Death of executor and benefitairy

Mapen100

Hi all
In Jan 2015 my mother in law passed away and myself and my sister in law were appointed as the executors of the will. The will was clear that all property and money etc was to be split equally between my wife and her sister.

Sadly my sister in law was not in the best of health and before the estate could be administered she passed away leaving no will herself. Her next of kin is my wife. She was not married and had no children. She left no property in her name and only had a small savings account.

I'm now the only executor of my mother in laws will and the only living beneficiary is my wife.

Do I just transfer everything to my wife and deal with my sister in laws estate entirely separately?
Can one executor act alone?
If there was an intention to transfer estate or money under a will but it didn't happen, is that counted as part of the deceased estate?
Sorry I'm very confused...

Yorkshireman99

Mapen100 wrote: »

Hi all
In Jan 2015 my mother in law passed away and myself and my sister in law were appointed as the executors of the will. The will was clear that all property and money etc was to be split equally between my wife and her sister.

Sadly my sister in law was not in the best of health and before the estate could be administered she passed away leaving no will herself. Her next of kin is my wife. She was not married and had no children. She left no property in her name and only had a small savings account.

I'm now the only executor of my mother in laws will and the only living beneficiary is my wife.

Do I just transfer everything to my wife and deal with my sister in laws estate entirely separately?
Can one executor act alone?
If there was an intention to transfer estate or money under a will but it didn't happen, is that counted as part of the deceased estate?
Sorry I'm very confused...

Think about the situation at the time of your MIL's death. The bequest to the SIL forms part of her estate. You need to look at the rules for who inherits this.

https://www.gov.uk/inherits-someone-dies-without-will


This link tells you who inherits.

You may need to apply for letters of administration for you SIL

Mapen100

Hi thank you for response. Would it be wrong for me to transfer the property that never passed legally to my sister in law to my wife under my mother in laws probate certifcate, and then apply for a grant of representation to distribute the money in my sister in laws saving account?


many thanks

getmore4less

What's the plan for the property.

If to sell then probably better to do that from the MIL estate.

If keep the transfer can wait till you have both grants.

There would probably be no problem doing the transfer as there is noone that would take any action.

Yorkshireman99

Mapen100 wrote: »

Hi thank you for response. Would it be wrong for me to transfer the property that never passed legally to my sister in law to my wife under my mother in laws probate certifcate, and then apply for a grant of representation to distribute the money in my sister in laws saving account?


many thanks

You will need LOA for the estate that was intestate and probate for the other before you can do the transfer.

antrobus

Mapen100 wrote: »

Hi thank you for response. Would it be wrong for me to transfer the property that never passed legally to my sister in law to my wife under my mother in laws probate certifcate, and then apply for a grant of representation to distribute the money in my sister in laws saving account?...

You may not need a grant of representation. It depends on how much is in your sister in law's saving account. The bank in question may well be prepared to release the funds to the next-of-kin (your wife) on production of a death certificate.

You can then deal with the estate informally.

So long as the total value of your sister in law's estate (savings account plus share of mother's estate) doesn't give rise to a liability to inheritance tax, no one will care.

unforeseen

I'm not sure that will work with intestate estates. Possession of a death certificate does not provide proof that you have the right to deal with the monies.

How will the bank know that there are no other people who have the same level of inheritance?

ETA

As the estate will be greater than £5000 due to her share of the mother's house forming part of her estate then LoA must be obtained. I'm not sure that the Probate Office will be happy about shortcutting things as proposed.

getmore4less

The probate office don't get involved unless someone gets them involved.

Yorkshireman99

antrobus wrote: »

You may not need a grant of representation. It depends on how much is in your sister in law's saving account. The bank in question may well be prepared to release the funds to the next-of-kin (your wife) on production of a death certificate.

You can then deal with the estate informally.

So long as the total value of your sister in law's estate (savings account plus share of mother's estate) doesn't give rise to a liability to inheritance tax, no one will care.

Because a property is involved the OP does need probate on both.

getmore4less

Chances are noone or any authority would notice or care if the transfer was direct.

With the SIL grant it us how you would do it anyway no point in interim transfer.

Yorkshireman99

getmore4less wrote: »

Chances are noone or any authority would notice or care if the transfer was direct.

With the SIL grant it us how you would do it anyway no point in interim transfer.

Very bad and irresponsible advice. The Land Registry do check and will expect proof.