Step children and wills

[sophiepop]

A friend of mine has a step son who is in his 30's and quite settled with life financially.

She and her Husband have a son who is still at school.

They don't have a will and she was wondering what would happen if they died?

She knows that she has to do a will but until she does what would happen to their house and money etc?

She would like the arrange the will so that her half of the house goes to her biological son only and her Husbands half is divided equally between his 2 sons.

Would this happen if there was no will?

Thanks

[jndt]

I think her husbands estate would be split between his 2 biological children and her estate would go to her son. So step son would get 25% and their son together would get 75%.

25% being half the husbands half and 75% being half the husbands and all the wives.

[Colette-S]

I’d guess that It depends how house is owned - ie jointly owned, tenants in common etc. It would also depend on who died first. Simplest answer is to get proper advice and do a will to prevent any issues after death

[Lumpy]

Simple answer is no. Depending on how the house was owned her husband would be entitled to first £250K of her estate and 50% of anything above that with the remaining divided between any children.

Example: Tom and Heather are married and own their flat jointly as beneficial joint tenants. They have a child called Selma. Tom dies intestate leaving the jointly-owned flat worth £300,000, and £50,000 in shares in his own name. The flat goes automatically to Heather. This leaves an estate of £50,000 which also goes to Heather, as it is worth less than £250,000. Selma inherits nothing.

If Tom had owned the flat in his name alone, his estate would have been worth £350,000. It would be shared out according to the rules of intestacy, that is, Heather would get the first £250,000. This leaves an estate of £100,000. Heather would get £50,000 and Selma would get the remaining £50,000.

[skalexander]

The moral of the story is they need to do Wills so they can say what they want to happen, rather than leaving it to chance.

[tspill]

Rather than them asking the question, they should just fix it by doing a will.
They could probably sort a will faster than this thread will last.

[djewkes]

This happened to my cousins, their father died leaving mum relatively well off (own home plus a bit of cash), mum had mental health problems, re married then a couple of years in committed suicide, no will. Husband inherited the lot and when he died it all went to his children leaving my cousins with nothing.
They need wills.

[sophiepop]

Thanks for the replies. She is going to get one done

[Blue nose]

Originally Posted by djewkes

This happened to my cousins, their father died leaving mum relatively well off (own home plus a bit of cash), mum had mental health problems, re married then a couple of years in committed suicide, no will. Husband inherited the lot and when he died it all went to his children leaving my cousins with nothing.
They need wills.

See more...

This. Without a Will her son may end up with nothing.

[disneydaft83]

If you are in Scotland, it is more complicated as the biological children of the deceased spouse get 1/3 of any cash in the estate. Step children are not recognised and this overrules any will in place. When my stepdad died, my mum and his will stipulated that everything should go to the surviving spouse and then be split equally between the 4 of us (my brother and me and step brother and sister) but the law meant that my step siblings were entitled to a third and my brother and me nothing. Thankfully my step siblings refused and we will do the same when the time comes in accordance with our parents' wishes. The solicitor who drafted the will also failed to point this out! But bottom line is that your friend needs professional advice and a will.