what happens to the inheritance

2

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  • scotty1971
    scotty1971 Posts: 1,732 Forumite
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    jackyann wrote: »
    It is the executor's responsibility - if that is a solicitor then yes. If it is someone else, they can, if they wish, employ a solicitor to do the wok for them.


    What would happen if his children were not contacted?
  • Keep_pedalling
    Keep_pedalling Posts: 16,620 Forumite
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    scotty1971 wrote: »
    What would happen if his children were not contacted?

    That depends on whether they found out and if they did they actually wanted to make a claim. They can also only make a claim against movable assets, so if the entire estate consisted of buildings and land then they would have no chaim at all.
  • jackyann
    jackyann Posts: 3,433 Forumite
    edited 16 April 2016 at 7:52AM
    I can only assume (and I don't know Scottish law) that an interim payment has been made from MiL's estate.

    I know that in English law there are procedures to go through to look for missing heirs: things like advertising in the London Gazette, local newspaper of last known address, recorded letters to last known address, and other "common sense" enquiries. The Probate Office can advise on what to go through and at what point it is reasonable to stop. You can of course, do an interim distribution and keep the "missing heirs" portion in a separate account.

    I also think (having read it, I believe on this forum) that there are companies who offer "insurance" against missing heirs turning up - they obviously know the procedures, but I don't know how much they charge. Someone may be along who knows about them.

    As an executor, I didn't have a "missing heir", I had a "missing co-executor". Fortunately, tracking them down took only a small part of the skills I have learned through many years of reading detective novels!
  • scotty1971
    scotty1971 Posts: 1,732 Forumite
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    Keep_pedalling wrote: »
    That depends on whether they found out and if they did they actually wanted to make a claim. They can also only make a claim against movable assets, so if the entire estate consisted of buildings and land then they would have no chaim at all.


    No land or houses involved,just money.
  • scotty1971
    scotty1971 Posts: 1,732 Forumite
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    I know in Scotland you can't disinherit your children.But i believe his children were left nothing in the will. The MIL family just want it sorted out properly,so should they advise the solicitor to try and contact his famaly so it dosen't come back to cause issues in the future?
  • PasturesNew
    PasturesNew Posts: 70,698 Forumite
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    edited 16 April 2016 at 10:15AM
    If there is an intestate amount of money and it just sits there, it ends up on the bona vacantia list and some heirhunting firm will track down the kids and charge big fees for doing so.

    It's in everybody's interest to get the will and read it and to contact those children and get them on the route of making their claim themselves. They can be helped to make a claim, but if you leave it in the hands of an estate left hanging then a huge chunk will simply disappear in heirhunters' fees.

    The solicitor will contact an heirhunters firm to find the children/contact them - and charge their own (hourly £200/hour) fees to manage that correspondence - and the heirhunters will charge their (full charge as it's come via a solicitor) biggest fees to do the work.

    It'd be cheaper to contact an heirhunting firm yourselves and get the best price you can, then pass the information to the solicitor once they're found and on board.

    So, the route is:

    - ask solicitor who gets the money, they need to read/check the Will
    - if it's the mother, solicitor will then get her will out and distribute the new funds in accordance with that.
    - if it's the children then say "I'll instruct a firm to do that and pass you the details"
    - find an heirhunting firm and give them the children's information that you know.
    - pass it all back to the solicitor who then just deals with distributing the funds to the children.
  • getmore4less
    getmore4less Posts: 46,882 Forumite
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    edited 16 April 2016 at 10:27AM
    PasturesNew wrote: »
    If there is an intestate amount of money and it just sits there, it ends up on the bona vacantia list and some heirhunting firm will track down the kids and charge big fees for doing so.
    .

    Looks like someone has picked this up so won't go anywhere near the Bona vacantia list unless they refer it.

    Even then as there is a will and known relatives the BVD won't deal with the estate.
  • Keep_pedalling
    Keep_pedalling Posts: 16,620 Forumite
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    scotty1971 wrote: »
    No land or houses involved,just money.

    In that case his children have a claim to half his estate. If he wanted to guarantee his partner got everything he should have married her or made sure everything was in joint ownership.

    https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/inheritance-tax-manual/ihtm12221
  • scotty1971
    scotty1971 Posts: 1,732 Forumite
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    Keep_pedalling wrote: »
    In that case his children have a claim to half his estate. If he wanted to guarantee his partner got everything he should have married her or made sure everything was in joint ownership.

    https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/inheritance-tax-manual/ihtm12221


    This is what i think is happening as far as i know,lawyer does not know of his children,SIL family not telling lawyer he has children.And the estate is close to being paid out.Think this could possibly come back to haunt them.
  • rpc
    rpc Posts: 2,353 Forumite
    Keep_pedalling wrote: »
    In that case his children have a claim to half his estate. If he wanted to guarantee his partner got everything he should have married her or made sure everything was in joint ownership.

    And if the executor (be they dative or nominate) knows that there are children with legal rights and does not contact them then that executor could find themselves paying out the legal rights from their own pockets.

    If the executor does not know about any children, they need to conduct some basic due diligence to check.

    Should the children choose to claim their legal rights (and barring any clauses in the will that would effect this) then the legal rights (50% of the moveables) would get taken from the estate and then the MIL's estate would get her inheritance from the remainder. That inheritance would form part of the MIL's estate when her will is executed (or her intestate estate is divvied up).

    The details depend on what is in the will.
    SIL family not telling lawyer he has children

    If the lawyer lacks information as executor, they should be checking it themselves. If SIL has stated that there are no children then it will come back to bite her. Is SIL the executor? Serious problems in store if she is manipulating her position...
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