Inheritance rules

My friend (late 50s, no kids of her own) married a divorced man 15 years older than her.

He has two children from his first marriage (ended in divorce )who are now in their 40s and 4 grandchildren all teenagers.

His first wife is now deceased.

He’s retired now a number of years but is in poor health, sadly.

He was very savvy with his wages all over the years and is very comfortably well off.

He’s helped his children out financially very extensively over the years (deposits for houses, weddings, car loans, the usual thing) but they are both very poor at managing money. They are always looking for handouts.

I hope they don’t think that they are going to get very much if he dies because he’s made his will and apart from quite small amounts my friend is going to get everything (assuming she survives him).

She’s also made a will and she’s left all to him (should he survive her) and if he’s gone she has left it all to her own blood nieces and nephews.

I do not think that is correct. There is a number of different scenarios. Strictly speaking of a person dies intestate there estate is split 2/3-1/3 between spouse and children.

I tried to provide a link to citizen advice website but it would not work. However if you access that site and search ''inheritance'' you will see the different scenarios

Jointly held property is typically outside of the mix when it comes to dividing estates, that will automatically pass to the joint owner, usually the surviving spouse.

Yes, although tenant in common would be a very unusual scenario in the case of a family home or other investment houses purchased in the course of a husband/wife relationship.

Commercial property could be a different story.

Your first paragraph is full of incorrect assumptions. In Irish law, a married couple are very much two separate people and their assets are not commingled unless they choose to do so. The Family Home Protect Act prohibits a spouse from disposing of a family home they own in sole name without the consent of the other spouse but even that does not give ownership rights. On a divorce, assets and income will be considered and appropriate provision will be made. If a spouse dies intestate without issue (ie children), a spouse would inherit everything but otherwise would be entitled to a legal right share of the assets.

Yes, I wonder how successful will challenges are?

This solicitors Q&A sets out the courts criteria that will be taken into account.

https://romainescally.ie/succession-rights-qa/

Yep- and also, whilst in the past, the costs of such legal challenges came out of the deceased estate, which led to a lot of people challenging the wills of deceased parents simply because it cost them nothing to do so- this doesn’t necessarily apply now and you could be faced with a hefty legal bill if not successful -

The best advice in these scenarios is discuss while your remaining parent is still alive - if their wish is for you to have something in their will, then they need to provide for you in that will and not leave it to chance - there’s many stories through the years of legal challenges against step parents who essentially inherit everything from their deceased partner and the kids of the deceased are rightly peeved