How do you settle splitting of assets in a will when there are stepchildren?

[Mom21]

Hubby and I are finally making a will......I know...I know. Should have been done a long time ago. Now, he has a 13yo from a previous marriage and we have a 9yo. We are pretty much set on how to do it if only one of us should die. Each child would get a trust fund (I am ok with my life insurance being used for his son also if I die first as my hubby can make it on his own) and his ex gets $150,000 if he dies as set by the courts. The problem lies in if both die at the same time. His ex would get the $150,000 and we would have to set up something for the people who would raise my dd ( most likely his sister--lesser of the evils... ). Now the balance. I think my dd should get 3/4 and his son should get 1/4 in a trust fund. My reasoning is that my half should go completely to my dd as his son has his mother's assets that he will inherit (including a house my hubby pretty much paid for......LOL). Then his half would be divided among his 2 children resulting in son having 1/4 and dd having 3/4.

Does this sound reasonable? I think things like this are what have caused me to not make a will before. Less conflict, but it does need to be done, I know.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Is this all assets--or just life insurance?

The 3/4 and 1/4 seems that it could potentially be an unfair balance if all of your assets are netted together if that makes any sense. (ETA: if you and hubby were perfectly 50/50 in assets, then it would be okay--if not, then that would be a problem).

 

[tkd lisa]

I can tell you how my dad and step mom had theirs set up.

Whatever each half brought into the marriage was set aside for that person's children. Whatever they had together was split evenly among all the kids.

In my case, my step-mom had sold a house she owned before the marriage. The proceeds from that house went into the downpayment for their house. When their house was sold, my step-sister was to get the first 40k (profit from her parent's house), and any remaining profit was to be split 3 ways (me, my brother, and the step-sister). My dad basically brought nothing into the marriage financially.

Now in reality, none of this ever happened, but that's what they planned. And it seemed fair to me.

In your situation, you're basically saying that the $150k that goes to the ex-wife, as well as the house that your DH provided his ex-wife make up the equivalent of 1/4 of your net worth. So your step child will get that 1/4 + 1/4 out of this will, giving him 1/2 total.

I think an easier way to do it might be to specify that a set amount of money comes out of the joint inheritance to your child (the equivalent to what the step child is to get from his mom), and the remainder is divided 50/50. That way if your assets change over time, the division will still stay roughly even.

Sorry if this is confusing, but I can't think of a better way to explain it.