Husband's aunt was the executor - has she misappropriated funds?

Mammy64

My husband's uncle died in 2010 he was unmarried and left one brother (in a home with dementia) and two sisters (my husband's mum and his aunt).
His aunt was the executor of her brother's will as she was his main carer in his final years. There was approx £9,000 in the will that was to be distributed equally between his three remaining siblings. My husband's mum has never received a copy of the will and no cheque arrived from the solicitor. She has since gone into a nursing home (the remaining brother died two years ago) and on asking his aunt about the contents of his uncle's will he has discovered that his mother was left £3000 and that his aunt, the executor, bought her a funeral plan with it, so his mum never saw any money. His aunt also did the same for the remaining brother, bought him a funeral plan (used 2 years ago) with his share of the money. No documents have ever arrived from the solicitor detailing the distribution of the will either, we doubt she even put it to probate. She also refuses to tell him who the solicitor was who handled the will. We are in Northern Ireland.

Has she done something wrong?

g6jns_2

Mammy64 wrote: »

My husband's uncle died in 2010 he was unmarried and left one brother (in a home with dementia) and two sisters (my husband's mum and his aunt).
His aunt was the executor of her brother's will as she was his main carer in his final years. There was approx £9,000 in the will that was to be distributed equally between his three remaining siblings. My husband's mum has never received a copy of the will and no cheque arrived from the solicitor. She has since gone into a nursing home (the remaining brother died two years ago) and on asking his aunt about the contents of his uncle's will he has discovered that his mother was left £3000 and that his aunt, the executor, bought her a funeral plan with it, so his mum never saw any money. His aunt also did the same for the remaining brother, bought him a funeral plan (used 2 years ago) with his share of the money. No documents have ever arrived from the solicitor detailing the distribution of the will either, we doubt she even put it to probate. She also refuses to tell him who the solicitor was who handled the will. We are in Northern Ireland.

Has she done something wrong?

She has misappropriated the funds as she had no authority to buy the funeral plans unless the will said so.

Crabapple

She should have given them the money and let them do as they wished with it. It seems very strange to buy a funeral plan for someone else, when part of that is usually planning your own wishes for your funeral.

Bear in mind that she may not have used a solicitor at all.

Is it possible to ask her about things? If there is a funeral plan you will need details.

Mammy64

That's what we want to find out but she refuses to show my husband the will or reveal who the solicitor was who stored the will. By the way, she bought funeral plans for her brother and sister and took her £3000 share by way of cash....like I said, no letters have ever come from the solicitor regarding distribution of the estate. My husband is suspicious because she always had a joint account with her brother and accessed his money over the years - he suspects she has not told the solicitor he has died and she has simply distributed his money as she saw fit. Could someone get away with doing that?

She bought the funeral plans from the Co-Op even though husband's mum had her own saving plan for her funeral. She will agree to showing my husband the funeral plan (he's not happy with the Co-op plans in any case) but she's digging her feet in regarding the solicitor.

Mojisola

Mammy64 wrote: »

My husband's uncle died in 2010 he was unmarried and left one brother (in a home with dementia) and two sisters (my husband's mum and his aunt).

His aunt was the executor of her brother's will as she was his main carer in his final years.

She also refuses to tell him who the solicitor was who handled the will. We are in Northern Ireland.

She was the executor - it's very unlikely that she would pay a solicitor to deal with a £9k estate. She probably didn't need to get probate so there won't be any records to chase up.

Yes, she did wrong - she should have sent a cheque to each of the beneficiaries, not spent the money on their behalf.

Can you do anything about it? Probably not without it costing a lot of money. Who has the information about the funeral plan?

McKneff

Mammy64 wrote: »

That's what we want to find out but she refuses to show my husband the will or reveal who the solicitor was who stored the will. By the way, she bought funeral plans for her brother and sister and took her £3000 share by way of cash....like I said, no letters have ever come from the solicitor regarding distribution of the estate. My husband is suspicious because she always had a joint account with her brother and accessed his money over the years - he suspects she has not told the solicitor he has died and she has simply distributed his money as she saw fit. Could someone get away with doing that?

She bought the funeral plans from the Co-Op even though husband's mum had her own saving plan for her funeral. She will agree to showing my husband the funeral plan (he's not happy with the Co-op plans in any case) but she's digging her feet in regarding the solicitor.

Please also remember that if they had a joint account, any money left by the deceased in that joint account automatically belongs to the other account holder.

Ziggazee

There may have been no actual assets belonging to the brother at all. Any money in the joint account would have automatically passed to the surviving account holder (as McKneff states above) so would not have formed part of his estate.
Maybe the aunt bought the funeral plans out of kindness as she knew there was no actual money due to the estate?


The quote 'where there's a Will there's a relative' often springs to mind on this forum!