Wills - inheritance

James_N

You will gather that this is a somewhat difficult topic:

My father died in tragic circumstances in March 2004, and my mother in 2006. Dad left everything (bar a small amount of money to each child and grandchild) to my mother - house, savings the lot. This was said to be for care home fees for mum if she ever needed it.

When dad died, my (only) brother and mother were very careful to not let me see wills or other papers. I had them snatched from my hands on one occasion.

Whan mum died in June 2006 - of a blood clot, but she'd had lack of care since dad died with my brother (who lived locally to her disappearing over Christmas to South America and causing a lot of worry to her) - I discovered copy wills. This explained a lot. Mum had left everything (bar very small legacies e.g. £100 to a grandchild, £50 each to a couple of charities) to my brother. This is house, savings and everything else. The total value is around £600,000, with the (poorly maintained and very old-fashioned) house being maybe £250,000 to £300,000. The rest would be cash, shares, bonds etc. I never knew there was so much: we never discussed money.

My brother is a lazy layabout. He's 40 and has never kept a job down for long. He's well educated and tried being a perpetual student, but had to give up after an MA - no more to do. He's had a series of jobs, lastly working as a journalist before giving THAT up to do a PGCE. He asked my advice about the PGCE, I told him not to do it, and he did anyway, begging me not to tell the parents he'd become unemployed. Dad died believing he worked for Pearsons, when in fact he'd left the previous summer.

He also travelled - a lot - and my parents bailed him out when he was short. On one of these trips he met an Ecuadorian and married her later, and shortly after had a child who is now 2.

In the wills, made in 2002 before they travelled to Ecuador to see the wedding, the parents describe him as having no house, which was not true since he'd just bought a house on the back of the Pearson's job (and my advice!) and the money they had themselves is grossly underestimated, leaving the solicitor to note that "no tax planning was needed". I had the file notes from the solicitors concerned after a fight.

I and my wife have worked all our lives since we married. I am 10 years older than him and have 3 kids. There have been hard times and I have a had a series of short-term jobs and poorly paid jobs and second jobs before gaining a good professional postition with a regular salary. I've invested wisely and now have investment properties. We also have a nice car, which my wife bought with money from a personal injury compensation after a car accident left her with a permanant injury.

The justification on the solicitor's file notes for the lack of inheritance is that "they both work and have investment property, therefore don't need any help."

I've never been "close" to my brother on account of age, lifestyle and distance - I moved to go to university at 19 and never went back. But never at odds - except now. At Christmas my 10 year old and I visited to discuss this, (we had never had anything in writing - even though I am joint executor on both wills. My brother got to be attorney over my mums estate and did dad's will on that basis without consulting me at all. I've never seen accounts either). We had to resort to a 10 year old's subterfuge to see him since they WERE in and didn't anwser the door ("drive off dad, park in the next street and walk back quietly"). During that whole time we stood on the doorstep for over 30 minutes, while he calmly told me he was getting it all.

He's now written to me, offering me £20,000 to agree to vary DAD's will to give him the "£250,000" house , rather than it going to mum. He needs to do this before year 2 of Dad's death and if I agree he largely avoids Inheritance tax on the whole estate, which then has the house removed from the final total. I reckon he'd save a BIG whack on the potential £600,000 thats there (?). Apparantly this manouver is legal and acceptable to the inland revenue.] if done right and in time (Deed of Variation).

As you can imagine, there's a lot of emotional business here, and there is more too, but what's the opinion on the "deal" being offered? Should I push for more. Should I -as I am tempted to - tell him where to put it (But I NEED the MONEY to give to my daughter who is marrying after a long engagement and even 20,000 will change her fortunes!)

Is there ANY way to challange EITHER or BOTH wills? Can i as executor be left out of it all?

I am willing to PAY for good, professional, clear, act-on-able and supportive advice on this, but welcome all suggestions and support. I did have a vague interview with a local solicitor, who seemed unable and unwiling to act further, so I **have ** tried the professional route locally.

Sorry this has become so long!

kelloggs36

Seek legal advice immediately!!! Good luck

Bogof_Babe

James_N wrote:

He's now written to me, offering me £20,000 to agree to vary DAD's will to give him the "£250,000" house , rather than it going to mum. He needs to do this before year 2 of Dad's death and if I agree he largely avoids Inheritance tax on the whole estate, which then has the house removed from the final total.

If your dad died in March 2004 as you state, then the two year window for deed of variation on his will has already passed.

James_N

Bogof_Babe wrote:

If your dad died in March 2004 as you state, then the two year window for deed of variation on his will has already passed.

Yes, you are right. It was March the year before last, Marcfh 2005. I was stil in 2006.

frivolous_fay

Definitely get a solicitor on the case - I'd give my story but it's very different to yours, involving a codicil agreed to by all beneficiaries. Unlikely to happen in your case!

CFC

I'm feel sorry for you. This must be quite, quite heartbreaking.

You are unlikely to be able to dispute the will as you are actually in reasonable circumstances, and therefore the assumption will be that your mother knew what she was doing when she left the lot to your brother. The file note justification is there precisely to explain why it's all going to your brother - basically it's because he's a useless hopeless lump and you've worked hard and actually have some assets. Parents often make what seem to be strange decisions under these circumstances, rewarding the layabouts and not giving anything to those that work. It's not unusual.

If you were in bad circumstances yourself or had some kind of financial dependency on your parents it would be much harder to divide the estate in this way and it could well be open to dispute in court.

It's possible that you could claim that your mother wrote it under undue influence from your brother. However half a mill doesn't go very far once disputed wills are dealt with. Solicitor's costs would soon start to eat it up, and to be frank, if your mother wasn't an invalid dependent on your brother and was of sound mind, I think you'd be wasting your time. I think that is why you've found the local solicitor not appearing to be very interested and rather vague.

As for the variance to the will - yes, it will mean that your brother doesn't have to pay double inheritance tax on the house, I believe. I'm not totally au fait with what the current allowances are (been increased), but I'm pretty sure that with the whole estate being over half a mill. it won't fall within the increased allowance. There would be tax to pay on your father's death and then again on your mother's death. If your mother's death was removed from ownership of the house by a variation one lot of tax would be avoided. It may also reduce your mother's estate down to a level where another lot of inheritance tax is avoided. A solicitor or an accountant could tell you exactly how much that would be worth to your brother.

As to whether you should take the 20 thousand, negotiate for more, or tell him to stuff it, only you can answer that question.

As for your father's will, are you saying that as an executor you were denied sight of it? Or are you saying that your mother and brother kept your mother's will from you? I am assuming the latter, and that was probably because your mother didn't want to let you know the truth.

As for being an executor - you are there merely to carry out the wishes of the person concerned, you are entitled to nothing as part of the will. A solicitor can be appointed as executor, but it is usually a family member.

James_N

Thank you for this. Such detailed and supportive comments are a real help.

To answer your query about "keeping things from me", the anwser is that I was denied sight of everything. My brother and mother kept BOTH wills from me, and I had to apply separately for a copy death certificate and as "member of the public" for a sight of the award of probate for dad's estate (anyone can, once it's granted).

I also have never had an inventory of the contents of the house, lists of investments or liabilities - nothing at all. But I am down as an executor on both wills.

I would add that I took on some of the responsibility for my mother's sad state after dad died, despite living 250 miles away: my brother meanwhile disappeared to South America over Christmas 2005 for 6 weeks and was quite literally uncontactable. Not one call, email or letter to me or my mother during the whole time. Uk phone switched off the whole time. That left me negotiating on the phone whilst at work with the meals on wheels, care-person and on one occasion the police when she wouldn't answer the door and no-one had seen her for days. I did try and make her "sell up" and live close (opposite!) to us - but was rejected.