Beneficiaries Cannot Get Solicitor to Communicate With Us

Ezzett

My aunt passed away in Canada in Feb 2016 the solicitor who drew up her Will is now dealing with the estate. The Will does not mention her two (twin) mature children and so they have put a Caveat on the Will. The three beneficiaries (my sister, myself, who live in the UK and another lady (lives in Canada) who has been bequeathed 20,000 dollars, any remaining monies are to come to myself and my sister). We did not hear from the solicitor until January 2017 when he wrote to us informing us of our cousins intensions and asking us to advise him how he should proceed, he did give us a choice.

Because he had previously said to the executors that they wouldn’t even get past the first post and with that in our minds, and wishing to carry out the wishes of our aunt, we advised him accordingly. For the last 10 years or so of my aunt’s life we regularly exchanged letters most of which I still have, and in one of them she states that for six years after her double amputee her children did not visit her. Plus when she was alive she told me that her daughter was treating her like a bank, however she did purchase the house her daughter lives in for her and paid off the daughter’s countless debts.

Recently (2016) our cousins received an inheritance from their father and I wrote to the solicitor 3 March 2017 informing him of this, thinking it might be useful for him to know, since receiving my letter he has not communicated with us. In the letter back in January 2017 he informed us of the monies which he had collected in and gave us the value of my aunt’s property 129,000 dollars, he said the estate value could be around 330,000 dollars. Over the years the executors have paid out a great deal of money maintaining the empty property (our aunt was in a care home) and paying taxes on it, we informed them they must let the solicitor know the amount.

In my letter to the solicitor, I said my sister and I would really appreciate being kept informed re the Caveat but we have heard nothing. The executors are elderly and seem unable to grasp what the solicitor is doing, but just what is he doing? Are the monies he has collected in earning interest? At what point does my aunt’s house go on the market? Because of the lack of communication we do not now trust the solicitor, is all our aunt’s money being spent on solicitor’s fees? I wanted to ask the solicitor if he had got my aunt to sign an affidavit stating her reasons for not including her children in her Will. Both my aunt and her ex husband had agreed not to give any more money to their children in their lifetime because they were just treating them as if they were a bank.

The whole matter is stressing out the executors and the other beneficiary is elderly too, we would all like this matter resolved but how long does a court take with regard to the Caveat?

Keep_pedalling

Is this a UK or Canadian Will?

Ezzett

Hi, it's a Canadian Will

Keep_pedalling

Not sure we can be much help with this, Canadian estate law is different from British law, and you would be lucky to find someone on this UK site with experience of Canadian law.

Ezzett

Oh dear that's disappointing. What would the situation be if it was an English Will?

BobQ

You could try finding a similar forum in Canada to post to such as

http://www.canadianmoneyforum.com/

Malthusian

Ezzett wrote: »

Oh dear that's disappointing. What would the situation be if it was an English Will?

You would probably be told that the solicitor has no obligation to update the beneficiaries on every stage of the process - only the executors. And that you should wait until the money is paid out. Given a caveat has been entered against the estate it is not surprising that you haven't had your money yet. If when you get the estate accounts the solicitor has billed it for an excessive amount, you can take action then.

I know nothing about Canadian law but I would be surprised if the position of a beneficiary is dramatically different - the executors are responsible for administering the estate, not you. And at present you have no reason to suspect that anything untoward is going on.

A very cursory Google suggests that Canadian law is similar to the UK in that you are not obliged to leave certain amounts to your children (as you are in some European countries) but the Will can be challenged if you disinherit your wife, children or people dependent on you. Even if the children do not have a leg to stand on it is likely to take some time to get rid of the caveat.