if everyone made a will it would make searching for ancestors so much easier!
i had a pack through to make a will after my grandfathers death in 2004 but i never completed it but i am aware that if i died my children would not necessarily live with my partner, their father
my grandfather died intestate so my nan had to wait i think 6 months until she could gain access to his bank accounts etc. i believe this was in case anyone else made claim to his estate luckily no-one did otherwise she would have had to wait a lot longer, and cos she gets his railway pension she can no longer get pension credit.
the law is an ass!
my other nan made a will and so when she died everything was duly distrubuted as per her instructions. its makes things so much easier for the relatives that are mourning after the death.
Liz as you have adopted the child legally then he does have a claim on your estate when you die, but he won't have claim to his biological (sound slike washing powder) parents estate when they die.
Juju if the eldest child did not have contact with the biological (washing powder again) father than it is not unfair and as Guy put it he has an adopted father and a mother and so the law sees it as he does not need anyting from the washing powder fathers estate whereas the other child does now having only one parent. morally the second child should give the first child something but that is entirely up to him.
the thing that gets me regarding children in law is if you are a single parent and you want your new partner to act as parent to the child you have to give up the claim as being 'natural' parent and subsequently adopt that child together. unles of course you and your new partner marry then you can simply re-register them at the time of the wedding under the new surname.
