If you are now married, children from a previous relationship may not inherit anything.

A common mistake people make is assuming their Will that specifies leaving everything down to their children doesn’t need updating when they get married. However a change in your marital status means that your will automatically comes invalid, which means if they were to die, without updating your Will, the new spouse could potentially inherit everything leaving no inheritance your children.

Also, many people own property as Joint Beneficial Owners with their new spouse unaware they could potentially dis-inherit their children later down the line.

For example, Mrs Brown lives with her newly married husband Mr Brown and they have been together for two years. They decided to sell both of their houses to buy a new house together and they own the property as Joint Beneficial Owners, which means if one of them was to pass away the survivor inherits the whole house. Mrs Brown passes away, leaving the whole house into Mr Brown’s name. Mr Brown passes away 10 years later without a Will and his children inherit the whole property. This means Mrs Brown’s children didn’t inherit anything from their mother because she didn’t make arrangements in time to protect her children.

Now if Mr and Mrs Brown made Protective Property Trust Wills, Mrs Brown’s share of the house would have passed to her children when Mr Brown died.

If you’d like to find out more please contact a consultant, who will be happy to help, on 01604 8073598.