Grandchild excluded

[Trevor51]

My mother's will specifies a cash amount to be paid to each of her grandchildren. It then goes on to name the grandchildren, however my youngest son who is the youngest grandchild is not listed. He would have been 11 when the will was written. His brother is listed.
Does he have grounds to say that the will is incorrect?

[Amethyst]

Do you have the exact wording from the Will ? Is the cash amount to be shared between her grandchildren or is a specific legacy listed for each individual, there may be a clause which allows for further grandchildren to be included ( eg those not yet born etc ) or grandchildren to be removed ( if they died etc ) … so the wording will likely be important to begin with.

If it is an obvious error ( ie your Mum just forgot to put his name down - happens when you have lots of grandkids ) then the rest of the grandchildren can agree to have things adjusted to account for him so they all get equal shares ( they'd all need to agree and sign a variation )

Tagging Peridot for you xx

[Peridot]

Hi Trevor51,
As amethyst says above the wording of the Will is critical here. If there is an error then the other beneficiaries can agree to vary the Will to include him but all beneficiaries will have to agree. You would need a deed of variation prepared to deal with this.
Can you post the actually wording in the clause, leaving out any names or identifying info of course.

[Trevor51]

It says:
I give devise and bequeath the sum of One thousand pounds to each of my grand children xxxx, xxxx, xxxx, xxxx, xxxx, xxxx and xxxx and my great grand son xxxx upon them respectively attaining the age of 18 years.
In fact I doubt any of them will get anything. The house is being left to one brother to live in until death despite him have a marital home. He is also to get £10000 and another brother £5000. There will not be enough cash to pay the inheritance tax let alone the bequeaths and solicitors fees.
It goes on to say:
I give deivise and bequeath any shares I hold and any funds remaining to my credit in any Bank or Building Society of any kind to be divided as follows:

The first ten thousand pounds to my son xxxxx of xxxx

The next five thousand pounds to my some yyyyyy of yyyyy.

The remainder to be divided equally between my daughter zzzzz of zzzz and my son aaaaa of aaaa .

It goes on to talk about any of the above predeceasing.

I get diddly squat.

The house goes into trust for yyyyyy to live in until death. Then goes to zzzzz and aaaaaa or dependents.

It refers to inheritance tax being paid from the residual estate. This is likely to be in the region of £40000. The tax not the residual estate.

[Peridot]

Hi again,
So it looks like all the beneficiaries would have to agree to the further sum being given to your son. Is there any reason he would have been excluded? I don't imagine at 11 years old he could have done anything to cause him to be treated any differently so probably an oversight.

If there are insufficient funds to pay all the legacies then they will be reduced proportionately as all testamentary expenses, funeral, lawyer fees and tax would have to come out first. I assume the shares and bank accounts do not hold sufficient funds in them and the house is the main asset?

If there are insufficient funds in the estate then there is a strict order of priority for payments and legacies to be made. This may help:- https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-man...nual/ihtm12086 and this link explains the types of legacies:- https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-man...nual/ihtm12082

As we mentioned above a Deed of Variation would be needed once all the other testamentary expenses are dealt with. Do you have good relations with your siblings? Are they likely to agree to treat all grandchildren/great grandchildren the same?

As you mention, there may be insufficient funds in any event and then you would need to consider whether the amount is worth pursuing I'm afraid.

[Trevor51]

I get nothing. Y only gets £5000 but there is unlikely to be anything to give to him.
x gets £10000 but again the

is unlikely to be anything to give to him. x also gets to live in the house until death but already has a marital home. He now only lives in it M-F as it is closer to his place of work than the marital home. He is 7 or 8 years away from retirement.
z and a effectively get nothing. They may outlive x but unlikely to be by much.
Needless to say everybody except x is a bit miffed. Probably find x is as well. If I was in his position I would rather to the cash to do with as I wish rather than be tied to a house that I didn't need.
z and a are up to contest it but funds might be a problem and hope the threat may be sufficient. Not sure how Y feels about it and that needs to be determined.

Ironic that the house and land will get in the region of £550,000 but none on the immediate family are likely to get a penny. Me thinks that is exactly what my mother had in mind. I would rather it had gone to the cats home.

[Peridot]

Does Y want to keep the house? Y doesnt have to accept it. I suspect that may be a long shot but again Deed of Variation can be used if all beneficiaries are in agreement how the estate should be divided. Is the Will very old? I asume your mother had sufficient funds to deal with the legacies when it was prepared?

Would it be worth you and your siblings getting together to discuss this and maybe trying to reach an agreement between you. In any event you would be expected to attend mediation if you decided to make a Court application?

[Trevor51]

To be honest nobody has asked but we have only just seen the will.
I agree that the siblings need to make a united front. The will is 7 years old. I doubt that there was ever enough to meet the financial requirements. The house would have been worth less but the inheritance tax would have been proportionately bigger. Savings would have been about the same

[Peridot]

Is there no transferable nil rate band available? In addition the residential nil rate band should come into play if the property is left to direct descendants.
Sorry probably covering things you already have. Maybe next steps is to get the siblings together to discuss what everyone thinks.
Keep us posted, if we can help with any guidance we'll try our best.

[Trevor51]

The house is worth approx. £500000. There is additional garden that was annexed (legally) from neighbouring properties over many decades that could be sold back. No idea what they would be worth but I think a lot of the neighbouring properties would be keen to buy part or all of it.
I have been told that the threshold for tax is £425000? If the house goes to trust what is the limit?

[Peridot]

Hi Trevor51,
Was your mother married (even if widowed)?