giving away half of my money

christianG

Just wondering if anyone has some clear advice.
my mother passed away 7 months ago, very young and so had no will. myself and my brother managed to get everything arranged for the funeral etc, and as he has children, does not live local and works full time we decided it would be easier for me to become administrator of the estate. which we did, we have now sold the house, and I would obviously like to give him half, the estate was valued correctly and was well under the inheritance tax threshold.  My question is, am I ok to just transfer half of the estate to his bank account, or do I have to inform anyone, as I obviously don't want him to have to pay any tax or get into trouble either.
thanks for any help.

TonyMMM

No you don't have to inform anyone, you are the administrator and have a duty to distribute the estate strictly according to the laws of intestacy. If you are the only children, and there is no surviving spouse, then it is a straight split between you. As an inheritance there won't be any tax issues for him.
You can transfer the money - but make absolutely sure the account details are correct - I would also recommend you provide him with an account of the estate showing assets, debts and expenses and so he is happy that he has his proper 50% share.

Keep_pedalling

You are not giving away half your money, you are distributing his half of the estate to him.

As already said there are no tax issues. If you have never transferred money to him before, do a test transfer of £1 first to make absolutely sure you are sending the money to the correct account.

christianG

thank you very much for your advice, you have really helped. I feel so much better, I wasn't sure what to do for the best and my brother will be relieved too. 

Flugelhorn

only thing I would check is that you have advertised the estate in the gazette in case there are any debts you don't know about. Strictly, if you donlt advertise and  anything came up after the money was distributed then only you would be liable and your brother would not have to give you anything towards it ,
it may be that you get on well enough for this not to be a problem but just worth discussing it between you 

Socajam

I would advertise in the gazette and wait 3 months before distributing the funds
Or distribute 25% each now and leave the other 50% for the 3 months wait.
I totally agree with the rest transfer of £1 to ensure that you have the correct account details.