Inheritance question

mikew

mikew

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Will try to keep the question simple.

In a no will inheritance situation does a stepchild have the same rights as a blood line child, I can give more details if needed.

As far as i can see via the legal firm of Google :D both do not have the same rights but thought i would ask.
 
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When I checked this out some time ago, we were told that step children must be legally adopted in order to have the same rights as natural children in cases of intestacy.

If you are seriously considering the issue, it's best to get formal legal advice.
 
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Quoth said:
When I checked this out some time ago, we were told that step children must be legally adopted in order to have the same rights as natural children in cases of intestacy.

If you are seriously considering the issue, it's best to get formal legal advice.
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Thanks, it is a relevant question but the amounts are not enough to get too exited about,up to now i have had a letter saying it would be shared between my sister and myself,the letter said they could not trace my sister so i wrote back explaining she was not a blood relative to my father, I gave what contact details i had which are not many as we have not spoken for 13 years.

Just wondering what new lens i could buy if it all came my way ;)
 
mikew said:
Thanks, it is a relevant question but the amounts are not enough to get too exited about,up to now i have had a letter saying it would be shared between my sister and myself,the letter said they could not trace my sister so i wrote back explaining she was not a blood relative to my father, I gave what contact details i had which are not many as we have not spoken for 13 years.

Just wondering what new lens i could buy if it all came my way ;)
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If it's coming your way, it's unlikely that the step sister has any legal rights to inherit.

[emoji106]
 
neil_g said:
Is the money really that important to you?
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No

If you are asking if i care about a family rift, that happened years ago,i certainly will not be chasing this legally as its not enough, just wondered.
 
This seems to be pretty clear.

https://www.co-oplegalservices.co.u...apr-2017/step-children-wills-and-inheritance/

From that article, it would seem that if someone dies "intestate" (without making a will), then stepchildren are not regarded as relatives. It seems to say, that a stepchild has to be named in a will in order to inherit.

"set out an order of priority for relatives to inherit your Estate in the absence of a Will. This list of relatives does not include step-children. Therefore, if you have step-children that you would like to benefit from your Estate after your death, then you must put in place a legally valid Will specifically naming the step-child or step-children you wish to include."

To me that seems a bit of an archaic system, and very harsh on stepchildren.
 
andy700 said:
This seems to be pretty clear.

https://www.co-oplegalservices.co.u...apr-2017/step-children-wills-and-inheritance/

From that article, it would seem that if someone dies "intestate" (without making a will), then stepchildren are not regarded as relatives. It seems to say, that a stepchild has to be named in a will in order to inherit.

"set out an order of priority for relatives to inherit your Estate in the absence of a Will. This list of relatives does not include step-children. Therefore, if you have step-children that you would like to benefit from your Estate after your death, then you must put in place a legally valid Will specifically naming the step-child or step-children you wish to include."

To me that seems a bit of an archaic system, and very harsh on stepchildren.
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That's pretty much what i found:ty:, i gained 4 stepchildren on my second marriage, auto inheritance would not make me happy as far as one of them is concerned,she deserves nothing from me.
 
Just look for intestacy rules on the gov.uk site and it's all there in quite straightforward language. If there isn't a will and they aren't adopted then they aren't included in intestacy laws.
 
mikew said:
That's pretty much what i found:ty:, i gained 4 stepchildren on my second marriage, auto inheritance would not make me happy as far as one of them is concerned,she deserves nothing from me.
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Is your 2nd wife still alive? Do you have offspring of your own from the 1st marriage. Reason I ask is without a will, your 2nd wife inherits the lot and can then pass on all the money to her kids when she dies, leaving nothing for your own kids.
 
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nilagin said:
Is your 2nd wife still alive? Do you have offspring of your own from the 1st marriage. Reason I ask is without a will, your 2nd wife inherits the lot and can then pass on all the money to her kids when she dies, leaving nothing for your own kids.
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First wife passed away and we had no children, as the step children are my current wife's,my will leaves everything to her if i go first then its up to her.
 
If you have a will then that trumps intestacy rules every time in England and Wales, though you may wish to make it explicit why you are not leaving anything to certain people to reduce the risk of the will being challenged.

Scotland is a law unto itself.
 
mikew said:
No

If you are asking if i care about a family rift, that happened years ago,i certainly will not be chasing this legally as its not enough, just wondered.
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Fair enough.

Personally in my own experience I found people get ridiculously petty when it comes to the passing of a loved one. Even down to who gets the poxy microwave.

The opportunity to get money or goods seems to do funny things to people.
 
neil_g said:
The opportunity to get money or goods seems to do funny things to people.
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Agreed,
And I never know if its grief or greed, possibly a little of both?
 
neil_g said:
Fair enough.

Personally in my own experience I found people get ridiculously petty when it comes to the passing of a loved one. Even down to who gets the poxy microwave.

The opportunity to get money or goods seems to do funny things to people.
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Years ago, I was at a family gathering, and a female relation started to berate her husband rather loudly. His mother had passed away and his father eventually found another partner. The relation was having a go at her husband, because in her words - "your father is blowing our inheritance on that woman".
Thankfully we don't see her (them) any more.
 
andy700 said:
Years ago, I was at a family gathering, and a female relation started to berate her husband rather loudly. His mother had passed away and his father eventually found another partner. The relation was having a go at her husband, because in her words - "your father is blowing our inheritance on that woman".
Thankfully we don't see her (them) any more.
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I told my parents to spend it before they die as i would spend it after, the disappointing thing is they did :D
 
The best thing to do is make a will then you have full control.
 
nilagin said:
Is your 2nd wife still alive? Do you have offspring of your own from the 1st marriage. Reason I ask is without a will, your 2nd wife inherits the lot and can then pass on all the money to her kids when she dies, leaving nothing for your own kids.
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Only up to £250k, after that it gets messy if there are children etc involved.
Matt
 
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MatBin said:
Only up to £250k
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Unless they are jointly held assets, like most houses are (commonly under a joint tenancy) and many investments & bank accounts too

The £250,000 Intestacy figure doesn't actually cause problems for many widows/widowers due to jointly held assets

i.e. Mr & Mrs Smith bought their home together many years ago and its now worth £600,000, they jointly have cash & investments totaling another £400,000. Mr Smith has a further £250,000 in his own name and Mrs Smith has the same - neither has made a Will

No matter who dies first the survivor gets the lot despite their combined asset value being £1,500,000

For the vast majority of married couples a Will is not actually necessary to protect the survivor's interests, but its still a good idea to have one for speed in administration

Dave
 
So My father died when I was 5! (40 years ago) and mum remarried and they had a boy ( my step brother) where do I stand with respect with inheritance? I was not adopted by stepdad .....Will I see anything ?

I'm not greedy but just wondering .......
 
Mark twiglet said:
So My father died when I was 5! (40 years ago) and mum remarried and they had a boy ( my step brother) where do I stand with respect with inheritance? I was not adopted by stepdad .....Will I see anything ?

I'm not greedy but just wondering .......
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If he makes a Will leaving you something yes

If he dies first and your mum inherits from him then Yes, even without a Will providing she doesn't remarry - unless she makes a Will leaving you nothing

As you weren't adopted though you have no automatic entitlement to his estate in an Intestacy (though family circumstance may mean you can still make a claim)

If your mum dies first you may receive nothing at all

These are just generalisations though, each case can be hugely different - but I'd suggest you had a chat with mum ;)

Dave
 
Chat with mum!
Lol [emoji38]

Hey mum can I move in when youre dead and buried?
 
DG Phototraining said:
Unless they are jointly held assets, like most houses are (commonly under a joint tenancy) and many investments & bank accounts too

The £250,000 Intestacy figure doesn't actually cause problems for many widows/widowers due to jointly held assets

i.e. Mr & Mrs Smith bought their home together many years ago and its now worth £600,000, they jointly have cash & investments totaling another £400,000. Mr Smith has a further £250,000 in his own name and Mrs Smith has the same - neither has made a Will

No matter who dies first the survivor gets the lot despite their combined asset value being £1,500,000

For the vast majority of married couples a Will is not actually necessary to protect the survivor's interests, but its still a good idea to have one for speed in administration

Dave
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True but, as always a but, the children that inherit the £1.5m will find themselves disadvantaged in terms of transferable allowances from spouse to spouse without a will in place, therefore when the remaining parent dies (as I understand with or without a will) then the current £375K of transferable allowance from spouse to spouse is 'lost' so the £1.5m is now subject to IHT on the balance after the single allowance of £375K, instead it would have been payable on the balance after £750K allowances had been deducted, the £375K is also due to increase over the next few years thereby making the reason to have a will even more important.
Caveat - I am not a solicitor but that is what I have read on a solicitor's website, personally my wife and I have Wills to try and avoid this situation, but (again) if either of us re-marries the will becomes null and void.
Matt
 
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DG Phototraining said:
unless she makes a Will leaving you nothing
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That can be challenged! Recent case has resulted in people making a will and excluding for instance a child need to explain clearly why they have excluded said child and why they have left their Estate elsewhere and the courts have ruled that unless there was prior connection to say a charity that the Estate was left to they stand only a small chance of getting the "gift" the deceased had intended. Remember a Will is not a legal document just an expression of where you want your stuff to go and it is generally adhered to, but not always.
Matt
 
MatBin said:
That can be challenged! Recent case has resulted in people making a will and excluding for instance a child need to explain clearly why they have excluded said child and why they have left their Estate elsewhere and the courts have ruled that unless there was prior connection to say a charity that the Estate was left to they stand only a small chance of getting the "gift" the deceased had intended. Remember a Will is not a legal document just an expression of where you want your stuff to go and it is generally adhered to, but not always.
Matt
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A will is a legal document, but has to meet certain criteria to be valid, and can be challenged.
 
MartynK said:
A will is a legal document, but has to meet certain criteria to be valid, and can be challenged.
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I stand corrected.
Matt
 
MatBin said:
True but, as always a but, the children that inherit the £1.5m will find themselves disadvantaged in terms of transferable allowances from spouse to spouse without a will in place, therefore when the remaining parent dies (as I understand with or without a will) then the current £375K of transferable allowance from spouse to spouse is 'lost' so the £1.5m is now subject to IHT on the balance after the single allowance of £375K, instead it would have been payable on the balance after £750K allowances had been deducted, the £375K is also due to increase over the next few years thereby making the reason to have a will even more important.
Caveat - I am not a solicitor but that is what I have read on a solicitor's website, personally my wife and I have Wills to try and avoid this situation, but (again) if either of us re-marries the will becomes null and void.
Matt
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You're well wrong mate - but its late so I may come back to it another time :)

Dave
 
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MatBin said:
the children that inherit the £1.5m will find themselves disadvantaged in terms of transferable allowances from spouse to spouse without a will in place
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@MatBin - This is not true due to the introduction of the Transferable Nil Rate Band in October 2007, you don't need a Will to make this IHT saving now


MatBin said:
then the current £375K
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Its not £375,000 but £325,000, which its been for several years


MatBin said:
That can be challenged!
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Any Will can be challenged


MatBin said:
Recent case has resulted in people making a will and excluding for instance a child need to explain clearly why they have excluded said child and why they have left their Estate elsewhere and the courts have ruled that unless there was prior connection to say a charity that the Estate was left to they stand only a small chance of getting the "gift" the deceased had intended
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This would be an extraordinary case and based on this simple overview I'm not commenting on this statement. However, for a child to make a successful claim they generally need to be dependent in some manner, or have some other viable claim, just wanting your parent(s)' money doesn't count; simply being a child is not enough and in the vast majority of cases you can indeed leave money where & to whom you wish, which includes ignoring one or more of your own children


MatBin said:
Remember a Will is not a legal document just an expression of where you want your stuff to go and it is generally adhered to, but not always
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You've already been corrected on this one by @MartynK - so I'll just add this this make its obvious you are commenting on an area you aren't expert in - we're all guilty of that from time to time lol :D


MatBin said:
https://www.clarkewillmott.com/private-capital/intestacy-and-unexpected-inheritance-tax-bills/
Or
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/...inheritance-tax-trap-and-how-to-avoid-it.html
Really?
Matt
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That solicitor's link refers to the NRB as £250,000, which is was for the period 6th April 2002 to 5th April 2003 - the info is then 14 years out of date on the figure, and nearly 10 years out of date on the underlying principle. So my earlier comment is true that they are either idiots or slack for not updating their website

The news article isn't written by an expert, so its not worth commenting on - that said it is more accurate than the crap the Money section of the Daily Mail writes



Suffice to say - and having re-read all of my comments - I'll happily stand by them as correct, now where do I send my invoice? :)

Dave
 
Good job we went to a solicitor then and didnt do a WHSmith do it yourself will. ;-)
I'll not check your comments, you may well be correct and tbh I cant be bothered to carry on, suffice to say a Will is a good idea and a solicitor is probably the best person to consult rather than me, or possibly (and dont take this the wrong way) you, although you may be more accurate than me, so I'll bow out gracefully (I hope) and suggest someone contacts you or a solicitor rather than me ;-)
Matt
 
MatBin said:
Good job we went to a solicitor then and didnt do a WHSmith do it yourself will. ;-)
I'll not check your comments, you may well be correct and tbh I cant be bothered to carry on, suffice to say a Will is a good idea and a solicitor is probably the best person to consult rather than me, or possibly (and dont take this the wrong way) you, although you may be more accurate than me, so I'll bow out gracefully (I hope) and suggest someone contacts you or a solicitor rather than me ;-)
Matt
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@MatBin - just FYI - here's the 'About Us' section my current Solicitor with whom I still act on a consultancy role uses in their brochures...

David has been an Estate Planner since 1997. Estate Planners deal with only one area of Law pertaining to Wills, Trusts & related legal instruments. David’s background prior to this included serving as a Financial Adviser and it was following the change to Estate Planning that he realized that Finance & Law were inextricably linked; this led to David specialising in working with the Financial Services sector developing an integrated approach to Inheritance Tax planning and asset protection strategies.


David has worked on national projects with 3 of the UK’s larger Financial Services providers up to Financial Services’ Board level, including the Bradford & Bingley Group. He has acted as a regular Seminar presenter both to Financial Advisers and the general public alike for over 16 years, and David has been a top table speaker at both Regional & National Conference level to such as the National Association of Estate Agents; he’s been published in The Times newspaper and with a double-page feature article appearing in its sister paper FT Adviser discussing both Inheritance Planning and the need for integrated Finance & Law.

So yes, I am more likely to be correct ;)

Dave
 
DG Phototraining said:
simply being a child is not enough and in the vast majority of cases you can indeed leave money where & to whom you wish, which includes ignoring one or more of your own children
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I've heard it said on more than one occasion, it's better to leave a close family member £50 & an old ornament, than cut them out completely, to lessen/negate the chance of a challenge.
Is this actually the case, or doesn't it make ANY difference at all?
 
OldCarlos said:
I've heard it said on more than one occasion, it's better to leave a close family member £50 & an old ornament, than cut them out completely, to lessen/negate the chance of a challenge.
Is this actually the case, or doesn't it make ANY difference at all?
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This is a bit of an "old wife's tale" - it can help IF (note big IF) a claim is made as it suggests to a Judge that the deceased had considered the person who is making a claim, and that they basically had thought them worthy of sweet fk all

Its sort of a 'Voice in court' and certainly can be useful as such, but if there is any form of dependency then it can be ignored. While its not considered good practice to explain why you are 'cutting someone out' of any inheritance in a Will it can often be useful to do so in an accompanying letter of explanation. If you really need to do so then this is a good reason to seek the advice of a professional well versed in Will based arguments so they record your wishes, the reasoning behind them, and then put in place the Will accordingly in expectation of a challenge

I do hope this was a question of interest rather than something you really wish, or need, to do :)

Dave
 
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