Often people want to leave everything to a spouse or partner, but you want to specify other people (e.g. children or relatives) to inherit if your spouse or partner dies before or at the same time as you. This guide is particularly for people making a pair of wills. If you’re logged in you can quickly navigate to the relevant Residuary Gifts page.
How to leave everything to spouse/partner then to children
To do this, you should choose your spouse or partner as the residuary beneficiary. Once you have saved their details you will see the option “what happens If this person dies before or within 1 month of me”.
If you’re leaving everything to your children you can either (if you may expect more children in future) choose the first option, or (if your family is complete, or you have a more complex family e.g. a “blended” family) choose the third option and name each of the children.
Common pitfalls are:
Naming more than 1 “top tier” beneficiary – this would mean that everything is split between each of the top tier beneficiaries on death rather than just your spouse/ partner. Do make sure you use the “alternative arrangements” section.
Naming different alternative beneficiaries – this could lead to a “sideways disinheritance” situation where the alternative beneficiaries of the first of you to die would not inherit anything.
If you do find yourself confused, or having made an error somewhere it’s often a good idea to delete all of the gifts on the page and start again from scratch.
If you’re making a pair of wills, don’t forget to check the wishes in the second will before completing your purchase or your update.