will challenge and next of kin

Heltaskelta

My mother died recently from a brain tumour. There are 5 children and I still live at home and was the registered carer. My mother made a will in august after coming out of hospital to say I was to live at home and the money gets split equally between us all. On the day she signed the will I have video footage of her some hours before indicating she was of sound mind. I didn't video the will because of coercion. I also have footage weeks after of her stating financial concerns which in my opinion show she knew what she was doing.

Upon her death I took the will to the hospital to obtain the death certificate. My sisters were also applying for it as next of kin. Because the hospital gave them the code to inform the 'tell us once' service I realised that I had to do something to protect my mother's estate.

Because over the previous 6 months I had been given by her a PIN number to her bank so I could pay the bills etc. What I have done then is to open an executor account and removed funds from my mothers account into it. Approx £40,000. Now they have as I suspected gone to the bank in the next of kin capacity and have seen what I have done. They have contacted the police and fraud squad over my actions.

I see it as protecting my mother's wishes regarding how the estate gets shared out. I haven't stole the money just transferred it into the account/I have been excluded from all family activities and weren't invited o the wake in one of my sisters houses. They deleted and stopped contact with me the day my mother went back into hospital. The day before she went back in we had a doctor visit the house and we all agreed equal next of kin. When I found out later in January, my mother was asking to come home, (the right thing to do) that there was only one name as next of kin. This is misrepresentation on my sister's part I feel and they are also slandering my name by saying that I stole the money.

As well as negligence on keeping my mother in hospital due to spite I think I also got grounds for undue suffering and loss. I can see the way things are going my side of the story won't be heard or listened to.  They are building a case against me.

Any advice please to protect myself

JGB1955

Next of kin has absolutely NO legal meaning.  IF your mother's will has been correctly signed and witnessed then the executor (you?) can apply for probate and distribute the estate according to the will.  Who is/are the named executor(s)?

xylophone

The will was correctly signed and witnessed?
Who is the named executor?

elsien

Next of kin has no legal meaning. It has no relevance whatsoever to the will, as previous posters have already pointed out.
Hospitals like to have one "next of kin" because they find it easier to have one person to pass information to than to have 5 people phoning for the same information. That's not necessarily down to your sister, that could be the hospital saying they only want the one contact. Not lawful in terms of capacity law and best interests decisions but as she's passed then it's academic now anyway. 
Hospitals aren't in the business of keeping people in from spite; they are more worried about unsafe discharge. 
Was it a DIY will or through a solicitor? 
It's not about your side, or your sisters side, it's about what is legally in place, who is now responsible as executor for a valid will,  and whether it will be challenged. 

Heltaskelta

In the original will i was named as an executor. After reading about different situations that can arise i revoked (but is still available) the will and included another executor as a stand in which was my eldest sister. Trying to be fair and above board. While my mother was at home as well as the witnesses my brother knows my mother wants me to live at home, my youngest sister do also but i can guarantee she will deny this fact. They are just out to avenge me it seems and my mothers wishes are 2nd fiddle. There was a big argument between my sisters and mother and brother in law when they all picked on her 2 years ago. The rift between my sisters and i originated in Aug when she decided to say only she was going to visit our mother. I weren't happy with that and told her in no uncertain terms. Since then they have ganged up on me. There is no way now they will believe there was a valid DIY will from few years ago and it will look worse for me i think the way they are acting. I don't think I will mention it exists. i only found out because the witness i gave it to kept it.

Manxman_in_exile

You haven't answered this question:

xylophone said:

The will was correctly signed and witnessed?

Was a solicitor involved in drafting and witnessing this will?  If not, was it a DIY will and who were the witnesses?

p00hsticks

onsite71 said:

In the original will i was named as an executor. After reading about different situations that can arise i revoked (but is still available) the will and included another executor as a stand in which was my eldest sister.

Don't you mean that your mother revoked the will and included another executor ?

It may just be your turn of phrase, but it does come across that someone could get the impression that you were perhaps exerting some undue influence on your mother.....

If it wasn't a solicitor, who drafted the will - you or your mother ?

MovingForwards

She signed a exact copy of that will? Who drafted it and where did the wording come from? And which jurisdiction are you looking to obtain probate under?

If there was any doubt about your mom's capacity a solicitor drawing up the will (if she did have the necessary capacity) and providing advice of legalities of what you / she were trying to do, would have been the best sub £200 spent.

My opinion is see a solicitor.

onsite71 said:

No solicitor involved, and the witnesses were friends of the family. one was a bearer for my father and the other would come on holidays with us. known to all the family. here is the unsigned will. very basic and straight forward IMHO.

elsien

Well she wasn’t a widower for a start. 

Where did you copy it from? 

I’m also confused about keeping quiet about a DIY will from a few years ago. Was that the one that was revoked? 

74jax

onsite71 said:

My mother died recently from a brain tumour. There are 5 children and I still live at home and was the registered carer. My mother made a will in august after coming out of hospital to say I was to live at home and the money gets split equally between us all. On the day she signed the will I have video footage of her some hours before indicating she was of sound mind. I didn't video the will because of coercion. I also have footage weeks after of her stating financial concerns which in my opinion show she knew what she was doing.

Upon her death I took the will to the hospital to obtain the death certificate. My sisters were also applying for it as next of kin. Because the hospital gave them the code to inform the 'tell us once' service I realised that I had to do something to protect my mother's estate.

Because over the previous 6 months I had been given by her a PIN number to her bank so I could pay the bills etc. What I have done then is to open an executor account and removed funds from my mothers account into it. Approx £40,000. Now they have as I suspected gone to the bank in the next of kin capacity and have seen what I have done. They have contacted the police and fraud squad over my actions.

I see it as protecting my mother's wishes regarding how the estate gets shared out. I haven't stole the money just transferred it into the account because I knew it would rile them because their love for money. I have been excluded from all family activities and weren't invited o the wake in one of my sisters houses. They didn't know about the money at this time. They deleted and stopped contact with me the day my mother went back into hospital. The day before she went back in we had a doctor visit the house and we all agreed equal next of kin. When I found out later in January, my mother was asking to come home, (the right thing to do) that there was only one name as next of kin. This is misrepresentation on my sister's part I feel and they are also slandering my name by saying that I stole the money.

As well as negligence on keeping my mother in hospital due to spite I think I also got grounds for undue suffering and loss. I can see the way things are going my side of the story won't be heard or listened to.  They are building a case against me.

Any advice please to protect myself

What do you mean you transferred 40k into your name as you knew the Pin?

Did you do this online? How did you do this is the bank had frozen the account on her death?

Do you mean you did this after she had died, but didn't inform the bank she had and withdrew the funds?

Why would it be protecting her wishes? She has a will so that would be followed.  What you have achieved could have been done entirely legally and the outcome the same.  I can understand why they have flagged this with the police, can you not? 

You say you revoked your right as executor and your sister was put in as a replacement. If that is correct then of course you can just transfer money. If the first will still stand and you are executor it looks like you didn't arrange the funeral and didn't close bank accounts, is this correct? If I were you I'd read up on being an executor as that is now how you go about things

It's hard to understand what was revoked and what wasn't. 

Heltaskelta

p00hsticks said:

Don't you mean that your mother revoked the will and included another executor ?

It may just be your turn of phrase, but it does come across that someone could get the impression that you were perhaps exerting some undue influence on your mother.....

If it wasn't a solicitor, who drafted the will - you or your mother ?

yes my mothers wishes. ive drafted the will and maybe ive been punching above my weight trying to get the will right. the more i read up on the subject i came to realise it was better practice to have at least 2 executors named in the will.

thanks for your input im beginning to see my errors now.