Partners mother died, left the money to the husband, partners stepfather of 40+ years.

Mothers wishes, after he died money to be split among the 8 kids ( 4 his 4 hers, once since died )

Stepfather dies, money now left to his 3 remaining kids. They know that was not the mothers wishes.

Nothing left to the mothers 4 kids.

Obviously this will need a Lawyer, a tens of thousands for his bill za de dah....

However anyone been down this track, this is in QLD australia however any advice would be appreciated.

Did your partners mother leave a will stating that her estate was to be passed onto the 8 kids when her partner died ? If so, her will should still stand. If she didn't leave a will and the partner inherited her estate I doubt there's much that can be done if his will did not provide for the other 4 kids.

The missus and I are currently going through preparing our wills right now, and it gets very complicated and all eventualities have to be taken into account. We are even putting protection in for our kids so that if they marry or get into a defacto relationship in years to come and then split up, that their 'ex-partners' are not entilted to anything that we leave.

Good luck with it, I hope you can find a way.

Wills can be contested, even if the will said it was to go to 3 kids rather than 8. In your case, you probably have a case.

The story goes the will did state this. However his sister was executor of the mothers will and says she does not have a copy. All very odd and not helped by the fact one brother and one sister dont speak as they both claim the other ripped each other off in a business deal.

However as much as I am no fan of my partners family I do clearly recall the mother making her wishes clear, and as the siblings were step kids for what must be at least 40 years!! you would think they would respect each other but nope.

Charming situation, and now he got a text saying there is no funeral, so they cant see off the old bloke even tho they knew him for 40 odd years.

Any rights (if any) will depend on where the person died and the laws governing that country/State

If the mother gave the money directly to the father, rather than setting up a trust fund, then it is his alone to do what he wishes with. You can't dictate what someone does with the money once it is given if there are no written details. This is one of the scary scenarios that our lawyer gave us (NSW) when we were recently making our wills, and we had to put things in trust funds so that the money was safe for our daughter, and to protect her from "partners" who would like to spend her dosh.

My understanding is that if the stepfather inherited an estate from the mum, and the child of the mum had a good relationship (ie not a bad relationship) with the stepdad then they do have a case for contesting the will and might succeed. How much this would cost against how much they might possibly inherit if they they were successful might however make it all too uneconomical to take the chance. There are of course principles, but they cost unfortunately.

OP - if your OH feels strongly on the subject then it might be worth having an initial chat with a solicitor to discuss his chances of success and the likely costs etc entailed. Presumbably as there are other siblings it might be a cost that they could all share as they all stand to benefit if the case succeeds.

I'm no legal expert so take everything I write with a pinch of salt

I know someone who went through the same...but not in Australia. Father...a multi millionaire...died leaving 2nd wife of many years all his money/assets. She died leaving all the money to her almost 90 year old brother in the UK. The father's children got nothing. The brother has got a couple of off spring in the UK who before long will become very rich...they only saw the old lady once...just before she died.

As others have said it will depend on the law of the country/state.

Yes. It is called duty of care. I have seen wills successfully contested by estranged children who suddenly wanted a share of estate, despite a will leaving them nothing, when the parent died.

Sometimes though, if you threaten to contest the will, there may be an out of court but binding settlement to avoid horrendous fees that will eat up the inheritance money.

As others have said- talk to a solicitor first.

So scary that the Will you make can be contested. I review my Will every 4 or 5 years and remake it if necessary. When I remade it totally in December last year, the Solicitor I used was so on the ball about all the family stuff that my Will is actually 6 pages long. But it is basically very simple... just needed to make sure that a certain feral family member through marriage didnt have a hope in hell of claiming anything. She will is she can, but if she manages anything I will come back and haunt the friggin cow every day!

I guess it depends on the situation.

As the mothers intent was so clear to all of them, and the will was then recently changed from 8 kids to 3 while the father was in a home with severe memory problems ( dementia related I guess ).

Plus the whole family were 'blended' for what appears to now be almost half a century!!!!

As others have said and my first thought was did she write that down, it seems yes she did but where is that will?

Disgusting really what people will do to anyone family included for money.

Thanks for all the replies too, it could go either way but intital chat he has been told there could be a very strong case.

Personally I reckon the whole lot has probably been spent by his kids while he was fading away not aware what was going on. Legal fees would take the rest. Only happy bunnies will be the Solicitors.

If the father was in a home with severe memory problems, then the will he made could be contested on the grounds that he was not of sound mind- especially if he did have dementia.

I just hope that something positive comes out of all this.

You could try the relevant probate registry - see here for addresses. Good luck!

Have been in exactly the same situation, my Dad's wife (my stepmother) inherited my Dad's estate when he died. When she died, she left everything to her 3 kids, myself and my 3 siblings didn't even get a momento to remember Pa by. The estate was worth a lot of money, but I didn't even think about contesting. I know Dad would have hated what happened, but he left the lot to her free and clear so she was within her legal rights. The horrible, rotten old bitch.