Playing fair—who gets what?

Many of us experience our first family negotiations, reasoning, and occasionally quarrels, as part of a spirited game of Monopoly or Risk. Later in life, we find ourselves wary about re-treading this territory in the context of estate planning. When it comes to preparing a will, most parents want to ensure that their children are treated equally. Fairness and harmony, rather than winner-takes-it-all, is the objective. We are here to assist you in achieving equitable estate planning—a matter not to be left to chance. 

There are several ways we can help you ensure that your children will benefit equally from your estate when drafting your will. While this may be as straightforward as an outright gift of your entire estate to your spouse/ partner, and then to your children in equal shares on the second death, our team can also offer more nuanced routes to an equitable outcome on death. 

A hotchpot clause is a handy card to play in your will that enables gifts that have already been made to your children before your death to be taken into account when dividing your estate after your death. Your children may have needed financial assistance at different stages in their lives, and in different amounts, but the inclusion of a hotchpot clause requires those appointed to administer your estate to carry out a balancing exercise when it comes to the division of what is left after your death. 

We may also suggest a trust as the best mechanism for balancing the books for the ‘bank of mum and dad’. We can deploy will trusts in a tax-savvy structure that ensures your testamentary wishes are met, and guide you through preparing a letter of wishes, or side letter, that instructs your trustees to treat your children fairly, but will also take account of their individual circumstances at the time of your death. Letters of wishes can encourage trustees to distribute unequally on the basis of extraordinary need, such as a critical illness, or to defer distribution to an adult child who is going through a divorce. 

Harmless tussles over the Scrabble board may be an important sibling tradition, but when it comes to the death of a parent, we want to ensure that conflict and upset feelings are not on the agenda, particularly at a time of bereavement and emotional stress. 

Having advised clients with blended families, family businesses, children with enhanced care needs, adult children struggling with addiction, or a vulnerability particular to their circumstances, we can help you come up with a strategy for your estate planning that brings you peace of mind. 

Rebecca McNally is a newly qualified associate in the private client team. Prior to joining Russell-Cooke, Rebecca worked as a paralegal, guiding witnesses through sensitive evidence preparation in regulatory investigations. .