Beneficiary turned 18

brooke68

Is there a timescale within which the money must be released?

Mojisola

brooke68 said:

My daughter was left a significant amount by her step grandfather, held in trust until she turned 18. The main trustee is a friend of his new partner who we have never met.
My daughter has now turned 18 and emailed the trustee to ask if she needed to provide any documentation and what would happen next. She received a curt reply saying that the trustee couldn’t tell her anything until she had spoken to her solicitor. This meeting was two days ago and my daughter has still not received any update or reply to a subsequent emails.

The trustee should really have done this in the weeks running up to the 18th birthday.  There's no reason why the money shouldn't have been available from that date.

I would give it at least til after the bank holiday before contacting the trustee again to give them time to respond themselves.

Ganga

Mojisola said:

brooke68 said:

My daughter was left a significant amount by her step grandfather, held in trust until she turned 18. The main trustee is a friend of his new partner who we have never met.
My daughter has now turned 18 and emailed the trustee to ask if she needed to provide any documentation and what would happen next. She received a curt reply saying that the trustee couldn’t tell her anything until she had spoken to her solicitor. This meeting was two days ago and my daughter has still not received any update or reply to a subsequent emails.

The trustee should really have done this in the weeks running up to the 18th birthday.  There's no reason why the money shouldn't have been available from that date.

I would give it at least til after the bank holiday before contacting the trustee again to give them time to respond themselves.

With regard to the above ,would it not have been better if the daughter had contacted the trustee a month or two before her 18th birthday and mentioned her up-coming birthday ,might have had it sorted in time for the correct date.

Mojisola

Ganga said:

With regard to the above ,would it not have been better if the daughter had contacted the trustee a month or two before her 18th birthday and mentioned her up-coming birthday ,might have had it sorted in time for the correct date.

That might have prompted the trustee to start the process but the trustee is the one with the legal responsibility and should have been getting it sorted themselves.

brooke68

Ganga said:

Mojisola said:

brooke68 said:

My daughter was left a significant amount by her step grandfather, held in trust until she turned 18. The main trustee is a friend of his new partner who we have never met.
My daughter has now turned 18 and emailed the trustee to ask if she needed to provide any documentation and what would happen next. She received a curt reply saying that the trustee couldn’t tell her anything until she had spoken to her solicitor. This meeting was two days ago and my daughter has still not received any update or reply to a subsequent emails.

The trustee should really have done this in the weeks running up to the 18th birthday.  There's no reason why the money shouldn't have been available from that date.

I would give it at least til after the bank holiday before contacting the trustee again to give them time to respond themselves.

With regard to the above ,would it not have been better if the daughter had contacted the trustee a month or two before her 18th birthday and mentioned her up-coming birthday ,might have had it sorted in time for the correct date.

My daughter did exactly this. The trustee was fully aware of the date of her upcoming 18th birthday.
All we really want to know is, in these circumstances, how long can she legally delay payment and is there anything my daughter should have done, or can do now, to bring this to a close? The tone of recent emails, as I previously said, has been quite rude and it is worrying that she seems to be in no hurry to let my daughter know what is happening.

naedanger

Is the trustee being paid for their work? If not then it may be worth making some allowance for the fact they have been providing their time for free. If the trustee is being paid then I too would be a bit annoyed.

brooke68

naedanger said:

Is the trustee being paid for their work? If not then it may be worth making some allowance for the fact they have been providing their time for free. If the trustee is being paid then I too would be a bit annoyed.

They are not being paid but they were a minor beneficiary in the will, which was settled three years ago.

Mojisola

Do you know what they have done with the money?

brooke68

Mojisola said:

Do you know what they have done with the money?

No, the will stated that they could invest it as they saw fit. They have never disclosed where or how it was being held.

naedanger

brooke68 said:

naedanger said:

Is the trustee being paid for their work? If not then it may be worth making some allowance for the fact they have been providing their time for free. If the trustee is being paid then I too would be a bit annoyed.

They are not being paid but they were a minor beneficiary in the will, which was settled three years ago.

Being a minor beneficiary in their own right is not payment for being a trustee. I agree the trustee should have been ready to pay out on your daughter's eighteen birthday.

But on a separate matter, by acting upaid the trustee has probably saved expenses that would otherwise have been taken from your daughter's trust fund. (So maybe from the trustee's point of view they are feeling they have received no thanks but only implied complaint.)