Double, double toil and trouble – the impossible task of treating your children equally.
My three children are very young – but the matter of equality has not escaped them, whether it be counting out the Christmas presents to make sure everyone has the same amount or comparing bikes, hockey sticks and tennis rackets to check that they are the ‘same’.
I am yet to discover whether this will continue into their adult life, but writing as someone with three siblings myself, I expect that it will continue.
If you feel like you need to level the playing field, perhaps because one child has received more financial assistance during their life than the other, you might want to consider the inclusion of a hotchpot clause in your will.
The addition of the hotchpot clause into the will would take into account the financial help one child received during the testator’s lifetime and means that that child would not benefit twice under the will to the detriment of the other children.
The added benefit of a hotchpot clause is that once it is drafted into the will, there is no need to update the will every time a gift is made.
The only thing the testator will need to do is keep a record of the gifts made.
This means that when the executors come to distribute the estate, they can refer to the gifts made during the testator’s lifetime and distribute the estate accordingly.
The rule against double portions is also worth mentioning.
This is the presumption that someone would not intend to give a gift twice. For example, where a parent leaves money to a child in their will, but proceeds to give them the money before they die. In this case, the money should be treated as an advance payment and then deducted from their inheritance.
As I have stated before, fairness doesn’t always mean equal. And unless your children are the three witches of Macbeth, you will have the best insight into how fairness is achieved.
Of course parents treat their children differently, because they are different and have different needs – so perhaps all this talk of equality between children is overthinking it.
And overthinking things didn’t quite work out for Macbeth!
For more information, please contact Winter Addis. Email Winter.addis@muckle-llp.com or call 01768 347 084.
