Deceased survived by husband. Clause 3 of will creates a property fund comprising her share of family home. The will creates a ‘Property Fund’ comprising the house and the contents.
Clause relating to the property fund stipulates: My Property Trustees shall hold my Property Fund for N (the Life Tenant) and after his death on the trusts of my residuary estate. There are no discretionary powers
Husband is the residuary beneficiary,
Executors and trustees are her two sons from prior marriage.
She has two sons from prior marriage. They are longstop residuary beneficiaries in event of husband predeceasing, which he has not.
There is acrimony between the sons and the husband.
Issues which spring to mind:-
- As the residuary estate has vested in the husband, do the life interest and the remainder interest merge with the result that the husband owns the entire estate from death?
- Does the remainder interest in the house revert to the sons on husband’s death or does it fall into the husband’s estate at that point?
- It is early in the process and we have not yet obtained the file from the solicitors who prepared the will. Assumption is that deceased wanted to pass her interest to sons following her husband’s death and the likely result is we will work to achieve that aim. The question is what is the most straightforward way of achieving that.
Michael McCabe