General Chat

One of OH's father's cousins died about 25-30 years ago in England. She had never married but she left her estate to be divided equally between her cousins or their descendants.

In fact all the cousins were dead, and the solicitor had quite the job to find all the descendants. She knew that OH was over here partly because we had been to see her on a trip back to the UK in the early '70s, and the solicitor had our address, but had to ask OH if he knew an address for his sister!

The money was eventually paid out, but in 3 stages over a period of about 3 years ................ as they had to be sure that they had found every descendant.

When my 1st once removed cousin died intestate probate was granted and the monies shared between the Groups of descendants of her paternal aunts and uncles. As there were full relations the half relations were not eligible.
No newspaper adverts were needed as everyone was known to at least one other relation.
We did not need to find relatives via her maternal line as, legally, her mother was illegitimate. If this had not been the case adverts would have had to be placed as the that family was unknown.

My will is relatively simple, my brother gets some, my sisters and son get nothing, the house and contents go to the Sue Ryder charity, my sisters and son are named as not getting anything not even my family tree stuff. Because of their treatment of hubby and me in the past.

Over here, you do not have to put disposition of jewellry and personal effects in the will. In fact many lawyers advise against doing that, as did a lawyer when we made a will about 20 years ago.

Instead they suggest appending a list to your will stating what you want to go to who.

That way, the list can be re-done if you change your mind or someone dies but the will does not need re-doing.

I do have some jewellry and other items that came to me from my side of the family and some from OH's. My daughter has been told (and I have to make sure this is all written down somewhere!) what items are inheritances from OH's grandmother and gt grandmother(s) or male equivalents and which are inheritances from my side. She has been told that anything she does not want is to be offered to her cousins from the appropriate side. If there is anything that no-one wants, then she can dispose of it as she wishes.

She can also do the same thing with the jewellry, some valuable, that OH has bought me over the years, as well as the art work that we have collected/been given/inherited.

Some people don't realise that you don't always need a solicitor. I downloaded a template and typed it up myself. Got my neighbours to sign and witness my signature. Job done.

Of course mine is very straight forward.

if you have a big estate and have left lots of monies or jewellery to people or want to donate to lots of charities then maybe going to a solicitor might be better.

Florence in the hebrides

Because of my forthcoming op. I have had to make a will just in case because im in the middle of a messy divorce. heaven forbid anything should happen to me, but I was advised to keep it simple and leave my half share of the house to my children.

Assuming all goes well. I can redo my will once everything is settled.

Florence in the hebrides

Thankyou for replies :-)

I know the aunts died without marrying but that still leaves 3 possible sources of cousins, once removed. Not my family I hasten to add, I made my will years ago. But this is a person who won't do so because they think it is "tempting fate" :-(

I had a friend years ago who had told me that her dads family raised a young lad as their own after he became an orphan during the war. As he got older, he promised my friends dad, he would see him ok in his will for the kindness he showed him growing up etc.
He died a few years ago and left over 80k in his will but left 70k of it to the local cats home. He did leave 2 grandchildren 5k each but nothing for her dad!

He could have gone to court but it would have cost money so he didn't bother.
The man never married and had no family so he left most to charity. What a shock to think you may get something and find you were left nothing.

Florence in the hebrides

Rambling if there was no will and no spouse, any cousins etc could apply to probate but there may be many cousins!
A notice would be placed in a newspaper etc and then see who came forward. it would take months or years to settle but the 2nd or 3 rd cousins would not automatically inherit the estate.

Florence in the hebrides

We wrote our most recent will about 2 years ago, using a lawyer who specialises in wills.

One common way to divide up an estate is on %age, as Tawny says above. Another way is to divide the estate into parts, and then leave x number of parts to beneficiaries.

Largely because of the huge increase in property values here, we think we will have more to leave than we ever dreamed of after the house is sold and the estate settled, so we decided to spread it around a little bit for after the survivor dies.

If OH dies before me, I get it all, vice versa if I die first.

After that comes the division into 10 parts ......... we left 1 part to each of 2 charities, one part divided between my nieces and OH's nieces and nephew, some parts to our grandson to be kept in trust for him until he turns 35 (!!!), and finally either 2 or 3 parts (I can't remember which) to our daughter (only child).

When we had finished, but before we left the office to wait for the will to be typed, the lawyer asked if we thought that our daughter would have any objections to what we had done, as she would have every right to go to court to get the will changed. He repeated that question on our second visit before we signed the will.

We don't think she will have as, in fact, the largest part goes to her own child in trust.

But it seems that legally, over here, she could indeed challenge the contents of the will.

Why did we not leave everything, or a larger part, to her?

First, because we did want to spread any moneys around, but secondly, because we have concerns about her OH.

Of course, there might be very little left if either or both of us have to go into care for a long period of time! Or house values dramatically!


That might be something for you guys to consider ....... would you trust the person(s) who inherits if the only or main beneficiary pre-deceases you.

They can of course try if a newspaper notice has been placed to the effect **anyone wishing to make a claim**but in general a second cousin wont be automatically entitled.

Just a query, to anyone who knows, Florence?

If there was no will and no spouse/children/siblings would a first cousin once removed inherit the estate?

Mr Owl and I have wills stating that if he predeceases me then his children from his first marriage get 50% of his wealth and I get the other 50%. On my death any child born to our union gets the lot. If we have no children my brother and sister or their respective children inherit if we outlive my siblings. Mr Owl is an only child.

If I predecease Mr Owl then he will rewrite his will to state that any nieces and nephews I have get 80% and his children get 20%. This will remain unless his relationship with his children improves a lot.

You have to remember that a will isn't a legal document as such. It is a list of your wishes etc. From experience of working in a bank and dealing with estates etc...if you die without making a will and you have property and assets over £5000 then your next of kin wouldn't automatically inherit at all.
they would have to apply for grant of probate to basically prove they are the next of kin.
By the same token, if you have a son & a daughter but for a reason, you exclude your son from the will, leaving everything to the daughter, the son can go to court and contest the will..
if something has changed in your family and it affects your will, then make the changes asap either through a solicitor or you could add a codicil stating the changes and get that witnessed by 2 people.

Many people think that if you're husband and wife and the house is in hubbys name only that when he dies, it will automatically go to the wife but this isn't straightforward.
I had a customer once who died. His account was in his sole name and he took care of all the bills. His wife didn't have an account and neither did they make a will.

poor wife couldn't get any money from his account and he had over 10k in it. She had to apply for probate which when I left was still on going after 8 months. he apparently had family in Ireland which they were trying to trace as they could make a claim on his estate.

so anyone who hasn't made a will, do so or make sure the one you have is up to date otherwise those left behind may have a difficult time ahead trying to sort out their loved ones estate.
However, if you do not own any property or shares and have less than 5k in your bank, then sometimes it can be dealt with fairly easily.

if you are in any doubt, you can get free advice from most solicitors for the first 1/2 hour I think. And also since I left the bank, things may have changed so best to get up to date info from the experts.

Florence in the hebrides

We asked a similar question when doing our wills and the answer was to make sure you go down the line a bit when making the will

We did reciprocal wills leaving everything to each other then to our daughter
Solicitor said go down the line a bit just in case

Scenario would be if we were all out together and killed in a road accident

It would be assumed as hubby was the older he died first so his will then my will cuts in but If daughter and her baby son had also died then my siblings would inherit

We didn’t want that so then it was written that her husband would inherit providing they were still married at the time or all of her children she may have had

It would save more wills being made as ours tied up three generations

She did have another baby and they did eventually divorce but we were told we didn’t have to change the wills as they were no longer married anyway

Many years later we did redo wills giving daughters new married name and then a later addendum for other change of surnames

A new Will doesn't have to be written,,,,,,,,,a written Codicil can be added to the exsisting one,,,,,,,,,adding new details to include new family members or excluding family members,disposal of effects etc,,,

Thank you all for your input, it started as a conversation at work quire a while ago and few people knew the answer but now they do thank you.

If you have property/bank accounts etc. in more than one country you have to have a will for each country.

If your sole beneficiary predeceases you and you haven't stated that you want their inheritance to go to their children in these circumstances, and you don't make another will, then it will go to your nearest next of kin (ie. your siblings or their offspring, then aunts and uncles, cousins etc.) as shown on Heir Hunters as Sylvia said. If they can't find a living relative then it goes to the Treasury.

Kath. x

ZZzzz, if the person is resident in another country it would be wise to check regulations. Several years ago, I recall a friend in France telling me that inheritance rules as far as spouse and children were concerned were a little different from those of the UK. Whether or not they have stayed the same, I have no idea.

Otherwise, I have always believed that any inheritance left to a deceased beneficiary passes to that person's next-of-kin ... or to the beneficiaries named in the deceased beneficiary's will if there was a will.

I think Sylvia has a good idea about naming a contingency beneficiary.