Need help understanding Will.

jamierarebit

Hi, Hope someone can help with this. This photo is of part of my grandfather's Will.


I'm Jamie (obviously). It seems that my grandfathers intention was to leave a money from a couple of bonds to his 4 grandchildren. This was a few of years ago. There are some odd things here. I have never been contacted about the will. I was the only one of the grandchildren to have my share "held at all times by the trustees". My mother is one the executers and trustees (along with her brother and sister). The only reason I know about this is I requested this from the government website. I did ask out of curiosity a year or more ago whether I was left anything. My mother gave me a timex watch and his tobacco pipe (no monetary value but he used them every day so means a lot to me) but she then said I had been written out of the will.  Which I found hard - not because of the money, but to think my Grandfather thought badly of me.  Anyway - I don't get this, should I have been told about this? does this effectively mean the trustees can decide to give my share to the other three grandkids (I suspect this is what has happened - but I don't know)?

Something else thats odd. This will was changed 30th Jan 17,  4 months before his death. What is odd is he has dementia so I just wonder why he did this and if it was his decision.  At the time of the change I was going through some stuff, I'm a widower and did not handle the loss well and was not getting on with my mother. But by late January I had a job and was picking myself back up so I don't really get this. Also my grandfather lived a good 200 miles away and my mother and him didn't have the kind of relationship where they would discuss things like my mental health (even before he got diagnosed with dementia)  so I just don't understand his motivation for this provision.

I tired to bring this up with my mother after I found out about the will and she was very upset. We didn't speak for a couple of weeks.

Finally, here is why I started to look into all this in the first place. I'm in the middle of a DRO and needed to know if I had any assets I was unaware of. I suspected there was more to the WILL story than I was being told because I couldn't see my Grandfather doing something so harsh as leaving me and only me out his will. I thought that he may have only left stuff to his kids and not his grandkids but no, I was wrong.  None of the story made sense so I decided to try find out myself. And I don't want the money. I have two children, If I do have assets I would want to sign it all over to them. 

ANY help understanding this will be greatly received.  Please let me know if you require more information.

Dox

jamierarebit said:

Hi, Hope someone can help with this. This photo is of part of my grandfather's Will.


I'm Jamie (obviously). It seems that my grandfathers intention was to leave a money from a couple of bonds to his 4 grandchildren. This was a few of years ago. There are some odd things here. I have never been contacted about the will. I was the only one of the grandchildren to have my share "held at all times by the trustees". My mother is one the executers and trustees (along with her brother and sister). The only reason I know about this is I requested this from the government website. I did ask out of curiosity a year or more ago whether I was left anything. My mother gave me a timex watch and his tobacco pipe (no monetary value but he used them every day so means a lot to me) but she then said I had been written out of the will.  Which I found hard - not because of the money, but to think my Grandfather thought badly of me.  Anyway - I don't get this, should I have been told about this? does this effectively mean the trustees can decide to give my share to the other three grandkids (I suspect this is what has happened - but I don't know)?

Something else thats odd. This will was changed 30th Jan 17,  4 months before his death. What is odd is he has dementia so I just wonder why he did this and if it was his decision.  At the time of the change I was going through some stuff, I'm a widower and did not handle the loss well and was not getting on with my mother. But by late January I had a job and was picking myself back up so I don't really get this. Also my grandfather lived a good 200 miles away and my mother and him didn't have the kind of relationship where they would discuss things like my mental health (even before he got diagnosed with dementia)  so I just don't understand his motivation for this provision.

I tired to bring this up with my mother after I found out about the will and she was very upset. We didn't speak for a couple of weeks.

Finally, here is why I started to look into all this in the first place. I'm in the middle of a DRO and needed to know if I had any assets I was unaware of. I suspected there was more to the WILL story than I was being told because I couldn't see my Grandfather doing something so harsh as leaving me and only me out his will. I thought that he may have only left stuff to his kids and not his grandkids but no, I was wrong.  None of the story made sense so I decided to try find out myself. And I don't want the money. I have two children, If I do have assets I would want to sign it all over to them. 

ANY help understanding this will be greatly received.  Please let me know if you require more information.

I think the DRO is the key here. If you became entitled to a bequest before the DRO has completed, then you would need to declare it. Presumably your financial issues were no secret within the family, even if a DRO wasn't in place at the time your grandfather made the will.  Sounds as if your grandfather wisely ensured that your creditors couldn't get their hands on the bequest. At some future point, when your finances are in better shape and there is no danger of the bequest being plundered by third parties, it is likely you will receive your inheritance.

pphillips

Your grandfather simply put your inheritance in a discretionary trust, he must have been worried that it would go to your creditors.
Legally your inheritance belongs to the trustees, who can decide when to pay you some or all of your inheritance.

jamierarebit

Dox and Pphillips -Thanks for taking the time to reply. The financial issues really started about a year after his death. It was more down to my mental health. Its a long and not very happy story that is superfluous to the financial issue at hand. I'm more than 95% sure that these changes were at the request of my mother. As I mentioned my Grandfather had dementia and his general health was failing I think my mother was worried that I would mismanage the money. She was aware of some debt but is was no where near needing a DRO and I had a good income at the time. My wife had managed our household bills so I was already struggling there. So I think my mother would have worried if I got a large some of money I'd do something crazy like leave my job and disappear until it was all gone. Anyway, as I said, this is a bit superfluous (and self indulgent of me to be going on about) so i'll leave that there.

What I am thinking is that, even though I'm aware there was a will and I was in it It is NOT legally my money and therefor I am not lying to creditors by not mentioning it on my DRO documents. Please correct me if you think this is wrong. But thanks again to both of you for the input.

pphillips

I don't believe you are lying to your creditors because the money legally belongs to the trustees. You will of course have to tell your creditors if the trustees decided to make a payment to you, but they should not make any payments if the money would be at risk.