Executor not following the will

ExecutorIssue

Last year a family member died and left an estate, its taken quite a bit of time to settle it. 

I've asked several times for the estate accounts, in the last month or so as I'm one of the residuary beneficiaries of the will.    However, it hasn't been provided and then estate has now in my view been wrongly distributed (as I have a copy of the will), they have provided a few little bits of information but not anything that will help me understand how the calculations have been worked.

I have a couple of questions that any help would be appreciated:

1) What legal right do I have to see the estate accounts and how can I enforce them?  

2) If the funds have been distributed, what can I if it has been done incorrectly?

Thanks for any help

Marcon

If the administration of the estate has been finalised, and your request for a copy of the accounts is being refused, a residual beneficiary can apply to the Probate Registry for an Inventory and Account Order.

Executors can be personally liable if the estate has not been properly distributed.

ExecutorIssue

Yes the estate has been finalised and paid out.  I did ask for it before it was paid but they have refused above the few bits of information they sent.

Thanks very much for the information, I will write a letter to say the next actions if they don't provide.  I could be wrong but until I have the information I just don't know.

mobileron

Why not go direct to probate registry as Marcon stated,then you will have proof,

ExecutorIssue

Sorry I think I have misunderstood, I thought that you didn't have to submit anything unless you were asked to?  I've had a look and I can't see how you request it or do you have to phone them up?

xylophone

https://www.human-law.co.uk/_cmroot/human-law.co.uk/blog/an-introduction-to-requst-for-inventory-and-account.aspx

badger09

xylophone said:

https://www.human-law.co.uk/_cmroot/human-law.co.uk/blog/an-introduction-to-requst-for-inventory-and-account.aspx

What a pity human-law didn't proof read the title to that article. Doesn't exactly inspire confidence

getmore4less

Investigating an estate can become a long process if you are a starting from a base on knowing nothing.
The request for an inventory and account can be satisfied with a very simple overview.
 if you think there are missing assets or excess expenses you have to go back and ask for more info, rinse repeat.
if lucky and the account inventory looks right then it is a lot easy to uncover any mistakes in distributions.

Lack of inventory is always a concern as that is something all competent administrators should draw up as it is the starting point.

ExecutorIssue

getmore4less said:

Investigating an estate can become a long process if you are a starting from a base on knowing nothing.
The request for an inventory and account can be satisfied with a very simple overview.
 if you think there are missing assets or excess expenses you have to go back and ask for more info, rinse repeat.
if lucky and the account inventory looks right then it is a lot easy to uncover any mistakes in distributions.

Lack of inventory is always a concern as that is something all competent administrators should draw up as it is the starting point.

Luckily I pretty much know all the information (income/expenses) apart from how they have distributed the estate

getmore4less

If you know the inventory then you can work out what you are due and make a claim for that.

Any evidence that supports a request for more detailed breakdowns will be helpful for a case.

You can let others know what they should have got and they make their own claims if they got different.

ExecutorIssue

I've just got a copy of the probate and it said the estate is worth £0 after expenses.

I know it had a significant amount of income in the estate but they haven't been filled this in correctly.