Sale of inherited house money

hubb

Its a bit unfair to say slap happy when I have been doing my best under very stressful circumstances. I can account for everything, and as I have already said, the only legal benefactor in the will is myself so nobody can query. Having said that, I will distribute fairly the estate at the end of it all, and my wife has been keeping a record of all accounting. 

Mojisola

hubb said:

the only legal benefactor in the will is myself so nobody can query. Having said that, I will distribute fairly the estate at the end of it all, and my wife has been keeping a record of all accounting. 

You can make a deed of variation and make your siblings beneficiaries or you can give them gifts from your own money - you have to choose one method, not mix the two. 

xylophone

and as I have already said, the only legal benefactor in the will is myself 

Do you mean that you are the only beneficiary of the will?

She left the will as sole executor (and only benefactor mentioned in the will) to my discretion to give equal portions to siblings etc which I will carry out fairly.

Do you mean that your mother told you that you were the only beneficiary but asked you to divide the proceeds of her estate among family members?

If you are the sole beneficiary then the money is solely yours - if you share it with anybody else then these are gifts from you and would be set against your own nil rate band if you were to die within the next seven years.

You can vary the will by a Deed of Variation.

https://www.gov.uk/alter-a-will-after-a-death

Aceace

Hi @hubb, you seem to have been given a bit of a rough ride at a difficult time for you. All honest opinions I'm sure, but not all correct. There's no requirement to open an executor's account. It can make things a bit cleaner and easier to show that you've behaved correctly if questioned, but the only requirement is that you keep accurate records. You can do this by using a simple spreadsheet to record all assets and expenses,  and retaining all paperwork. As long as you're methodical that will be perfectly adequate. I've done it both with and without an executor's account and it really makes little difference. Having an executor's account won't stop an unscrupulous executor from misbehaving as it doesn't force the executor to pass all of the liquidated assets through that account.

I've always handled the money through a non-interest-bearing current account, so I haven't investigated the complexities of dealing with interest earned by the estate after death. I tend to distribute the estate as early as possible once probate is granted,  retaining a reasonable float for unexpected expenses, so any potential interest lost isn't significant.

I wish you the best of luck at this difficult time. 

hubb

Aceace said:

Hi @hubb, you seem to have been given a bit of a rough ride at a difficult time for you. All honest opinions I'm sure, but not all correct. There's no requirement to open an executor's account. It can make things a bit cleaner and easier to show that you've behaved correctly if questioned, but the only requirement is that you keep accurate records. You can do this by using a simple spreadsheet to record all assets and expenses,  and retaining all paperwork. As long as you're methodical that will be perfectly adequate. I've done it both with and without an executor's account and it really makes little difference. Having an executor's account won't stop an unscrupulous executor from misbehaving as it doesn't force the executor to pass all of the liquidated assets through that account.

I've always handled the money through a non-interest-bearing current account, so I haven't investigated the complexities of dealing with interest earned by the estate after death. I tend to distribute the estate as early as possible once probate is granted,  retaining a reasonable float for unexpected expenses, so any potential interest lost isn't significant.

I wish you the best of luck at this difficult time. 

Thanks, I really appreciate that. It's nice to have some understanding, especially as it's unprecedented for me. Caring for mum for the last 12 months has been difficult in itself, but sorting her house (she was a hoarder) and finances amid the covid has been challenging, and under the circumstances I think I (with a lot of help from my wife) have done well. She has kept a record of all expenses and hopefully, when the final sale of the house goes through, everything will be balanced out.