As a grandparent, how do you write a will when you gain a stepfamily?

Protect Your Stepfamily's Financial Future

If you are a parent and your child has remarried and their new partner has children already from a previous marriage or relationship, now is a good time to consider whether or not you should update your will.

Depending on your circumstances, you may be overjoyed by the new additions to your family, whereas others are not, and they want to ensure that their own bloodline inherits their estate. No matter what your individual circumstances are, it is important to talk through your wishes with a will specialist, as a will can be drafted in accordance with your wishes.

You also need to be aware that if you leave your child your estate, what they do with it when they pass away is up to them. You cannot restrict the gift. This may therefore mean that your estate passes to your stepfamily eventually and does not stay down the bloodline.

Many people can also be sceptical that if a relationship has already failed once, then it could be likely that this happens again and the blended family falls apart once more.

Will my step-grandchildren automatically inherit my estate?

This really does depend on what the wording of your will actually says. It may be that the will has been drafted in a way that includes any stepchildren, but usually, it would not.

Legally speaking, if you pass away without a will, then any step-grandchildren will not receive anything in your estate, whereas any biological grandchildren would do so under the rules of intestacy (in the event that your spouse, parents, and children have predeceased you).

How can I make my step-grandchildren or my child’s new partner inherit my estate?

If you are on good terms with them and would like to leave part of your estate, then this is easily done. You just need to specifically name them as a beneficiary of your will.

What if I do not want my step-grandchildren or my child’s new partner to inherit my estate?

You need to ensure that you do not leave them a legacy under your will and that they are not financially dependent on you in any way during your lifetime.

You also need to consider whether you actually want to gift something to your own child, especially in the event that, when they pass away, part of their estate is given to their new blended family.

For this reason, many people are choosing to skip a generation and pass down their estate straight to their biological grandchildren, thereby missing out their own children.

Much depends on what your individual circumstances are, and it may be appropriate to put a Discretionary Trust in your will, which means that your executors can ultimately decide what happens to your estate when you die, as your family circumstances may change a lot over time.

It really does depend on what your individual circumstances are and who you would like to leave your estate to. If you would like to put a will in place, then please contact one of our will specialists. You can either contact us by completing the online questionnaire here, or call 01206 217609, or email leah.woodlee@birkettlong.co.uk.