Beneficiary Advise

myrnahaz

Don't cash/bank the cheque or you will be deemed to have accepted £1k (and you could be due much more)! Wait until you find out what your true entitlement is.

macman

You cannot as executors start paying out the beneficiaries until such time as the assets and debts of the estate have been quantified, which is impossible in such a short time after death. Do not cash the cheque, and look at a copy of the will as soon as available.

Yorkshireman99

myrnahaz wrote: »

Don't cash/bank the cheque or you will be deemed to have accepted £1k (and you could be due much more)! Wait until you find out what your true entitlement is.

In the absence of any supporting paperwork it is unlikely that it would be deemed as you suggest. On its own a cheque is simply an order by the signatory to their bank to pay a third party. Furthermore if the cheque is stopped the payee can sue for the full amount without having to prove the debt behind it.

Sea_Shell

If they've given you a cheque from their own account, you could argue that this has NOTHING to do with the 'Estate'.

They could have owed you that money for anything!

Suejohnhow

We live almost 300 miles away from where our friend lived, therefore it's really difficult to find out things. It really not about the money, just the principle, they were really patronising. I have an email from the lady's sister in law ( who said she was the executor) that said the following

X has left a bequest For you which is 'if any monies are left once everything has been paid for'.

I do not intend in cashing the cheque, plus its wrote out in my maiden name which is another problem.
Would I need to ask the executor for a copy of the will?
The lady who has passed away was 87, I had known her all my life, as she was a friend of my grandmas, we holiday'd with her and her husband every year and socialised all if my childhood years. She and her husband moved South 18 years ago, however I still visited even up to last year with my own children. She was widowed 10 years ago. She rented the property she was in, and I have no idea of her financial circumstances.

Suejohnhow

Hi it was the lady's sister in law who claimed to be the executor.

Suejohnhow

Hi it was the lady's sister in law who claimed to be the executor. She was a joint drawer on the cheque too

Suejohnhow

We live almost 300 miles away from where our friend lived, therefore it's really difficult to find out things. It really not about the money, just the principle, they were really patronising. I have an email from the lady's sister in law ( who said she was the executor) that said the following

X has left a bequest For you which is 'if any monies are left once everything has been paid for'.

I do not intend in cashing the cheque, plus its wrote out in my maiden name which is another problem.
Would I need to ask the executor for a copy of the will?
The lady who has passed away was 87, I had known her all my life, as she was a friend of my grandmas, we holiday'd with her and her husband every year and socialised all if my childhood years. She and her husband moved South 18 years ago, however I still visited even up to last year with my own children. She was widowed 10 years ago. She rented the property she was in, and I have no idea of her financial circumstances.

Keep_pedalling

It sounds like this was a small estate and will almost certainly not go through probate, so unless the executor gives you a copy of the will voluntarily, you are never going to be able to get a copy of it. If all that it consisted of was cash then there is no reason why she could not wrap the hole thing up very quickly, and I doubt whether they would go to the trouble of setting up an executors account.

You could interpret the statement about receiving the moneys after everything else as either the residuary, or that you would get a specific sum providing there was sufficient left over after funeral costs and other bequests.

I think most people would make the residuary beneficiary an executor rather than someone who would lose out by that decision, so in your shoes I would let it go, once you had your bequest in the right name. Although I would check the probate office further down the line just in case.

nom_de_plume

Suejohnhow wrote: »

I have an email from the lady's sister in law ( who said she was the executor) that said the following

X has left a bequest For you which is 'if any monies are left once everything has been paid for'.

She rented the property she was in, and I have no idea of her financial circumstances.

Reading between the lines it sounds that this may have been a specific bequest rather than a residuary one, hence the round figure. It may also be a small estate in which case probate may not be required and the will may never become public.

Presumably the reference to everything else being paid for relates to the funeral expenses and etc.