ex spouse benefit

[robinhood874]

hi,
is it possible to write a will in such a way to prevent my ex spouse benefitting in any way after my death from anything i leave to my children ?

[Peridot]

Hi Robinhood874,

When you divorced did you make a financial settlement order too?
If you did and you leave your assets to your children and they are under 18 then t will be necessary in your Will to indicate you do not wish the monies to be held by the other parent. Generally parents and guardians are allowed to hold children's inheritance until they reach the ag stipulated in the Will for them to receive the money. If they misappropriate any of the monies then the children can sue the parent. Tis of course can cause difficulties so it may be more sensible to arrange for the money to be in a trust or to appoint trustees to hold the money until such time the children are due to inherit it. In that way whoever is the trustee will hold the purse strings so to speak until they reach the age they are allowed the money.

If the children lived with the other parent after your death then that parent could approach the executor for money to be paid for the child's benefit and welfare but it would be up to the trustees to decide whether any sum should be handed over. You can also leave a letter of wishes about the sort of things you would not mind funding such as school trips, driving lessons, first car and the like to help the trustees in making a decision.

You need to get a specialist to look at the best way to protect the money for your children and seek some face to face legal advice on this to be certain their inheritance is protected.

[robinhood874]

Hi, thanks for that, I’ll look into it,