Writing a will is the foundation of preserving your inheritance.
To write a will with stepchildren is the foundation of preserving your life’s work to ensure the fruit of your life’s work be it grand or modest stays in your family forever.
You recognise there is a cost and a duty to everything you own. You have a duty to your family especially if you have stepchildren to write a will that accounts for all the children in your family.
Write a Will with Stepchildren – Banishing Intestacy
Dying without a will is known as dying intestate. It might have been John Constable, my memory is not as good as I remember it to be, who said he never saw an ugly thing. I can only surmise he never saw the effects of intestacy. Intestacy is an act of self-sabotage. It’s not a crime exactly, one can’t be sent to prison exactly, but it’s a disgrace.
To avoid intestacy, write a will.
The presence of stepchildren and other step relatives make the task demanding of a superior level of care.
Writing a will with stepchildren is not beyond your intelligence.
Writing a will with stepchildren is well within your ability.
You should write such a will.
To write a will with stepchildren you just need a measure of planning.
Elsewhere, I have mentioned the fact that in any romantic relationship, be you living together, or be you in your first, second or even third marriage, you and your partner or spouse are treated as two distinct individuals for the purpose of inheritance and succession.
Therefore, you write your wills with this in mind.
Write a Will with Stepchildren – Inheritance Rights of Stepchildren
Let’s exile the matter of typical wills for blended families, or the notion of mirror wills and stepchildren.
As there’s no such thing as a typical blended family, there couldn’t be a typical will for a blended family.
In the first you need to go beyond mere will writing, we talk here of estate planning.
Start with a blank sheet of paper.
Write down all your assets.
Include everything you own.
Record the value you can sell such as your land and buildings, art, jewellery etc. Write everything held on your behalf such as pension funds. Do not forget your life insurance policies. Your car is a wasting asset, be honest in your valuation.
Write the value of your investments, savings and other financial assets.
If the house is jointly owned with your partner, or with anyone else, record the proportion of the house you own. Ignore the value of the contents of your house.
Add up the numbers.
Writing a Will Involving Stepchildren – Who Gets What
Write the names of all the potential beneficiaries of your estate – including, your spouse, your children, your stepchildren. In the second paragraph of this epistle, you read ‘a will that accounts for all the children in your family’. You did not read the meaning: ‘a will that gives each of the children of your family including your stepchildren an equal or any part of your estate’.
Next, strike out those you don’t want to benefit from your estate under any circumstances.
You need to decide if your spouse is reliant on any of your assets. Do you own the main family home jointly with your spouse or partner? Would they need to live in the house or is there another property to which they could move?
We’ve just seen the family home merits special treatment. The family home requires a fuller treatment beyond the scope of this article.
Which one of your stepchildren would you want to benefit from your estate? In what proportions would you want your birth and stepfamilies to benefit from your estate?
Also, you might have heard folk ask: ‘can I leave my stepchildren nothing?’
Do you want to leave your estate to your children, their children, and further generations of your family?
How many times would you want your family to pay inheritance tax on your estate?
Write a Will with Stepchildren – Up to You
If you’re considering how to divide estate with stepchildren or how to protect assets from stepchildren, then you’re asking the right questions.
These are the relevant considerations in writing a will with stepchildren, writing a will in a blended family.
From here, you should get specialist help to cast your wishes into the proper binding form that would accomplish your wishes and keep your money in your family forever. Simply book you free discovery call.
