“
There should be
no shocks and
surprises in a Will
However, this encouraged Peggy to
revisit her own Will arrangements and
she invited her immediate family round
to advise them of her intentions – as
she said, “there should be no shocks
and surprises in a Will.” She told her
daughters, Jennifer and Lillian, how
proud she was of them, how they had
found good life partners and how she
couldn’t see them ever being short of
money. In regard to her son Tony, and
his wife Pat, she told them how she had
admired their decision to go into organic
farming but knew that this could not
provide the security they might hope for
and so because of that, she was going
to leave her house to their daughter,
her granddaughter, Helen. Helen is a
single mother (whose child was born
from an anonymous sperm donor) and
so Peggy wants to ensure that she and
her son Henry have a roof over their
heads – with the subtext being that her
parents may not be able to guarantee
this. The rest of her estate she plans to
leave to Helen’s brother Tom, a young
entrepreneur, big in sausages and ready
meals, whom she described as “the
person who I believe will have most need
and make the best use of it.”
All of the children, particularly Tony,
were taken aback by this news but from
subsequent episodes it does seem that
Jennifer and Lillian will accept Peggy’s
decision. They don’t have to – the
law provides that they could make a
claim against her estate when the time
comes, but although Peggy has other
grandchildren, they will not be able to
make such a claim unless she was
supporting them, for example. Pat,
though, is not happy that her generation
will miss out on a share of the Archer
fortune and is intending to ask Peggy
to change her mind – will she be
successful? Listen on to find out.
“
and dry and still had her own money.
We listeners are yet to learn that the
repercussions of Hazel inheriting what
appears to be a good chunk of the
village – including the community shop
- and no doubt this will unfold over the
coming weeks.
there is someone legally appointed to
manage these aspects of your life if you
can’t? Secondly, if you are in a second
(or third, or even fourth) relationship
and need to take account of different
strands of your family, or if you feel that
you want to treat your children other
than equally when writing your Will, it is
always a good idea to get professional
advice to make sure that you do what
you can to avoid a family dispute on your
death. Peggy’s idea of telling her family
beforehand is a good idea but this is not
always possible, if a child is estranged
for example, and so you should be
forewarned as to what may happen.
See me or my colleagues in the Probate,
Trust and Wills Department for advice
and assistance, as “doing it yourself” can
cause more problems than you think you
are solving…
Rebecca Haywood
This storyline encompasses a couple
of different areas of law where Mayo
Wynne Baxter