Writing a WILL with step children involved

[tgm1974]

Hope someone can explain some procedures for me ... or even given me some ideas on what to do.

My partner was married for 20 yrs and has 3 children (20, 13 and 11). All divorced and living happily with me along with our 2 yr old son. The house he used to live in with his ex is paid off and he is entitled to half its value when things are sorted.

We are wanting to get a WILL drawn up soon to ensure everything is legal and noted and so his "ex" cant lay claim to anything.

My question is : my partner talking about putting any money he receives from his old property off the mortgage we hold together. Lets just say this is £100k. This will leave approx £30k to pay off. What I am interested in knowing is if we died, or he did first, what is the split in property between all the children. His 3 children from his previous marriage will obviously get whatever is left to them from their mother at some point but when it comes to our home would my son get more of a percentage of the house value compared to the step children.

I dont wish this to sound under handed in any way but I feel my son should get more of a share - am I wrong??

HELP!

[Teleph0ne]

You can choose to split the money any way you wish, we have a similar situation and the split is half split between my kids and half split between my partners rather than splitting it 5 ways, we thought this was fair as we both bought money into the relationship

[Dris]

Yeah we just treated all children equally as well regarding the joint property we own.
The property we live in here was mine before I re married and that is being left to my 2 children -im not even leaving it to my husband as I dont want anyone else to benefit from my hard graft should I go first and he meets someone else -so he is out the loop although he wouldnt get kicked out unless he entered into a Common Law marriage.

Im all heart :)

Im also not daft.....

So in your situ I think that the children should all have an equal share in answer to your Q.

[tgm1974]

Hmm I can see what you mean but I just wanted my son to get more beneficial wise as his children will be looking after by their mother also - hope that doesnt sound terrible! I will just have to have another 2 kids to get equal divide!

[fredpuli47]

You can right your will how you wish (cut the kids out altogether and leave everything to the local cats charity !) and the law in England and Wales will only intervene on the application of anyone who is provenly dependant on you. The cats charity would lose some of the whole estate, in my example, to the extent that dependents would need funds .As between children you can give one more than others if you wish.( I did with mine,because one will have greater financial need if I die tomorrow, being only just qualified and somewhat dependent on me, whereas the other is much older and the director of a public company and therefore not at all dependent ).
The only safe and wise thing is to go to a solicitor (not a will writing firm; a former bus-driver with no legal qualifications may be a 'will writer' ) because you need professional advice and the will drafted so no such claim arises.They'll hear what you want and what you have and all the details.By the way,you don't need the solicitor to be a named executor. In case you think it is, it costs vast amounts if you do that since a solicitor executor charges the estate a lot for acting, as do banks (and will writers) named as executors.It's quite unnecessary.Your executors can take such legal advice and help as necessary, without that.