"I didn't really think about that.."

If you have children who have been married for a while, you may want to read through this and give it a thought.

When people write their wills, the husband usually names the wife as his beneficiary, and the wife names the husband as her beneficiary. If both die, the assets are generally left to the children in equal shares. Pretty normal.

But look at this scenario. Let’s say you have a son, who has been married for twenty years. They are happily married, they have given you two beautiful grandchildren, ages 10 and 12, and you love your daughter in law as if she was your own.

Tragically, your son dies. It’s a struggle, but life goes on. He had some savings and life insurance, and your daughter in law will get by for a while.

Five years later, you pass away, and shortly thereafter, your spouse follows. So what happens now?

Well, if you have a usual will, you would have left your assets to your spouse, and then after your spouse passed, your assets would have gone to your son. But your son predeceased you, and therefore, all of your assets would go to your grandchildren, who are now 15 and 17. Your daughter in law? Nothing.

Now, that might be fine with you- you may want the assets that would have gone to your son to go to your grandchildren- and that’s absolutely fine, and it’s absolutely your choice. But it’s certainly worth thinking about.

Now, there are certainly other things to consider. If your will had named your daughter in law as a beneficiary, she would have collected that money when your spouse died. She might deplete all of those funds, leaving nothing for your grandchildren. Or if she remarries and dies, unless she prepared an appropriate will, your money could go to her new husband- and not your grandchildren!

Luckily, you can have it both ways. You can put your daughter in law in the same class as your grandchildren, and have your assets divided between the three of them in whatever proportions you like. Or you can provide a fixed sum annual allowance to her. We can also create a testamentary trust in your will to provide that any gift to her would expire, should she remarry or cohabitate. There are a lot of ways to work through this.

The point is, when I explain to people that their long term son or daughter in law might get left out in the cold- particularly if that child has been a stay at home parent and doesn’t have the means to support the family.. it causes concern. So, it’s just something to think about. Questions? Give us a call.