General Chat

IGP .............


you have a very good point there


We only have one child ................ and she was told long ago not to expect anything from us as we planned on spending it all :-D

House prices have risen so much here that the house is worth far far more than we ever expected BUT it also still form the basis of the money needed to keep either or both of us in residential care (which has also risen dramatically), if we so need it ............... so, she still may not get anything!!

You have to be very careful when making a will which contains specific bequests to ensure that you review it regularly to ensure it is still relevant to your wishes.

Consider the following:-

90% of wealth is in your house and it's contents. You have three children but No's one and three are deadbeats so you leave your house and contents to No two, with No's one and three getting the residue of what else there is left - e.g. very little.....!

Some years later you decide to sell the house and contents and move into a retirement home. Sadly you die without making a new will.

Your No 2 favourite son now finds he gets a big fat zero as the house and contents no longer exist. Deadbeats one and three get all the remaining proceeds of the house sale which now form part of the residue.

We actually willed our daughter to OH's sister and her husband in a will we made when she was about 4 or 5, rather than simply naming them as guardians.

Under the Canadian system that meant that they could immediately begin to draw money that the executor could take from our estate even before probate to help support an extra child, the move that would be needed, etc.

As she is now over 40, and both sis-i-l and husband are dead ........... I do hope that that is not the will that is on file with the legal beagles :-D

We have made at lest 2 other wills in the meantime, but ................. we're dependent on the lawyer to file a will, so who knows???

Love it Maggie and yes it may be a good time to update your will :-D :-D

might be a good idea, maggie

:-D :-D

I made my will years ago. The children were to go to their father (we were divorced) along with ALL their pets :-D

Now that these children have grown up, with 4 children between them, I feel I should update my will :-D

Kim .


that sounds a good idea.

I would never appoint my son-i-l as my living power of attorney or executor ............ too much experience with him :-(


that's why we're planning on setting up trust funds for daughter and grandson ......

........ daughter will get interest payments but not be able to touch the principle which will pass to her son on her death.

We hope to set it up so grandson will not get interest payments (they'd be rolled over into the principle) or be able to touch the principle until he is 30 or 35, although he could get access to some amount for post-secondary education funding after the age of 18.

SylviaInCanada

I have a will which i updated when i got divorced and again when i moved to the UK from Australia... if my parents have both gone it goes to my sister only.. not my brother in law.... and then split between her 3 kids after that...

That covers my sister in the event of a marriage breakdown. My brother in law and I get on really well and he is actually my living power of attorney in the event something happens to me.. But it clearly states any funds (if i dont spend it all on overseas holidays) goes to sister only....

Sylvia yes the reverse is also true should he go 1st I get all. Our wills are near enough identical and allow for 1 or both to go.

Uzzi ...............

is the reverse also true?

ie, if your husband goes first, you get it all??


I only ask because one of our friends was 2 years older than her husband and assumed she would go first .............. nope, he first got dementia then an incurable cancer and died when he was 81.

Luckily they did have reverse wills.

Sorry I disappeared for awhile (again). some very interesting comments.

I have written mine with the thought that I as the eldest will go 1st. So hubby has it all and knows what bits and bobs of mine go where. (mainly to the local dogs home). We skipped a semi generation ie his sisters but did put a life interest on the property to them. We did that because of Inheritance tax, especially to non residents (why pay twice). We do have to finger cross that the next generation listen to our wishes because we can´t add the clause.
We kept ours simple so even if we change houses, cars, buy as boat etc as long as it´s Spanish it is included. But once we both have gone the inheritors can´t just bin things everything gets sold (even the crap)

Caroline - we can imagine!

Not us, but someone of our generation could have found a loving home for some velvet curtains. Their other relatives sent them to the dump PDQ.

Bob - tell your missus she should ask an auction house about the value. What she might consider junk could be considered antiques or valuable by others. Even weighed-in scrap value might be worth considering!

You have to laugh how quick some people can clear a house !!

D E T, yep we DO have children .......AND grandchildren, the essentials are sorted,
up to a point,


but one persons' idea of trash can be someone else's treasure..... my missis says she will "skip the lot"

yes Caroline, too true.......my nan promised her creole earings to my then fiancée

but someone else got there first......

Always always always put it in writing don't assume just because you've said it a million times to anyone that would listen that your wishes will be acted on.
I know from personal experience that as soon as someone dies others suddenly forget what was said.....and it doesn't have to involve a lot of money....you'd be surprised how much some will fight for items of little value including in my family case a cut wedding ring which they insist they will fix....we all know they're going to melt it down !!!!

Bob - you might have written that as a throw-away remark, but if you do have children its something you need to think about.

Aside from the normal domestic repair style tools which are frequently loaned out to family, OH has aquired quite a few other larger/expensive ones; the meter man drools over them when he has to access the garage ;-)
OH has bequeathed them to our son. No doubt he will have first dibs then share them with his Brother-in-laws and cousins.

Hmmm!

food for thought there.........

now who should get my box of bits "that one day will come in handy?

contents of my "spare room workshop"...

or my collection of tools, both professional, and hobby........???


Bob

We wrote a will a number of years ago where I wanted to ensure jewellery that had come to me from both my side and OH's side, went to the correct sides in the event our daughter had predeceased us

The lawyer refused to put it in the will. We had to draw up an attachment to be added, that listed each individual piece, with full description and photo, if possible.


We had a different lawyer for the next will a few yeas later ............ and she was in full agreement to it being stated in the will that "in the event of ..." the jewellery was to be split.


Now, we're in the process of re-writing a much delayed updating, and trying to work out how to, errrrrrmmm, avoid our son-i-l having control of too much of it. We (that is, me in particular) don't trust that he would not take control and spend it. He's a bit of a spendthrift ........ and the first thing I know he would do is quit work to do something fanciful like open a tea shoppe. I want to be sure that our daughter and grandchild are well taken of, and not left without funds.

Maybe my view is coloured by the fact that my brother was desperate to work for himself, and ended up bankrupt twice ............... his intentions were good, to take care of his wife and kids, but the execution was not good.

But we've also had experience of son-i-l's "desires" ........

......... the first inclination I had that they were serious was when I was asked if we could lend him $300,000 (!!!!) to open a shop that would sell all kinds of gift items that men could buy for their girlfriends or wives. My comment was a very shocked "that's more than our house is worth'!

Spanish property law can be a nightmare, so feel for you.

Mind you, getting clauses written into UK will where you choose one of your children to inherit an enhanced share but want financial control assigned to another child to safeguard that money is an absolute minefield.

It took a lot of tinkering around to get something sorted, thankfully all our children were in agreement :-D

Sue

Shirley Spain allows for the death of an inheritor but you can´t add clauses.

I can leave my property to 2 people but if they sell I want a 3rd person to benefit...UK you can do that not in Spain.
So from what I wanted I have totally rewrote what I started with just to get the same thing !! ;-)