Inheritance Solicitors Ireland & Family Law Solicitors

Inheritance Solicitors Ireland | Family Law Solicitors based in Dublin Ireland

Inheritance Solicitors Ireland shares one of the safeguards of being married envisaged by the Succession Act 1965.  This is the protection against the death of a spouse.

The law previously provided that the old rules of property passing to the eldest son (primogeniture) applied so the new law in 1965 to protect spouses was a radical departure.

That said, generally, on divorce or separation a person’s view as to whom they wish to benefit from their death frequently changes, it is no longer their former spouse but other family members or causes they wish to benefit from after their death. This is of course not always the case, and sometimes on separation or divorce, the entitlements pursuant to the Succession Act, 1965, are left purposely intact. This is an area however where the law is complex and great care must be exercised to deal with your assets at a time when you are quite often financially at a high, even though you are no longer around yourself to deal with your finances – it is an unfortunate reality that we are all worth more dead than alive….particularly when you bear in mind that mortgage protection policies, life insurance policies, and contingent benefits to pensions schemes (such as those valuable benefits often contained in Civil Service Pension Schemes and private company pensions schemes) come into play post-death.

You may ask Inheritance Solicitors Ireland this question. “What is a spouse’s legal right to share?”

If you have left a will, and your spouse or civil partner has never renounced or given up their rights to your estate, then they are entitled to a legal right to share your estate.

This legal right share is:

One-half of your estate if you do not have children

One-third of your estate if you do have children

This entitlement to a legal right share continues to apply if you are separated and have not addressed these specific matters in a legal separation or divorce. It is important to remember that separation and divorce are relatively new laws in the Irish context and it is not particularly unusual for a person to have not formalised a legal separation and for a legal right share to continue to apply to a separated spouse. Indeed, it is one of the reasons why it is important to review your Will and legal life planning post-divorce and to ensure that you have your affairs in order in the manner that you believe, this is particularly significant if you opted to conduct a DIY divorce without legal advice, as frequently important matters such as this and pensions can be left overlooked, as with many matters in the legal arena, the devil is all too often in the detail, that is why early and comprehensive legal advice and input are always to be recommended in such complex affairs.

The legal right share is of such enshrined status that your spouse/civil partner does not have to go to court to get this share, as your executor must give this share where applicable. If you leave a gift to your spouse or civil partner in your will, they can choose to accept the gift instead of their legal right share or they can insist on their legal right share (and the specific gift as part of that legal right share, if it is of less value than the legal right share). From the above, you can gather a snapshot of the complexity of this area of law.

Your executor must:

Inform your spouse or civil partner in writing of their right to choose between these two options and your spouse or civil partner must ask for their legal right to share within 6 months of being notified, or within 12 months of the taking out of the Grant of Representation (Probate).

It is important after significant life events such as marriage (which invalidates a previous Will), separation, and divorce, that you take stock of your legal life plan, including your Will and future intentions. It is to be recommended that these are addressed at the same time as finalising any formal separation and/or divorce with the benefit of expert legal advice. Matters can easily become enormously complicated should you pass away without updating your will to reflect your divorce or separation.

At Carmody Moran Solicitors, we are on hand to provide such expert legal advice you can arrange to have an initial Inheritance Solicitors Ireland Consultation in family law matters for a reduced fee and this gives you an opportunity to review your situation and ask the expert questions regarding your specific circumstances.

Where a legal right share does not apply

Your spouse or civil partner can renounce (give up) their rights to the legal right share. This can be part of an agreement before marriage or civil partnership or the spouse or civil partner can give up their rights to benefit their children or other named beneficiaries. It can also be done as part of a Separation Agreement when formalising a Separation or as part of settlement terms or Courts Orders in judicial separation or divorce proceedings.

Inheritance Solicitors Ireland of  Carmody Moran Solicitors are on hand to provide such expert legal advice and you can arrange to have an initial Consultation in family law matters for a reduced fee this gives you an opportunity to review your situation and ask expert questions regarding your specific circumstances.

Divorce, separation, and desertion

Separation agreements usually, but not always, include a renunciation of both spouses’ or civil partner’s legal right share. Occasionally spouses intentionally maintain these rights against the other.

If your spouse or civil partner deserted you for more than 2 years, they are not entitled to a legal right to share unless they deserted you as a result of your behaviour (for example, domestic abuse).

The complexity of the law in this area and the various types of financial assets (such as valuable pension policies and contingent benefits in Civil Service Pension Schemes and Private Pension Schemes) demonstrate the need for early and expert Inheritance Solicitors Ireland legal advice to ensure that effect is given to all intended matters when dealing with assets (including pensions) on separation and divorce. It is not unknown for these items to be overlooked, after all, who really wants to consider life when they will not be around?

As you will have gathered from reading through this section of our website, matters can easily become enormously complicated should you pass away without updating your will to reflect your divorce or separation.

Inheritance Solicitors Ireland of Carmody Moran Solicitors are on hand to provide such expert legal advice and you can arrange to have an initial Consultation in family law matters for a reduced fee and this gives you an opportunity to review your situation and ask the expert questions regarding your specific circumstances. Carmody Moran Solicitors can then advise you on what is the course of action required, if any, to give full effect to your intentions and furnish you with a complete estimate of legal costs before undertaking any work for agreement.

Cohabiting partners

Partners, who live with each other but are not married or in a civil partnership, have no automatic legal right to each other’s estates, although under the redress scheme for cohabiting couples introduced by the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010 (“the Cohabitant’s Act 2010”) a qualified cohabitant can apply for a share of the estate of a deceased cohabitant.

You can leave some or all of your estate to your partner but this does not cancel out the legal rights of a spouse or civil partner if you were married before to someone else and did not get divorced or had your civil partnership dissolved. Bear in mind the old adage also of ‘death and taxes’ going hand in hand, this area of law can be particularly complex, and getting expert Inheritance Solicitors Ireland legal advice can greatly smooth the path for your loved ones in the future by making provision now in separation or divorce and/or generally in attending to reviewing your circumstances if it has been some time and updating your legal life planning.

As you can appreciate from the foregoing, matters can easily become enormously complicated should you pass away without updating your will to reflect on your divorce or separation and your current relationship status if you are in a new lifelong, and committed relationship and have not fully addressed your legal life plan.

At Carmody Moran Solicitors we are on hand to provide such expert Inheritance Solicitors Ireland legal advice and you can arrange to have an initial Consultation in family law matters for a reduced fee and this gives you an opportunity to review your situation and ask the expert questions regarding your specific circumstances.

In the course of this one-hour consultation with an experienced qualified family law Inheritance Solicitor Ireland, your initial options will be assessed and advised upon as well as practical advice furnished to try to assist and alleviate your current situation. Your Solicitor will be able to advise you of your options and future costs and you can then decide how you wish to proceed.