WILL ENTITLEMENT TO CHILDREN

[ramesh046]

My total assets inc house is say about £350K. I want to leave my two children more than what the law allows i e 50% goes to wife, 25% to children and 25% to what?

So how can I leave to children more than the law
I know I have not explained correctly. Any ideas??

[factor-fiction]

You are right- you haven't explained correctly. I'm not sure what you are asking.

[CheekyChops]

You can leave any amoun you like to your children as long as you make a will. I don't know of any law that says you can only leave them 25%!

[bednobs]

there is no law saying who and what percentage of estate you can will your belongigs to - other wise what would be the point in making wills!

is it to do with inheritance tax? or intestacy? (dying without a will) i just don't understand either sorry!

[karenmac60]

I think you mean that they are entitled to a third of your moveable estate or something (that's the amount in Scotland - may be different in England), but that's not a minimum, it means if you don't leave them anything they still have a claim on that amount - as far as I'm aware. You can will as much as you want.

[madmaggot]

You can leave what you like to whom you like, leave it all to the retired donkeys if you wish. But, if your wife is dependent on you and your will would leave her without support she may contest the will.

[Wak]

Are the Deeds to the property just in your name or are they as "Joint Tenants"? (which is more usual for married couples.)
I could be wrong on this but it's certainly something which should be looked into.
If the property is owned as "Joint Tenants" then both the wife and husband own 100% of the property so that if one dies, the remaining partner then automatically owns the 100% of the property.
Your Will, if taken as inferred above and assuming you die first, seems to be in contradiction to the Joint Tenant agreement and should possibly be sorted out with a solicitor.
To deal only with your half of the property then the Deeds should be changed to "Tenants in Common" where the partners each own 50% of the property and can dispose of their half as they wish (or as Willed)
If you go for "Tenants in Common" and leave your 50% to the kids (25% each) then the Corporation/Council will have a hard job to take charge of the property should the wife later finish up in a care home (as one in four people do), as they will have great difficulty buying half a house from two people who have no wish to sell.
With T-in-C you should also put in your Will an understanding (or a proviso) that the remaining partner can remain in the property for the rest of his/her life (otherwise, some kids may boot father/mother out and sell the house just to get the money!!).
The rest of your estate (apart from the house) can be Willed however you wish.
You can obtain a copy of the Deeds from the Land Registry for about £3 and the forms to complete can be downloaded for free.
Like I said at the beginning, it certainly needs looking into and may not be a straight forward matter.
I hope this helps.

[Wak]

Slight correction to the above.
The Corporation/Council may stake a CLAIM or TAKE CHARGE of the remaining partner's property if taken into a Care Home (to assist with the upkeep of the patient) and would not offer to BUY as incorrectly stated.
Sorry for the initial error.

[ramesh046]

This is ramesh046. How do I add on to my original question??
No matter.. I am sorry I did not explain the question coreectly Ok

The house is in my name only. If I make a will Can I say this:
'I want my wife to have one third and my 2 children one third each of my estate' ( so she cannot sell the house on her own)

Its just that I would not want when my children get married and then my wife decides to sell the house and goabroad OR she rents the house and keeps the income to herself

So readers sharing the house 3 ways is the best way. Any suggestions welcome. I appreciate your earlier replies

[Buenchico]

As others have indicated, you're free to leave what you like to whom you like. (As Wak pointed out, a joint tenant can't leave his part of a property to anyone, simply because he doesn't actually own a specific share of the property. It's owned by the legal partnership between the joint tenants. However that's not relevant here).

So there's absolutely no reason why you can't divide your estate equally between your wife and each of your children. The only caveat is that your wife (or one of your children) could make an application to the courts (for a variation in the distribution of your estate) if they believed that your will had made insufficient financial provision for them. If you left absolutely nothing to your wife, such an application might well succeed but an 'equal shares' arrangement is perfectly normal and it's extremely unlikely that a court would vary the distribution of your estate:
http://www.statutelaw...eNumber=1&SortAlpha=0

Chris