Inheritance fears as solicitor issues warning to couples
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A LOCAL solicitor has issued a stark warning about a law that could see children of remarried couples miss out on their inheritance.
Principal of Georgesons and online wills lawyer Bruce de Wert is calling for remarried couples to broach the sensitive topic.
Mr de Wert claims a piece of legislation has failed to be brought into line with modern living arrangements, where people remarry and have a second “set” of children.
This legal loophole means that a second partner can claim a large sum of money from a property and the house itself on their spouse’s death, leaving very little for the bereaved’s offspring.
“The issue is that this law is not suited for modern society,” said Mr de Wert.
“It was designed in 1964 at a time when you could anticipate that someone would be married once and have one set of children.
“It was reasonable then that a spouse would inherit the property on their partner’s death.
“But times have changed and nobody has changed the law with them. Now there is this terrible situation where second-married partners can scoop the pool.”
Mr de Wert said that statistics show as a general rule in 1964, when the Succession (Scotland) Act came into force, couples married once and had a nuclear family.
“Men owned the family home with no legal protection for wives against being evicted from that property on his whim,” he said.
“Wives remained, generally, homemakers, without an independent income, although female employment was starting to become normal.
“The legislators’ understanding would have been that the house would be inherited by the mother – who had neither income nor property – and who would have been expected, in turn, to leave the house to the family’s children.
“In 2012, there can be no such understanding.”
Mr de Wert said that for many remarried couples with children this can be a very sensitive subject as most people want to leave something to their offspring.
“A major problem here is that for couples on their second time around with two sets of children, the issue of inheritance is a very delicate matter,” he said.
“They fear that it will be a source of conflict and so it gets swept under the carpet and no will is made.
“The moral of the story is that if you make a will you can sort it out. This spouse who doesn’t own the house can keep a roof over their head and yet your children can still inherit.”
As of Wednesday, anyone who loses their married partner will have a “prior right” to the home up to the value of £473,000, an increase of 58 per cent since 2006.
“The viewpoint of the Scottish Government seems to be that this is a step forward as it means that most husbands or wives will inherit the home they live in,” said Mr de Wert.
“The Government will argue that they are just making adjustments to take account of inflation, but this disguises the fact that, in 1964, when the law was laid down, the world was very different to now, half a century later.
“In an era of multiple relationships there are many children whose parent is currently in a different relationship to that at the time of their birth.
“If that parent marries but does not make a will, there is a good chance that such children will be disinherited.”
Mr de Wert has now called for a debate on the law.
“The issue is whether, in modern society, with serial relationships and sometimes serial marriages, an inheritance law which favours the current married partner is appropriate.”
He reckoned that there is a relatively simple fix to the legislation – if there are kids involved make the entitlement money less.
“I don’t pretend I have all the answers,” he said. “I just know that the current situation is not right.”
