Marriage after Death

Not many people pass away wanting their surviving spouse to stay a widow/widower with all the loneliness that can bring.  Most widowers do in fact remarry and many widows do also. 

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As an example, if a wife dies first and at some point her husband remarries, in the new marriage: 

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• If the husband dies first the new wife may inherit everything.  The children will inherit nothing. 

 

• If that marriage fails, the new wife could get half or more of the children’s inheritance. 

 

Example - Children Lose their Inheritance to Step-Siblings 

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Ralph and Pauline Wilson had three children, Jeremy, Claire and Lauren. 

 

They each wrote a Will passing their entire estate to each other, but to their children Jeremy and Claire, if the other had already passed away. 

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Pauline died first, leaving around £700,000 to Ralph. 

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After a couple of years, Ralph met Dinah.  Ralph and Dinah fell in love and married. 

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Ralph died first, and his entire estate went to Dinah.

 

Dinah then met James Gray.  After a couple of years Dinah and Jeremy got married.  James had two children, Ashley and Naomi. 

Dinah died and her estate, including the inheritance from Ralph, went to James. 

James had no contact with Jeremy or Claire, and left his estate to his own children, Ashley and Naomi. 

Ashley and Naomi, who Ralph and Pauline had never known, therefore inherited the entire estate Ralph and Pauline had intended to pass on to their children Jeremy and Clair – who now inherited nothing at all from their parents.