Will trust beneficiaries

[dpluxor]

Hi, I am helping my Father in Law make sense of his late wife’s will. They seem have had their wills setup as tenants in common, so her half of their property has now been put into trust for all their children presumably for when he passes.

Father in Law still has a life interest in the property, but my question is around her other possessions and bank accounts, this is the part of the will that we don’t really understand, section 4 related to the trustees liquidating her other personal possessions, and then this follows …
—————-
5.

MY TRUSTEES Shall hold the net proceeds of the said conversion and my ready money upon the following trusts:

(a)

UPON TRUST to pay thereout all my just debts, funeral

testamentary expenses and the said legacies and subject thereto to hold the balance hereinafter called "my residuary estate")

(b)

UPON TRUST for my husband the said ********** absolutely PROVIDED THAT if he shall have predeceased me then

(c)

UPON TRUST for such of my children and the children of my husband the said ************ as shall be living at the date of my death and if more than one in equal shares absolutely PROVIDED THAT if any of my residuary legatees shall have predeceased me leaving a child or children living at my death such child or children shall take and if more than one in equal shares per stirpes the share of my residuary estate which their deceased parent would have taken if he or she had survived me

I DECLARE that if at the time of my death any of the beneficiaries has not attained the age of eighteen years or married under that age then the receipt of the parent or guardian of that beneficiary shall be a sufficient discharge to my Trustees for the legacy or share of residue
herein bequeathed
——————

We understand note a) dealing with funeral costs, does this mean that the next beneficiary in b) is my father in law and does he inherit this right now and when some other condition is met. The thing is, he hasn’t predeceased her

Feels like this is really complex, are we kidding ourselves thinking we can deal with a will trust without professional help

Thanks

David

[Pezza54]

An absolute trust or bare trust means the beneficiaries can access the assets in the trust at any time without restriction.
So your father-in-law inherits the residuary without restriction as he survived your mother-in-law

[dpluxor]

Thank you, that’s very helpful information. We had been told by someone who ‘claims’ to be in the know, that her bank accounts and the proceeds from selling her possessions needed to be put into a trust account which the beneficiary children would inherit only when my Father in Law passes. I didn’t think this could be right