Unexpected legacies

Gettingtherequickly

That is lovely. For many years, my mum's next door neighbour regularly told her that she would remember her in her will. As she was a cantankerous alcoholic who lied as easily as breathing, my mum ignored it. When she died, my mum received a cheque for £200 from the will, a tiny amount of the estate, but worth millions to my mum as it meant that, probably for the only time, she had not been lying and that meant so much more than the money.

lisa110rry

When my Mum was terminally ill in hospital, she asked me to give $5,000 to each of two of her friends and $10,000 to a third fiend (sic). The third friend, on hearing Mum had died, went directly to Mum's bank and closed her accounts (she had Power of Attorney). I found out, the money was replaced in Mum's account, with the help of the bank. Although the gifts were not in a will, I honoured them, although the $10,000 gift was split between the other two friends. I told them the story and why, and the third 'fiend's' name was blackened in the small town where they lived. Karma.

G_M

Just to add a word of caution: ask each of them to confirm safe receipt in a letter to include in the final estate acccounts......

Yorkshireman99

G_M wrote: »

Just to add a word of caution: ask each of them to confirm safe receipt in a letter to include in the final estate acccounts......

Unlerss they are rersiduary beneficaries there is no reason whatsoever for them to have copies of the estate accounts.

writer5

I did ask them to confirm they had received them, and to confirm in writing they had paid the cheques into their accounts. Unsurprisingly both managed to do so within 24 hours.
A post script on my original post: there were 3 beneficiaries- the two I mentioned earlier and then a 3rd one who no-one I talked to knew about.

The legacy to the 3rd one was even more substantial, and there was no comment in the will about it: no in recognition of friendship etc. Nothing. Just the name and the amount.

Anyway I put on my Inspector Clouseau hat and tracked her down. Turns out she was a part time employee of my aunt some 20 years ago.
Her response to the news was very strange, as she told me she had never really liked my aunt! Strange thing to say to someone who is trying to give you a fair few K. Anyway I posted it to her the same day as the others and she took over a week to pay it in.
Nowt so queer as folk...

grunnie

Many decades ago we received £68 from a very distant relative that we had never heard of. We booked a weeks holiday near where they stayed which was the opposite end of the country from us. We drove to their address and stopped to looked at their home. A neighbour noticed us being nosy and came and spoke to us. We explained who we were and next thing we were inside her home drinking tea. She had kept all their personal papers and photos when the council had cleared their home and gave the photos etc to us. Among these was a photo of my mother in law and her sisters at a family wedding and a photo of my husband when he was two. Photos and family history which would have been lost for ever.

JenniferD

Lovely to read! Thak goodness there was a will that expressed his wishes and that you could track them down! I wonder how many times this happens where the will doesn't get found, or a family member isn't happy that someone else unrelated is set to inherit! So nice to read stories like this

G_M

Yorkshireman99 wrote: »

Unlerss they are rersiduary beneficaries there is no reason whatsoever for them to have copies of the estate accounts.

But that's not what I suggested.

The accounts should show the payments, ideally evidenced with receipts. I agree the accounts don't need to be sent to the legacy recipient.

But OP ays receipts were provided so there's no issue.