Probate advice needed please

lewiskei

Tom99 wrote: »

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Whilst I am not sure of your legal footing, you could say to your brother that unless he provides proof that the £67k and other were gifts meant to favour him over you, that you will treat them as part payment from your father's estate and therefore reduce his 50% of the residue.[/FONT]

That's exactly what I'm planning to do Tom99

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]You can mark some figures as estimated in your probate application and maybe once you have probate the PO and others will be more amenable to giving you information about the money trail.[/FONT]

I have already been granted Letters of Administration but the PO and DWP still won't give me the information. I have already sent the grant to the PO and they have given me all the details about the account itself, who closed it and when, and the last year of statements, but not where the closing balance was transferred to.

Tom99

Can you make a formal complaint to the PO and DWP, your request seems quite reasonable?

konark

£67,000 is a large amount and can't just disappear from the banking system- there's bound to be a paper trail. The DWP appear to be very obstructive; as administrator you have every right to ask them where they were paying the pension.

Is your brother on any means-tested benefits?

Was your dad on any means-tested benefits e.g Pension credit?

This money may have made either/both ineligible for these.

You say your brother closed your father's PO account, did he have Power of Attorney? If not he may have overstepped his authority.

My gut feeling is that the money and the pension were both paid into your brother's account.

lewiskei

The money was definitely paid into his account as the bank told me so, but even though I suspect the pension was also paid into his account I cannot yet prove it. I'm going to write to the DWP and see what they come back with.