Contesting a Will as Next-of-Kin

74jax

RomfordNavy said:

74jax said:

Are you able to speak to the solicitor who did the Will, to express you feel pressure was applied and the solicitor may be able to say they were of sound mind at the appointment and clear what they were doing?

Did a representative of the charities attend the Will appointments? 

Do you have the previous will to see how different the Wills are? 

During end of life, when you were there, was the new Will mentioned at all, how did they get to do this if no family member took them etc? 

How often did you see the deseased, did you open mail, see anything? 

Will appointments were just the deceased, the Solicitor and the Solicitors assistant.

Previous will was from years earlier and gave everyting to Family, now completely excluded.

Unfortunately we were not there at end-of-life.  The Hospice did not let us know the deceased was with them until two days before death. 
Where did you believe they were? If i read right, they were in hospital, surely when you called, you should have been told they had been moved? Were you not involved in deciding which hospice etc? 

When I collected personal belongings the deceased mobile phone was completely out of battery.

A close friend arranged the Solicitors to visit to do the will as the deceased was apparently being pressurised by the Nurses to get a Will done - who has said this?  Why would a friend arrange the appointment and not you? 

This close friend by the way was not gifted anything in the Will but was listed as a reserve Executor.  Seems strange to ask someone to be an Executor but give them nothing for their trouble. No this is quite common. 

Had not seen the deceased for over a year due to Covid but regularly talked on the phone and exchanged text messages.  Had a very long chat when the now deceased person was first diagnosed with the condition.  The deceased let us know when admitted to Hospital and kept in touch regularly until we assume phone battery went flat. When you called the hospital, did they not say you could drop a charger off? How often did you call the hospital for updates? I'm just surprised they didn't inform of discharge. 

Nothing of any significance in mail.

My mam died of covid in hospital so I completely understand how hard it is. My mam died during full lockdown when we were given just an hour a day to go out.

Even so, we could call anytime, even through the night. The nhs covid ward couldn't have been more helpful.

I can't imagine how worried you would have been between them leaving hospital and dying and you not being able to locate them.

Do did they do the will in hospital, 2 days before death (whilst no phone)? I ms very much question this. End of life is horrendous, 2 days before I'm not sure they would be of sound mind. 

TheInheritanceProblemSolver

That sounds like a very concerning situation.

Unfortunately, proving that somebody was unduly influenced into making a will in terms against their wishes is very difficult. In most cases, simple suspicion of wrongdoing is insufficient to prove the case and direct evidence of the influence itself is necessary.

An enquiry, known as a “Larke v Nugus request” should be made to investigate the production of the Will.

If investigations prove to be fruitless, then family members such as a spouse or children, and any financial dependants, should consider whether they need to make a claim for reasonable financial provision to be made for them from the estate. It may be possible to bring what is known as an Inheritance Act claim to secure such provision.

There are organisations, such as CPAID Solutions (www.cpaid.co.uk), that specialise in sourcing Solicitors who can assist with inheritance issues on a no-win no fee basis.

RomfordNavy

Savvy_Sue said:

How much contact did the deceased have with family in the later stages of life? 

If there had not been much active contact then the deceased might well feel that the charities who had cared at end of life might be better recipients than family. I accept that Covid might have affected what was practical and possible in person, but what was the reality. 

Later stages of life wasn't long and drawn out.  Six weeks from first related hospital visit to death.  Final month in hospital/hospice.  Next-of-kin was the first person the now deceased called to inform of diagnosis.

RomfordNavy

swingaloo2 said:

Is this the same person as in your previous thread re clearing a council property because the deceased persons daughter lives abroad?

No different person unfortunately, other side of the family.

Keep_pedalling

I find it highly unlikely that the staff at the sharp end of delivering end of life care would be able to work together to pressure a patient to make a will favouring their employers. You have zero proof that any pressure was applied, and the will was made using solicitors. 

I think it far more likely that facing his own mortality he made a rational decision to leave his money where it would do the most good, particularly if he had no direct descendants to leave his assets to.

RomfordNavy

74jax said:. 
Where did you believe they were? If i read right, they were in hospital, surely when you called, you should have been told they had been moved? Were you not involved in deciding which hospice etc? 

As we are in a different part of the Country we didn't know which hospital so when text messages stopped we had no way of finding out where the deceased had been moved to.

So no involvement in deciding which hospice

74jax said:

who has said this?  Why would a friend arrange the appointment and not you? 

Because they are local and we are in a different part of the Country.

It was the same friend who told us that the deceased was being pressurised to make a new Will and had even asked said friend to look into equity release on a property to release funds to pay for the Will.

74jax said:

When you called the hospital, did they not say you could drop a charger off? How often did you call the hospital for updates? I'm just surprised they didn't inform of discharge. 

Do did they do the will in hospital, 2 days before death (whilst no phone)? I ms very much question this. End of life is horrendous, 2 days before I'm not sure they would be of sound mind. 

Like I said above, didn't know which hospital.

Will was signed five days before leaving hospital, that was 15 days before death.

RomfordNavy

TheInheritanceProblemSolver said:

That sounds like a very concerning situation.

Unfortunately, proving that somebody was unduly influenced into making a will in terms against their wishes is very difficult. In most cases, simple suspicion of wrongdoing is insufficient to prove the case and direct evidence of the influence itself is necessary.

An enquiry, known as a “Larke v Nugus request” should be made to investigate the production of the Will.

If investigations prove to be fruitless, then family members such as a spouse or children, and any financial dependants, should consider whether they need to make a claim for reasonable financial provision to be made for them from the estate. It may be possible to bring what is known as an Inheritance Act claim to secure such provision.

There are organisations, such as CPAID Solutions (www.cpaid.co.uk), that specialise in sourcing Solicitors who can assist with inheritance issues on a no-win no fee basis.

Very helpful constructive advice, thank you.

p00hsticks

RomfordNavy said:

A close friend arranged the Solicitors to visit to do the will as the deceased was apparently being pressurised by the Nurses to get a Will done. 

Pressurised in what way ?

In my experience, nurses specialising in end-of-life care are not 'ordinary' ward nurses. It's a major part of their job where appropriate to help ensure that the process of dying is as smooth as possible,  including helping the terminally ill feel that they have everything in order before they die. That includes making a will, helping them to obtain appropriate benefits, talking about pension and employment options etc, as well as dealing with their medical needs

Thrugelmir

RomfordNavy said:

It was the same friend who told us that the deceased was being pressurised to make a new Will and had even asked said friend to look into equity release on a property to release funds to pay for the Will.

Equity release on a property to pay for a will. That's nonsensical. Totally disportionate. Sour grapes on the friends part possibly? 

Spendless

Why did family friend arrange for a solicitor to do the will without checking with family members to see if they knew if one was already in place? 

I can see that both my Grandmothers (mid-late 90s) in the situation you describe would 'forget' that they'd made Wills years earlier in favour of family members and it being arranged that a solicitor came to them would possibly think about the charity looking after them at the end benefitting than the family who hadn't come to see them, especially if there was a lack of understanding about covid restrictions on visiting. 

I think this is going to be very hard to prove though because how would you know what deceased answered when asked about making a will. You've no way of knowing what deceased answered when asked about a will, whether it was 'I don't have one' or 'I've got one but want to change it' .

Last year my son's friend was contacted by a solicitor because he was the sole beneficiary to a large estate due to a relative dying without a will. This relative had needed a lot of care for more than a decade following a RTA. Only last week, this friend showed me paperwork relating to his relatives death, which included some GP appts, one of them less than a month before he died said 'assessed for capacity to make a will'  I have no idea if that is something that should also have happened in your relatives case, I don't know enough about it.