Entitlement of 2nd spouse in will

Hello

A friend recently asked me to be an executor of his will and gave me a copy,

He has substantial assets to leave, his first wife died a number of years ago and he has recently remarried, I see that he is leaving about 90% of his estate to his two adult children (about 45% each- neither of whom are dependent on him) and the remaining 10% to his new wife. My question is if this is allowed? presumably his wife knows about the will and is happy with the arrangement however I believed that a spouse was entitled to a minimum of 33%. Maybe it is different when it’s a second marriage?

As an executor I am worried that this will complicate things and would prefer it be resolved now rather down the line, I’m not sure if the children have the best relationship with the new wife and would hate for it to get messy.

So I guess my questions are..
1. Am I correct that he needs to give 33% to his wife? Or at least if he doesn’t that she can contest it,
2. Would it be appropriate for me to bring this to his attention?

Unless new spouse has renounced /waived in a Pre Nup Succession Act rights the situation is as below.


Legal Right Share

You are entitled to one-third of their estate (possessions) if:

1. There is a valid will, and
2. Your deceased spouse has children or grandchildren.

mf

mf1 said:

Unless new spouse has renounced /waived in a Pre Nup Succession Act rights the situation is as below.


Legal Right Share

You are entitled to one-third of their estate (possessions) if:

1. There is a valid will, and
2. Your deceased spouse has children or grandchildren.

mf

Click to expand...

I doubt if anything was renounced - at least officially.

Dunelm said:

Thanks for your reply.

Will was made within consultation with solicitor - but think what I saw wa ps a draft rather than the final document.

The link you shared talks about a “legal right share” - is that not the 33% I mentioned or am I misunderstanding.

Click to expand...

Yes- one third/ 33%


See more info here.


mf

mf1 said:

Yes- one third/ 33%


See more info here.

Succession rights in Ireland

www.gov.ie

mf

Click to expand...

Thanks for the replies. Do you know if it the nature of the inheritance makes any difference? There is a section73 life insurance policy(which has no value to the spouse) and money in an ARF making up part of the estate,

I presume everything would be treated equally - the section 73 policy probably won’t benefit the wife though…

Leaving his ARF to be distributed as part of his estate, with 90% going to his adult children may be tax inefficient. It might be worth his while taking advice on this, and explicitly leaving the ARF to his spouse which should be CAT exempt, and leaving other assets to his children.

Freelance said:

Leaving his ARF to be distributed as part of his estate, with 90% going to his adult children may be tax inefficient. It might be worth his while taking advice on this, and explicitly leaving the ARF to his spouse which should be CAT exempt, and leaving other assets to his children.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply - why would this be tax inefficient? Am I correct in thinking this would be taxed at 30% rather than 33%?

Everything going to the wife will be CAT exempt so no benefit there.
I believe the group A threshold has already been used with previous gifts to both children

I think if the group A threshold is used up then there is no benefit to leaving the pension fund to the wife.

Thanks - so to confirm there is no obvious advantage to leaving the ARF to the spouse?