Can I ask beneficiary to refuse part of his inheritance?

madbadrob

!!!!!! wrote: »

Do you really think that it is a good idea to put into writing that you intend to vary the will without any legal authority to do so and also without a response.

You would leave yourself totally open to legal action and lose even more than the £2000 in question

I agree totally with this and it is why we on the board should give advice based on law not what would be a nice idea

Rob

BobQ

madbadrob wrote: »

I agree totally with this and it is why we on the board should give advice based on law not what would be a nice idea

Rob

!!!!!! wrote: »

Do you really think that it is a good idea to put into writing that you intend to vary the will without any legal authority to do so and also without a response.

You would leave yourself totally open to legal action and lose even more than the £2000 in question

Had either of you bothered to read the full paragraph and had you !!!!!! not quoted me out of context I might agree with you.

I said:

But I wonder if you just wrote to him stating " as you know you owed your grandmother £2000 at the time of her death. I therefore propose to sell the shares to settle this debt unless you advise me otherwise within 90 days." he might just accept this proposal. If he responds threating to contest this you could just transfer the shares and accept the situation on the basis you have tried.

As an executor you can make such a proposal to the beneficiary. If he does not accept it the OP can just accept the situation and transfer the shares as I also said.

In terms of etiquette on these boards, quoting someone out of context and then criticising them is jolly poor form.

madbadrob

Quoted out of context? The fact is you cannot under law expect them to accept anything and if from the sound of the thread he his a money grabbing so and so then writing to him would be a waste of time and delay the estate being wound up. By suggesting that if he doesnt reply in 90 days you will sell the shares etc is basically putting yourself at the risk of the law. If he doesnt reply you still have no legal basis for refusing the person their share of the estate in full. If he was to accept who is going to pay for the deed of variation which would be required? The estate of course would end up paying this. What if the shares when sold didnt meet the value of the loan he was given would they then expect to take money from other parts of his estate?

Whilst I appreciate what you was suggesting I do believe that this was risking the OP breaking the law if they had followed through with what you suggested.

I also think your comment that you doubt for 2k it would ever get to court is a tad crass. 2k for some people is a significant amount of money. Again if the step son is as portrayed a money grabbing swine I am sure he would push it into court.

I apologise for taking you out of context but my advice would be the same. Where no proof of loan can be found they are better to follow the law and pay him out.

Rob

BobQ

madbadrob wrote: »

Quoted out of context? The fact is you cannot under law expect them to accept anything and if from the sound of the thread he his a money grabbing so and so then writing to him would be a waste of time and delay the estate being wound up. By suggesting that if he doesnt reply in 90 days you will sell the shares etc is basically putting yourself at the risk of the law. If he doesnt reply you still have no legal basis for refusing the person their share of the estate in full. If he was to accept who is going to pay for the deed of variation which would be required? The estate of course would end up paying this. What if the shares when sold didnt meet the value of the loan he was given would they then expect to take money from other parts of his estate?

Whilst I appreciate what you was suggesting I do believe that this was risking the OP breaking the law if they had followed through with what you suggested.

I also think your comment that you doubt for 2k it would ever get to court is a tad crass. 2k for some people is a significant amount of money. Again if the step son is as portrayed a money grabbing swine I am sure he would push it into court.

I apologise for taking you out of context but my advice would be the same. Where no proof of loan can be found they are better to follow the law and pay him out.

Rob

Fair enough. The executor is obliged to attempt to identify debts and when someone owes the deceased money (proof uncertain I agree) and is a beneficiary of something and exchange rates are involved it is reasonable to seek to open a discussion on the matter. I accept your point that if he ignores communications the executor would have no basis to carry this through.

As to the £2K, we do not know the strength of the arguments about the alleged debt, but my view is that someone living abroad would not be so keen to defend his position on the debt if given a way out in relation to the shares. All speculation I agree.

getmore4less

this would not need a DOV if there was agreement to repay the debt

madbadrob

getmore4less wrote: »

this would not need a DOV if there was agreement to repay the debt

Agreed although if they could get the step son to admit in writing he owed the estate x amount then they could basically put that in the estate accounts and deduct it.

For example they have the letter so the Step Sons share is 20k however he owes 2k to the estate therefore his share becomes 20k - the percentage of the estate that he is entitled to. So if we say he gets a quarter then he would lose £1500 off the final payout Sounds more complicated than it is

Rob

System

BobQ wrote: »

Had either of you bothered to read the full paragraph and had you !!!!!! not quoted me out of context I might agree with you.

The important bit is

unless you advise me otherwise within 90 days.

You cannot take an action based on a lack of response. Why do you think that you have to explicitly opt in to so many things these days?

BobQ

!!!!!! wrote: »

The important bit is You cannot take an action.

Yes you can, like you can always comment on something out of context as you seem to do! A proposal is not an action.

System

Please explain how my quotes and comments were not in context?

Do I have to quote your complete post to stay in context?

I won't even bother quoting anything this time but just say that your proposal at post #30, if taken up by the OP would place them in a position that is liable to cost them (not the estate) a lot more than the disputed amount.

And that is exactly what my posts said

BobQ

!!!!!! wrote: »

Please explain how my quotes and comments were not in context?

Do I have to quote your complete post to stay in context?

I won't even bother quoting anything this time but just say that your proposal at post #30, if taken up by the OP would place them in a position that is liable to cost them (not the estate) a lot more than the disputed amount.

And that is exactly what my posts said

I see little point in debating this further. You quoted a sentence from a paragraph and ignored the relevance of the rest of the paragraph.