What would you do in my shoes.

goodytwoshoes_3

Hi. I am new to the board, although I have been lurking for some time.
I want to get some objective views on a situation that has been forced upon me.
About 8 months ago my Mother died.In her will she left the estate to me,my brother and my 3 children equally. She chose my brother along with a solicitor to execute the will. When I spoke to my brother about how much the estate was worth it seemed that there was a large sum of money unaccounted for which my husband and I knew for a fact existed. We asked my brother on several occasions what had happened to the money and all he did was come out with lie after lie. After some months we told my brother if he did not tell us the truth we would ask the soliictor about it. As he still did not come accross we told the solicitor. Almost immediately my brother admitted that this money had been paid into his account a few years ago. The solicitor has been trying to get my brother to account for what he has done with this money and the account he has given is largely inaccurate and lies. The solicitor has threatened to remove my brother as executor if he doesn't comply with him. My brother then made an official complaint against the solicitor and now another solicitor within the same practice has taken the case on and has said that he is happy with my brother's explaination as to what has happened to the money. Now we know that he is lying and the solicitor has said that he does not believe it either. We are annoyed because we have been charged alot of money by the solicitor to get this far and now he seems to be taking the easy option by complying with my brother.
To make matters worse it is obvious that my brother transferred this money so that he could claim benefits for my mother that she would otherwise not been entitled to.Therefore the solicitor has to report this to the benefits office and all these payments will have to be paid back.
Therefore my brother has either spent or still has this large sum of money ,so me and my kids will loose out on that. Will shall have to pay half of the legal fees thus far even though it is my brother that has caused all the addtion work by lying and not complying and may have to pay back benefits that he claimed on my mothers behalf.
As you can imagine I am furious about this injustice and would like peoples opinions of what I should do.
As my brother seems to have commited fraud and deception is this now a matter for the police?
If we make a complaint about the solicitor what would happen ?
As it is he that has defrauded the benefits surely it should be him that repays it.
I would be grateful for any advice especially those in the legal proffession.

taxi97w

What part did your mother play in this money transferral? Did she know about it? Did she know she was receiving benefits? If she gave this money to your brother in order to recieve benefits, then it belongs to your brother, I would imagine. I'm not sure, but if your mother knew what was going on, then she would have been liable for fraud.

Lillibet_2

Why do you need to pay half the legal fees? These fees should come out of the residue of the estate and therefore if the inheritenance is split equally between you, your brother & your 3 children you personally should only be responsible for 1/5th of the fees?

There is nothing to stop you from employing your own solicitor, seperate from the executor firm, to act on your behalf if you are are not satisified with the distribution of the estate etc.This solicitor will liase with the executors/other solicitors involved and investigate if the accepptance of your brothers explainations/distribution of funds is fair & reasonable adn if the terms of the will are being complied with. However, you will have to pay these costs yourself. It rather depends on whether a) recovery of the outstanding funds is likely & if this money would be greater than possible costs incurred & b) if your relationship with your brother can withstand it

HTH;)

goodytwoshoes_3

taxi97w wrote:

What part did your mother play in this money transferral? Did she know about it? Did she know she was receiving benefits? If she gave this money to your brother in order to recieve benefits, then it belongs to your brother, I would imagine. I'm not sure, but if your mother knew what was going on, then she would have been liable for fraud.

She probably knew about the transfer, but it would have been my brother's idea as she would not have been aware about how the benefits system works and he was her power of attorney. I would accept it if she gave him the money, but in that case as he was the one who filled out her benefit forms for her (she was unable to write) and he has admitted this , then it is he that should repay the overpayments and not us.

goodytwoshoes_3

Lillibet wrote:

Why do you need to pay half the legal fees? These fees should come out of the residue of the estate and therefore if the inheritenance is split equally between you, your brother & your 3 children you personally should only be responsible for 1/5th of the fees?

There is nothing to stop you from employing your own solicitor, seperate from the executor firm, to act on your behalf if you are are not satisified with the distribution of the estate etc.This solicitor will liase with the executors/other solicitors involved and investigate if the accepptance of your brothers explainations/distribution of funds is fair & reasonable adn if the terms of the will are being complied with. However, you will have to pay these costs yourself. It rather depends on whether a) recovery of the outstanding funds is likely & if this money would be greater than possible costs incurred & b) if your relationship with your brother can withstand it

HTH;)

Yes I know these legal fees will come from the estate, but that is money that we then loose. We have done nothing wrong and I am loathe to employ another solicitor as surely if we make a complaint to the law society about the way the solicitor has handled the estate they would have to investigate the matter anyway.

lynzpower

I personally would make a complaint to the law society. If its blindingly obvious that your brother is lying, and the solicitor is colluding with him for a quiet life/ payoff/ whatever reason, speak to the law society and get some further info about how to proceed. any registered solicitor is expected to work by a code of practice and if they dont, can be suspended and stipped of their career. Worth doing Id say, and sit back and watch it all unfold. This MAY also give you some basis on claiming some of the fees back. Gross misconduct here by the sounds of it

Am I getting the right end of the stick here, when Im thinking, your mum had a great deal of cash which would have meant she wasnt enetitled to means-tested benefits. She transferred it into his account, on his "advice" so that monies from the DWP/DSS be paid to her/ them. As her power of attorney, my understanding of it is that he has to make good financial decisions on her behalf as she is too infirm/ ill to make them herself. If im right here , In any case, regardless of whose fault/ idea it was he colluded with defrauding the DWP, and if he filled in the forms/ reieved the cash into his account, then hes up the creek without a paddle, quite rightly the DWP are not happy with fraudsters, and will go all out to get the money back. Maybe if they are not quite as aware as they could be, why not let the DWp know, im sure there is a freephone hotline number to call to let them know of fraud.

Best of luck with it, to be honest, If this was my brother Id have hauled him over the coals a long time ago, defrauding your own family is one of those things i have absolutely no time for whatsoever.

goodytwoshoes_3

lynzpower wrote:

I personally would make a complaint to the law society. If its blindingly obvious that your brother is lying, and the solicitor is colluding with him for a quiet life/ payoff/ whatever reason, speak to the law society and get some further info about how to proceed. any registered solicitor is expected to work by a code of practice and if they dont, can be suspended and stipped of their career. Worth doing Id say, and sit back and watch it all unfold. This MAY also give you some basis on claiming some of the fees back. Gross misconduct here by the sounds of it

Am I getting the right end of the stick here, when Im thinking, your mum had a great deal of cash which would have meant she wasnt enetitled to means-tested benefits. She transferred it into his account, on his "advice" so that monies from the DWP/DSS be paid to her/ them. As her power of attorney, my understanding of it is that he has to make good financial decisions on her behalf as she is too infirm/ ill to make them herself. If im right here , In any case, regardless of whose fault/ idea it was he colluded with defrauding the DWP, and if he filled in the forms/ reieved the cash into his account, then hes up the creek without a paddle, quite rightly the DWP are not happy with fraudsters, and will go all out to get the money back. Maybe if they are not quite as aware as they could be, why not let the DWp know, im sure there is a freephone hotline number to call to let them know of fraud.

Best of luck with it, to be honest, If this was my brother Id have hauled him over the coals a long time ago, defrauding your own family is one of those things i have absolutely no time for whatsoever.

What I wonder is if I do go to the law society and my complaint is upheld will that solicitor also be removed as executor? It really anooys me that the solicitor hasn't carried out his threats to remove my brother as executor after all he has witheld information and told lies therefore creating alot of unessecary work.

Yes you have got it right. He filled out the forms for her.The solicitor is suposed to be letting the DWP know and I can't understand why they didn't report it from the outset.If I have to I will report him to them myself.

I am deeply hurt by what my brother has done and he has made it clear that he has no regard for me or my children.

lynzpower

Youd have to speak to the law society about it TBH Im not too sure. Although I would say, if they find the solicitor guilty of improper/ gross misconduct, hes likely not to be in a job for long, so they will have to pass the case to someone reliable, honest and trustrworthy. The key word for the law soc is JUSTICE.From what you tell me there is very little evidence to suggest that what the solicitor has done is just, kick him off the case, and hopefully, his job.

Not good enough, and a disgrace to the profession IMHO.

lynzpower

and also to say, it sounds like this has been dragging on for a while. Report your brother to the DWP if you can, then at least when they are on the case, they can then add further evidence to the investigation from Law society. I would suggest, the DWP's first avenue will be to your solicitor, "why didnt you tell us about this sooner"
Landing solicitor in further hot water.

goodytwoshoes_3

Thanks for your replies lynzpower. May I ask if you work in this field ?

gravitytolls

Presumably, if he still has this money, then he will have to repay any fraudulently claimed monies, so you will lose out anyway....but he will not gain. If he's spent it, which seems far more likely, I guess he may be looking at a prison sentence, if it's a large enough sum.

Which must, surely, put an entirely different light on the Solicitor's behaviour.

I guess I would start with the DWP, to get the ball rolling. And perhaps the CAB would be best advised about making complaints to either body.