If you were to die and your partner remarried your home may be at risk of being lost to the new spouse, leaving your children with nothing. Thankfully there are legal steps that you can take to prevent this happening. At Farsight Wills we specialise in ensuring that you and your family are protected against such an eventuality.
Couples who have made standard Mirror Wills (or don’t have Wills) could unintentionally be gifting their home to their partner’s new spouse, if you were to die and your partner remarried. You should act now to protect your children from sideways disinheritance with a Protective Property Trust Will.
What is a Protective Property Trust?
In simple terms, a Protective Property Trust is where (as a couple) you each write Wills leaving your half share of the property in trust for the children or other beneficiaries but state that they cannot inherit the share while your surviving partner is alive.
Why do I need one?
A standard Mirror Will would usually leave the estate to each other and then on second death the assets would be passed down to the children to be shared equally. So far so good.
If, however you were to die and your partner remarried the Will you had both written would be cancelled and everything would pass to the new spouse if your partner died before him or her.
Even if your partner wrote a new Will leaving everything to your children there is still a good chance the family home would be at risk of passing to the new spouse.
Why is our home at risk?
Property in the UK can be held in two separate ways, this is as Joint Tenants or as Tenants in Common. If a couple own their property as Joint Tenants, then it does not matter what the Will says, on first death the property will automatically pass to the surviving joint tenant.
Going back to our scenario of a remarriage after your death, that could mean if your partner was to die the whole property would pass to the new spouse and then quite possibly away from your children.
How can we protect our children’s inheritance?
If you do own your house jointly then the good news is that there are some legal steps you can take to protect your family home from sideways disinheritance.
By instructing Farsight Wills to change your home ownership to tenants in common (in which you both own a specific portion of the property, usually 50/50) and organising your Wills in such a way as to protect that share, you can guarantee that your children will always receive your share of the family home.
Farsight Wills can show you the correct approach to take ensuring that you always remain in control. Talk to us today about Protective Property Trusts on 01793 433705 or email for further information at info@farsightwills.com.