The Estate is a mess, I'm sole executor and ready to string myself up! HELP

miss_curly

So, its four years on from my mothers date of death.
In a nut shell there has been a particularly tricky house to sell and its taken 3 and a half years to find the buyer. I haven't got the exchange yet so fingers crossed. I inherit 'the residue' of my mothers Estate whilst my brother inherits her business or rather shares in her business.

After my brother pushing me to use his London accountant to deal with the numbers part of all of this and the bill is accruing at somewhere in the region of 50k currently (i feel sick writing that) I am told by them this morning that their entire bill, solicitors and running of the Estate is all to be born out of my inheritance ONLY. Taking a huge gulp to swallow my bile I asked why and surely this cant be correct?! Is it? My brother walks away without having to meet half of the costs incurred in dealing with the estate because he inherits the business (or shares which is somewhere in the region of 1M) and I 'the residue' (I feel like residue) have all costs taken out of my pot less than half my brothers inheritance.

Can this be correct?  

Linton

It depends on the exact wording of the will.  There is a legal order in which payments should be made from an estate.  Without going into the full details: debts, and funeral and executors expenses come first then explicit bequests (eg 10000 shares in company X or my house at 110 Acacia Avenue) ) and finally the residue (all my other assets I leave to xxx).  So yes, the higher the expenses the lower the residue.

Brynsam

miss_curly said:

So, its four years on from my mothers date of death.
In a nut shell there has been a particularly tricky house to sell and its taken 3 and a half years to find the buyer. I haven't got the exchange yet so fingers crossed. I inherit 'the residue' of my mothers Estate whilst my brother inherits her business or rather shares in her business.

After my brother pushing me to use his London accountant to deal with the numbers part of all of this and the bill is accruing at somewhere in the region of 50k currently (i feel sick writing that) I am told by them this morning that their entire bill, solicitors and running of the Estate is all to be born out of my inheritance ONLY. Taking a huge gulp to swallow my bile I asked why and surely this cant be correct?! Is it? My brother walks away without having to meet half of the costs incurred in dealing with the estate because he inherits the business (or shares which is somewhere in the region of 1M) and I 'the residue' (I feel like residue) have all costs taken out of my pot less than half my brothers inheritance.

Can this be correct?  

Yes. Your brother was left a particular bequest (shares in the business) and inherits that. You get everything else, minus the costs of winding up the estate.

miss_curly

I would properly Linton reply only I'm busy being sick and tying a noose on my stairs 
Thank you

tacpot12

So, legally, everything that has been said before is correct, but before you go wasting money on a rope and time on learning to tie a decent noose, you might talk to your brother and see if he will agree to split the cost with you. I doubt your mother raised him to be insensitive and unfeeling. "It's not fair that I should have to pay all the costs!" is a perfectly reasonable argument to put to him. 

You might also, to be fair to him, consider that if you are getting the residual from the house sale, and his is getting business assets, he is not getting something of equal value even if the paper values of the shares are the same as the house today. Running a business is a risky affair. He might do well with them, or he might not. It's uncertain. Of course if he has been left £1M in shares and you have been left a house that can be sold for £300K, then perhaps he should foot more than half the bill for the costs. Your mother may have made her will quite some time ago an she may not have realised the effect of giving your the residual and him a bequest. 

Mojisola

tacpot12 said:

you might talk to your brother and see if he will agree to split the cost with you.

Especially considering that he pushed you to using this expensive firm - you would have been better off handing it all off to a solicitor local to you.

What work has the firm done to justify this cost?  Is it worth challenging the bill?

MoneySeeker1

Agreed that the first thing you have to do is point out to him the "facts and figures" and say (in a confident tone of voice) to him "Well this means half of those costs from my share and half of those costs from your share and I'm guessing we'll both have to cover our "half x" first and then see what we both have left (of equal value obviously)".

Fingers crossed his response will be an honourable one of "Of course....of course...obviously that's what happens".

That's the first hurdle - ie of hoping/starting off on the basis of he'll be a decent/honourable person and this is what will happen.

You do need to have a back-up approach as to what will happen if he turns out to be a nasty/mean/grabby sort instead and obviously has every intention of leaving you to carry his half share of the burden - as well as your own half share of it.

Right at this moment - I'd veer towards being cautious and not spend literally a penny more unless and until you have been told he'll be honourable and have the proof in writing to ensure he is so. Just in case he turns out to be what a 1930's person would call "a cad/a bounder".

Right at this moment - probably the next step (after stopping paying out - just in case of Imminent Bounder-hood on his part) is to check the value of the company and I'd guess you could start by googling for accounts at (what I think is called) "Company House". Someone else will know the details on how to do that doubtless.

EDIT; You also run your own informal checks on the company's viability - eg they've probably got a Facebook page/they might be mentioned (favourably or otherwise) on the local town/city Facebook page where the company is situated etc. It's usually possible, quite easily, to get the general feel of how a company is doing and how vulnerable (or otherwise) it is - well I find it is myself.

MoneySeeker1

Just had quick check and there's a Government website for checking re company accounts:

www.gov.uk/get-information-about-a-company

NB; There is also a thing called "deed of variation" - whereby a Will can be amended posthumuously by someone that is due to benefit more than is fair. That being the one getting lions share of an unfair inheritance can sign a "deed of variation" agreeing to change what proportions things are shared out in between the beneficiaries. If he is going to turn out to go into "cad and bounder" territory - then his very first account will probably be to deny it's possible to change things around and make them fairer (ask me how I know!!!! - so you would then have to be "firm" and make it plain there is this legal provision and how it's done and then it will emerge he knew all along - but was hoping to get away with pretending it literally wasn't possible).


Fingers crossed he's a decent person and will help sort this out fairly.

NB; As at right now/literally today - you need to contact those accountants pronto and tell them (verbally by phone today and email today - followed by Registered letter) to stop all work completely RIGHT NOW on sorting out the estate until "minor matters that need clarifying" have been sorted out with your brother. At least they won't then be able to run up any further costs.

BillTrac

Perhaps I'm too cynical but when siblings act like bar stewards over a few hundred quid or a even a couple of thousand I doubt very much morals enter where a potential £million goes.

Would love to be proved wrong, though.

Brynsam

MoneySeeker1 said:

You do need to have a back-up approach as to what will happen if he turns out to be a nasty/mean/grabby sort instead and obviously has every intention of leaving you to carry his half share of the burden - as well as your own half share of it.

Or the sort of person who believes that his mother knew what she was doing and believes in honouring her intentions? So far we've had one side of the story from someone who is clearly reacting in a completely OTT way, given the silly post about tying a noose etc.

miss_curly

I'm going to come back later and read in detail everything you wonderful people have written to me above ... but just for the record my mum intended me to end up with a slightly bigger pot as I devoted my life to her, her health, her business ..... I am sole director of her business atm but only found out that when i was 20 I signed paperwork to say I was purely a nominee shareholder, had no idea at that time what I was signing and to be fair my mum wouldn't have had a clue either .. she inherited the business from my father back in the 80's when he died ... mum wasn't a business person and neither am I. The business is by far the greater end of the wedge to the tune of about 500k over and above 'residue'

I'm afraid my brother is a bounder and a bar steward.
On my mothers death bed he told me a total pack of lies to assist him in making her change her will so that his share passed straight to his daughters (who are children) instead of to him. I guess this was his version of tax planning

I will reply again ...............