Unresponsive beneficiary

hopefulfooluk

Hi folks

Wondering if any of you have some advice. I'm sure you do!

My wife and cousin are executors for their late grandfather.  As part of the process they have had a few assets to dispose of, all of which have now been sold, and the residual estate is to be split equally between four beneficiaries (the deceased's adult children).  Three of the beneficiaries have been fine, and been paid their shares via bank transfer. The fourth has been asked for his bank details repeatedly, via text message and phone call, and is now refusing to pick up the phone or even talk to my wife or her cousin.

The beneficiary concerned - let's call him Tom (not his real name) - has been quite interfering through the process. He likes to feel he is in control at all times, and I think has found the whole thing quite difficult.  Part of the disposal was a property, and Tom was hinting that he was disapproving of the amount the property sold for (which was market value, and Tom's brother and sisters were fine with). We think that Tom is doing this to try and make a point, although we're not sure what point he is trying to make.

Naturally both executors want this all closed as it has been a painful process for both of them.  Tom is the only block here for them to be able to close the account and put the whole process to bed.

But how can we pay him if he won't give us his bank details?  We could send him a cheque, but I suspect he wouldn't bank it, just to make our lives difficult. We don't want the money sitting in the account forever and a day as it is currently in our joint account and if something were to happen to us, then it would potentially get extremely complicated for the poor souls who had to deal with our estate.

We were thinking of sending a bankers draft by special delivery to Tom's address so that we can get a signature confirming delivery, and the money won't be sitting in our account any more. Then the onus is on him to pay it in. As I understand it, bankers drafts can only be cashed by the person they are made out to but what would happen if Tom decided he was going to tear it up in some kind of rage because of an issue he hasn't yet told us about?!

I never thought it would be this difficult to give someone some money. The amounts involved are not enormous, but they are in excess of £10k, so we would like it sorted.

Thanks for any advice you can give.

Silvertabby

Well, for a start this money should never have been placed in your own account, for so many reasons.  An executor account should have been set up from the get go, then you wouldn't have so much of a problem - the money could just sit there until Tom decides he wants it.

Hopefully, someone will pop up to advise if it is still possible to set up an executor account.

hopefulfooluk

Thanks, my wife’s late grandfather passed away in December last year and probate was granted a few weeks afterwards, if the timing makes any difference.

Owain_Moneysaver

Dear Tom, If we do not receive your bank details for payment of the bequest, or your waiver of the bequest, within 14 days we shall instruct solicitors to take over the remaining work of the executry. The solicitor's fees will be payable by the estate out of your bequest as this is the only funds remaining in the estate and these costs arise solely out of your intransigence. Yours, hopefulfooluk. 
And if you can get the funds deposited into the solicitor's client account for payment to the beneficiary in due course, all the better. 

TBagpuss

Owain_Moneysaver said:

Dear Tom, If we do not receive your bank details for payment of the bequest, or your waiver of the bequest, within 14 days we shall instruct solicitors to take over the remaining work of the executry. The solicitor's fees will be payable by the estate out of your bequest as this is the only funds remaining in the estate and these costs arise solely out of your intransigence. Yours, hopefulfooluk. 
And if you can get the funds deposited into the solicitor's client account for payment to the beneficiary in due course, all the better. 

Might work as a threat, but I am not sure that it's very practical or that a solicitor would be prepared to take it on on that basis. It doesn't sound as though there is actually any work remaining to b done, and I think that it might well set their alarm bells ringing as a money-laundering risk..

What I would do is open a new account and put his share of the funds in that account (while ideally it should be an executors account, what you really want is one which is separate from your personal finances so you don't need to keep worrying about whether or not e has cashed the cheque or how big your balance is). Then write him a cheque on that account and send it to him with a covering letter, then leave it up to him. If he doesn't respond, leave the money sitting in the  account, send him another letter to say that as he has chosen not to provide bank details and doesn't appear to have banked the cheque, that  the funds are being held on deposit, and that in the event that he has any difficult paying the cheque in, due to the delay, to let you know and you can arrange (on receipt of appropriate bank details) to cancel the cheque and pay the funds to his account. . Then stick a note in your diary to write to him once a year sending him a bank statement and requesting details to pay him. 

Are any of his siblings on better terms with him and willing to speak to him to ask him why he hasn't responded to you? Or who might know who he banks with?

I *think* that f he destroyed a bankers draft it might well be pretty much like brining* money, but I don't know. You could ask the bank, and then write to him - maybe one letter saying you will be sending the money that way and that once the draft  is written you will not be able t o rescind it or replace it so he needs to know that if he destroys it he will have effectively destroyed his inheritance, and then a second letter with the draft repeating that. But I'm not sure I'd be comfortable risking it, myself! 
*burning

xylophone

Does Tom have a wife/adult children?

-taff

Ask a solicitor what you can and can't do?

xylophone

brining money, 

In a pickle?

Brynsam

Try the simple approach: write to him by post (don't send it signed for, in case he refuses to sign - but get a free certificate of posting) and say that if he doesn't give you alternative instructions by the end of October 2020, you will place the money in a savings account [shouldn't be any issue opening that in the name of the executors - it's current accounts banks can be  squeamish about] until such time as he claims it. 

Brynsam

TBagpuss said:

I *think* that f he destroyed a bankers draft it might well be pretty much like brining money, but I don't know. You could ask the bank, and then write to him - maybe one letter saying you will be sending the money that way and that once the draft  is written you will not be able t o rescind it or replace it so he needs to know that if he destroys it he will have effectively destroyed his inheritance, and then a second letter with the draft repeating that. But I'm not sure I'd be comfortable risking it, myself! 

No - wouldn't work. There is no valid reason why the executors could not replace a bank draft which has been destroyed, wilfully or otherwise.

TBagpuss

xylophone said:

brining money, 

In a pickle?

HaHa - missed that when I was typing.