The Lawyer's Lunchbox

Wills Trusts and the Husband & Wife Will

The typical husband & wife will is I leave everything to my spouse and on the death of both of us to the children in equal shares. The presumption is that all children are created equal and everything will be split equally. This may be true for the majority. But life doesn't always deal an even hand. There just seems to be many exceptions to the rule. Our role in drafting Wills is all options need to be explored and some that you may not have considered.

My opinion is that wherever possible things need to be kept as simple as possible when drafting, avoid ambiquity and complex language.

I recently prepared wills for a couple whose two children were both adopted. One son however had become completely wayward and little chance that he would reform. The problem with giving this son an outright inheritance is it would not help his life. The question was how to best provide for him. The first consideration was providing him with the basic requirement of suitable accomodation and the second was some form of maintenance. In this case two (testamentary) trusts were established, the first was a sum of money given to the Trustee who could either purchase a flat or invest the funds and pay for the son's rent. The second trust fund that would be created was to provide a fixed monthly distribution (as opposed to the common discretionary trusts that are often used). The balance of the estate would be left to the other adopted child.

The hardest wills to draft are the blessed mixed or blended families. They require a lot more thought.

Here I turn to the "Feynman Problem Solving Algorithm" -

1. write down the problem;
2. think very hard;
3. write down the answer.

posted by brett hayton @ 7:00 AM