Son's Father Died, No Will

deannagone

My 24 year old son's father died end of 2019 after a three year battle with a brain tumour.  Operations to remove the brain tumour removed the tumour but damaged his brain, affecting his memory and causing mood swings.  My son is autistic, and found his fathers future death, and the effects of his brain damage very difficult to deal with.  His father married a few months before he died (10 year relationship so not a quick thing).  

My son reports that his father did say that our son would be 'looked after' after he died.  He did have quite a few hundred thousand.  It was supposed to help fund a move to a more disability friendly house but it never happened for some reason.  I have talked to his wife while he was ill because my ex couldn't always talk, and did offer any support she needed but she had quite a large family (she has sons and daughters) so it wasn't needed. His father and I never married.    I took my son to his father's funeral and asked his wife if my son could be given some photos and nick nacks so he'd have something to remember his father by (never happened) at the funeral.  I was quite upset at the funeral as well, lots of regrets at words said between us.  I think even though she must have been so much more upset than I had any right to be, she must have noticed somehow and came up to speak to me.  I did say to his wife that I was so glad they'd married, I know she made him happy.  She said yes of course (with regard to the nick nacks), and then turned round and said she would keep the money (which I hadn't asked about) until she died.  She said she had arranged this with his father, but it would be shared out amongst his and her children after.  No way I was going to say anything about this.., so difficult a situation, I just waved a hand to ward discussion off and have left it.  I have tried to prepare my son and told him that there probably will never be any money.  Once his father married any money he had became his wife's too and is now he's dead. He has asked. Its kind of "I've lost my father, my status, I feel terrible because I couldn't cope when he was ill (I did take him to see his father in hospital but he did get very upset) I don't count" which I am dealing with as best as I can. He won't seek counselling, finds communicating very difficult due to the autism.

There is no way on earth I would consider a court case but am very unsure of the law in situations like this.  There is no will on record.  He wasn't really good at financial planning and probably didn't write one.  I am not sure if there is a 'civilised' way to deal with this.  I definitely don't want to get into arguments about money, but maybe my reluctance to do this means I am not protecting my son's interests either.

I'd be grateful for any insights.  I fully expect to be told that once my ex married, and then died, his wife has total rights to any inheritance but just wanted to check.  My ex was always quite angry with me after the split up so the relationship was quite difficult.  It only really became calmer after his diagnosis, which is quite terrible.  As you can tell lots of mixed feelings.  I am totally prepared that its a situation my son should just try and deal with emotionally but I wanted to check what the law says before this.

SevenOfNine

This should help to follow the route with intestate death (no will). https://www.gov.uk/inherits-someone-dies-without-will 

You can check if his wife went through the probate/Letters of Administration process here, then if you find there was a will, you can buy a copy & see what it says. https://www.gov.uk/search-will-probate

It's not something that would necessarily need to be done as he married his partner, depends if any financial organisation insisted on it before paying out.

Unless your son's dad was supporting him financially I think you're likely to be wasting your energy though, sorry. Even if he was being supported it might still lead nowhere.

Personally, I'd just have a quick check, but then focus all your attention on reassuring your son of love & value, his dad was thoughtless & that can't be changed now. Perhaps locate autistic societies & support groups on line (FaceBook etc). Maybe write to the wife, explain how emotionally distraught your son is, & ask if she could possibly part with a keepsake for him. Was there something specifiic he might have wanted, or maybe photographs?

deannagone

Photographs would have been good.  But weren't sent.  I didn't want to upset his wife further asking again.  Totally prepared to just forget about it, its his father's inheritance and up to him what he did with it.  We didn't really talk about Wills and things after his diagnosis, I concentrated on how he was.  My father died and I wasn't mentioned in his will, so I know how it feels to be 'forgotten'.  I suppose nothing will take that away, unfortunately. It leads to many different feelings to deal with as well as grief over the loss (What did I do wrong etc).  

My son still gets terribly upset on the odd occasion he does talk about it. I do try to reassure him.  It was a very difficult situation, his father was quite affected by the operations, it was upsetting for me (but I hid it obviously) and I don't have quite the challenges my son has.  

 Already have contact with the Autistic society and a local autistic charity (over other matters in the past), this sort of thing is not something they deal with.  

theoretica

England? Scotland?  Wales?  NI? 

You need to know how big his estate was (which may be affected by anything in joint names with his wife) - https://www.gov.uk/inherits-someone-dies-without-will

Keep_pedalling

Assuming this is in England or Wales, under intestacy rules you son would only be entitled to part of his father’s estate if it exceeded £270k. Up to that point it all goes to the spouse. The spouse also gets 50% of any amount above that with the remainder being split equally between his children. If his marital home was held as joint tenants, it does not form part of the estate and his wife will automatically own it outright. 

If he held substantial assets then letters of administration would almost certainly have been required and you can obtain copies from the link provided by SevenOfNine.    

deannagone

Ok, thank you very much for all the information.., I had no idea lol.  I doubt it was over £270k but no real idea.  It does help put one uncertainty out of my head so thank you.

TBagpuss

Also if he dies at the end of 2019 it would be now almost certainly be too late for your son to seek to make a claim, even if he wished to. 
As keep peddling says, if the estate was less than £270K then it would all to to the wife. The house if owned as joint tenants would go to her automatically and wouldn't be counted towards the £270K, as would any joint bank accounts. Life insurance and widows benefits under pension s would also be likely to fall outside the estate for the purpose of calculating the amounts.

If there was over £270K excluding those things then the balance would be split equally between the wife (50% and the children (the other 50% divided equally) 

Dymphna60

I know you are mainly asking is there a legal route to your son inheriting now from his Dads estate. 

But regarding asking for photos/ keepsakes I really would contact his widow again. I know when my partner died I spoke to people at his funeral folk said things to me I said things to them but really I could not have recalled any of it . 

I found myself glad to give photos and some personal items to family/ friends that wanted them as there is often too much to keep as you move forward in life but throwing things away seems wrong. 

p00hsticks

Dymphna60 said:

I know you are mainly asking is there a legal route to your son inheriting now from his Dads estate. 

But regarding asking for photos/ keepsakes I really would contact his widow again. I know when my partner died I spoke to people at his funeral folk said things to me I said things to them but really I could not have recalled any of it . 

I found myself glad to give photos and some personal items to family/ friends that wanted them as there is often too much to keep as you move forward in life but throwing things away seems wrong. 

Yes, I second this - I've found that going through photo's of the deceased has been something that is quite difficult to do straight away, and have been putting it off.  And with photo's it's not even as if it means the wife would have to permanently give them away, as you can always just ask if you could just borrow them to have some copies made.

deannagone

Thank you for all the advice.  I hadn't thought that his wife might not remember, thank you for pointing that out. I should have thought of that. Obviously she would be extremely upset at the time.