Blended families, contested Wills and inheritance disputes, a practical example

WITH about 1 in 3 marriages ending in divorce these days (and we suspect that rising after the Covid pandemic), we are seeing more and more contentious probate cases involving “blended” families

The usual situation is that two divorcees (with children from their previous marriage) meet, fall happily in love and remarry; thus, creating a blended family unit.

Both Dad and his new partner duly make mirror Wills; if they die first, their estate passes to their partner, and on the second death, the joint estate is split equally between all of the children, both biological and stepchildren.

So far so good. So, what changes? All too often, using our example, Dad passes away and his estate passes to his new partner, as previously planned. The blended family remain on good terms and life goes on.

A few years pass and Dad’s new partner meets someone new, and/ or one of the children (now grown up) falls out with their step sibling. Tensions inevitably arise, arguments are had, and she decides that she wants to change her Will - as she is entitled.

Her new Will states that her partner is to inherit all or part of her estate, with some allowance to her biological children, but crucially no allowance to her stepchildren. The stepchildren say that it can’t be right that Dad’s new partner changed her Will; she has their Dad’s share of the estate - surely she should to “do the right thing” and pass some of this on to them?

Unfortunately, in this set of circumstances, the new partner is perfectly entitled to leave her estate to whoever she chooses, regardless of what she has been given from Dad in the past.

All is not lost though and there are ways in which parity can be achieved both before and after Dad’s passing.

In these situations, we usually recommend preparing life interest wills or property trust wills. A life interest will gives your spouse (or person of choice) a life interest to remain living in your property until he/she passes, whereby the property then falls back into your estate to be divided under the terms of your Will.

A property trust will is designed to protect a half value of your home by placing the equivalent half value of the property into a trust after the first spouse or partner dies. Our

Wills team would be happy to explain these further and their details are below this article.

The second is to agree to make lifetime gifts to all children whilst both Dad and his new partner are alive, which will have the effect of achieving equality of treatment and may be tax efficient depending on when death takes place.

If there is an unequal situation after death, then the first step is to ascertain if the Last Will is valid and crucially, establish what the position would be if the Last Will is invalid i.e. an intestate distribution or a previous valid Will (remembering that marriage revokes a Will). Assuming the Last Will is valid, the stepchildren of the new partner may be able to bring a claim against her estate under the Inheritance (Provision for Family & Dependants) Act 1975, (“the 1975 Act”).

The 1975 Act allows certain categories of applicant (including any person treated as a child of the family) to pursue claims for ‘reasonable financial provision’ for their maintenance. There are strict time limits, so time is of the essence.

If everyone has a good relationship, it is not uncommon for variations to the Last Will to take place by agreement; though solicitors should be consulted as there can be tax implications.

In short, if you are in two minds about a looming contentious probate issue or would like some estate planning advice, please don’t delay, we can offer bespoke pricing solutions, great advice, and most importantly, peace of mind.