You can, of course, make provision for your grandchildren in your Will. This can either be done by leaving them a specific sum of money or the whole or part of your residuary estate.

You may also want to consider making use of your nil rate band (the tax-free allowance, currently £325,000) for the benefit of your grandchildren. You may want this amount to pass to your spouse or civil partner on your death and for your allowance to be used on their death. But if your spouse or civil partner is unlikely to need this money during the rest of their life, or you do not have a spouse or civil partner, you could pass this money to your grandchildren, free of inheritance tax.

From 6 April 2017, there is also a residence nil rate band which is an additional tax-free allowance if you give your residence to a direct descendant. You could consider using this to pass your house to your grandchildren with little or no inheritance tax being due.

When you make a Will, your own children will probably be at the front of your mind, but there may be other children that you would like to benefit, perhaps if you don’t have any children of your own. You can do this by referring to the child or children by name or relationship, for example:

If any of your siblings, or other family members, are included in your Will, it is usual to include what is known as a substitution clause. This means that if any of them were to die before you but had children of their own that were still living, those children would inherit the share of your estate their parent would have taken.

You may like to consider other children in your Will, for example, godchildren or children of special friends. The most usual way of doing this is to name the child specifically in your Will. For example, ‘I give £1,000 to my godson Toby Woods’.