Just to look at this subject from the side of those leaving the money for a moment.
I have something of a dilemma. Our family group consists of myself and my partner. Daughter 1 who is from my partner's previous relationship and daughter 2 who is both of ours.
The dilemma is with our wills. Daughter 1's Dad earns more than my partner & me combined,but at this point has little in the way of assets. He has no other children. SHould we split whatever we have equally between the two girls so that they feel like they have been treat equally by us. Or should we make some "offset" in favour of daughter 2 so that they have an overall equality from their three parents?
(Cave Duck, Tue 7 Sep 2010, 10:30, 2 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

Equal.
Never take for granted what your step-daughter's father will do with his will.
( girlinthehole, Tue 7 Sep 2010, 10:33, Reply)

I agree with BGB
take him out of the equation, he could lose everything tomorrow, you never know. Plus he might be a douche and leave everything to his cats or something.
( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Tue 7 Sep 2010, 10:38, Reply)

Kill his cats.

(Tugnut Ex of this parish, Tue 7 Sep 2010, 10:44, Reply)

But he lives 100 miles away, it's a long way to go just to kill his cats.
Especially as he doesn't have any cats.
(Cave Duck, Tue 7 Sep 2010, 10:49, Reply)

how sneaky of him!

( Kitty v1.0 desperately naive, Tue 7 Sep 2010, 10:52, Reply)

The devious fucker.

(Tugnut Ex of this parish, Tue 7 Sep 2010, 10:55, Reply)

Thanks to you both.
To be fair, step-daughter's dad has always been fairly financially generous with regard to her. I'm increasingly thinking that the will should be split 50/50, more for the emotional legacy than anything else. However, I may speak to both my step-daughter and her dad and explain that when my dear old mum eventually pops off that some of that money will be set aside for daughter 2.
(Cave Duck, Tue 7 Sep 2010, 11:09, Reply)