Lost trust funds - some guidance needed

mr2jay

This is a bit of a strange one for you all...

OK, when I was about 4 or 5, my Grandmother on my Father's side sold a flat she owned outright and split a proprtion of it between the 5 grandchildren she had at the time (Myself, my brother, my elder sister and 2 cousins). This money was held in trust funds for each of us.

Now, bearing in mind that this was 30 years ago, this money has effectively lain dormant. Unfortunately, she has now passed on about a year ago and this has come to light. The damned awkward thing about it is that in her latter years, she certainly lost all mental functions, meaning we have no idea where these are kept.

Trouble is, you search the internet and there is no guidance in trying to track these down. Can anyone shed any light on this? How do we go about starting to locate where and how this money is kept?

Any help would be much appreciated

xylophone

If these were simply savings accounts (although if they were just 're' building society accounts I would have expected the financial institutions to have tried to get in touch with the children once they reached the age of 16 (see http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/tdsi/children.htm) you might find something here http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/reclaim-lost-assets-free

Otherwise, you say "it came to light" - how? Was there any indication of the role of a solicitor who might have been appointed as Trustee?

Do any of the parents of the children have anything to say on the matter?

Have the executors come across any correspondence to do with holdings in unit or investment trusts?

mr2jay

This came about purely by accident.

I do not know the in's and outs of this but her sister suddenly asked "What happened to the money from the flat all those years ago?"
This is when my Uncle (who is not a pleasant person by the way) suddenly "remembered" about the trust funds set up but none of us have any clue as to where the details are.

We have found her old bank statements (she was a horder and we found statements for the past 40 years) and have found in 1982 there was a payment in of £37,000 and 5 equal payments (by cheque) of £5,000, which ties up with the story we have heard.
Unfortunately, we can't find where it went to. There is no sign of any paperwork anywhere and we suspect that her husband (our step grandfather) may have thrown them out by mistake. Bless him, he always tried to keep paper to a minimum as it cluttered the place.

So, we are 80% sure these exist but don't even know how to start tracing them

xylophone

Try the link above- you or the executor could check in Grandma's name and in the names of the children?