion with your youngest giving a share of their inheritance to their children if they wish to.

My suggestion would be that you talk to your children and agree between you what they would be happy with, rather than have them upset later. And assure them that you love them equally.
Other than that, a percentage to be shared amongst the grandchildren and the rest to be divided equally amongst the children, is what I would do. Fortunes can improve or decline so we never know what their futures will bring, eg ill health or a lottery win.
The grandchildren's share to be put into an account which they cannot touch until they are adults, which hopefully would leave time for others to be born and to have a share.

Our DPs left their estate to be divided equally between AC, as well as leaving the same amount of money for each child, irrespective of amount of children etc. They also left a small amount each for DGC. As circumstances had changed after one had died, the other added money for each of DGGC. Not much at all in total but the kind thought was very much appreciated by everyone. Please don't treat any recipient differently from their 'equals'. If you want to help any AC out with something specific, do it now.

I would go with leaving your estate to be divided equally between AC then to GC if any of the AC dies before they can inherit. If you can afford it you can give something to any of the AC who might need some help. Always a difficult decision.

My parents, at one time , wanted to disinherit my older siblings and leave everything to us two younger children. I didn’t want them to do that as it would have caused trouble and I didn’t want either of my parents to feel bad ‘at the end’. They divided everything equally and let us decide what our children got. After all , the GC would inherit from us. I think it was fair.

My current will splits my estate between my two sons but I am contemplating a three way split now with one third being divided between my two granddaughters.

I have read the responses you have received OP and I haven’t noticed anyone commenting on the situation regarding your second husband. (apologies if I am wrong)

It does not matter if you have kept your finances separate. If you are legally married your husband has rights over your estate. What these are depends entirely on where you live.
I purposely have not remarried, though live with my OH. We both have our own money which will go to our own children. Had we married this would not have been the case.

I trust my OH completely. He would abide by my wishes even if we were married but I have no way of knowing what our end of life situations might be and no way would I want my children’s inheritance (which ultimately was their father’s) be used up in nursing home fees incurred by my OH.

I suggest you consult a solicitor.

I am one of three. My mother left one-third to my eldest sister (no children), me (no children) and one-sixth to each of my other sister’s 2 sons. The sister who had the boys was miffed that she hadn’t been left anything, and said she should have had a third, and given the boys something from that. You can’t please everybody!

My will is split between my 2 daughters. At the time I did not have grandchildren. I now have 4 x The Solicitor added 'Issues' If one daughters dies then her Issues or children get her share of the money x

Having been through this myself re my mother's will, I would not change your will. It can cause so much resentment and upset.

Following discussion with our two children we made wills in favour of the grandchildren, by passing them. Both are comfortably off . We were so pleased that they agreed.

My DF left 4 of us 49, 48, 23 and 16.
So the 16 yo was left the house (£395000 value) and £350000 in trust. The 23 yo got £50000 and the expensive personal affects. The 48 yo got £5000 - but he did buy her a house 20 years ago. I didn't get a mention. But heyho it certainly leaves you knowing where you stand with your parents. I don't resent my siblings at all - it's only money. I felt hurt but i have now been able to lay that relationship to rest in my mind. I spent most of my life trying to hold on for something that wasn't there and this has been the final slam of the door making sure i know my place - which isn't as a daughter but as a mother and Grandma to my own family.
So OP i guess it's up to you how you want your children to feel after you have gone.
You can open investment accounts for your gcs and these can be added to when you wish.

Split equally regardless of circumstances - don't use money to show favour to one child. You cannot predict the future

We have made our wills leaving a sum of money to each grandchild (currently four) then the remainder divided equally between our three children. Think this is very fair as it acknowledges our love for our grandchildren while being fair to our children as well. Our older two children have two children each and as yet our youngest doesn't have any but that could well change.