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Unregistered with solicitor
veejlee
Posts: 6 Forumite
Can someone please give me advice regarding my brother-in-law's predicament?
In April 2015 my sister-in-law died and she and her husband had made a joint will before my sister-in-law died. My brother-in-law's predicament is that due to all the stress, upheaval and pain of his wife's death he has completely forgotten to inform his solicitor of the death of his wife.
He has only recently be informed that he should have contacted his solicitor about his wife's death.
What should he do now and what could happen to him from a legal standpoint?
In April 2015 my sister-in-law died and she and her husband had made a joint will before my sister-in-law died. My brother-in-law's predicament is that due to all the stress, upheaval and pain of his wife's death he has completely forgotten to inform his solicitor of the death of his wife.
He has only recently be informed that he should have contacted his solicitor about his wife's death.
What should he do now and what could happen to him from a legal standpoint?
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Comments
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Are you sure you mean 'joint wills'? Do you mean mirror wills? Was the solicitor the executor? If not then there's no need to tell him (assuming he wasn't a debtor or creditor to her estate).0
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The longer he delays putting it off the worse it will be. Are you sure it really is a joint will? He should let the solicitor know ASAP.Can someone please give me advice regarding my brother-in-law's predicament?
In April 2015 my sister-in-law died and she and her husband had made a joint will before my sister-in-law died. My brother-in-law's predicament is that due to all the stress, upheaval and pain of his wife's death he has completely forgotten to inform his solicitor of the death of his wife.
He has only recently be informed that he should have contacted his solicitor about his wife's death.
What should he do now and what could happen to him from a legal standpoint?0 -
Didn't he need his wife's will to close bank accounts, etc?0
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I assume it was a joint will, but I'm not certain. They went to see their solicitor together when they made their will, which suggested to me that it was a joint will but it could, of course, be a 'mirror will,' as you say. No, the solicitor was not the executor of the will.0
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who was the executor(s)?0
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The deceased's sister and her husband.getmore4less wrote: »who was the executor(s)?0 -
There is no reason why he needs to contact his solicitor (other than to get the original copy of the will perhaps if the solicitor is storing it for them)..
But as the executor of his wife's estate, then it is his responsibility to make sure the terms of the will are complied with, which means he will need to apply for probate IF there are assets or property that require it.
Sounds like the bank accounts didn't have sufficient int hem to require probate - what else did she have to leave ? If there are no assets in her name, then there is no need to apply for probate.
Did they own a property together ?0 -
The deceased's sister and her husband.
They should be dealing with it.
If they don't want to do anything then the deceased husband should check they were the beneficiary and see if anything needs to be done.
He should also review his own will.
Depending on the total assets some records for the transferable nil rate band can be handy for the next executor.0 -
No, the property was in the husband's name.0
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