Beneficiary refusing inheritance share, please help!

charlysays85

Marcon said:

Two years is the deadline for making a Deed of Variation. After that time a beneficiary can still decline their inheritance, but they can't direct to whom it should go instead. 

If your mother has left 'countless messages', and had no reply, I'd be tempted to make one more attempt and this time leave the message that if she doesn't get a reply within five working days, she'll be making a formal complaint to the firm in question. It would be helpful if she can remember how many 'countless' is and include that number in the message.

Thank you Marcon - that's very helpful.  I will ask Mum to check her phone records; this should help.  The solicitor was in the office the other day and finally spoke to her; this is when the Solicitor's Benevolent Fund came up for the first time (just after the 2 years).  Mum spoke to the Finders company and they advised the beneficiary who doesn't wish to accept needs to hear from solicitor and for them to ask for it to be put in writing...so hopefully this will happen.

charlysays85

Mrs_pbradley936 said:

We had something similar but the people finder we used advised us to take out an insurance policy in case relatives surface at a later date. If any do turn up they would be Polish but those records are hard to search. Plus I thought that if a person declined then their share stayed with the Estate and the other beneficiaries got their share. Most people accept it then donate it if they don't want it because you either accept or decline - you don't have the option to say where it goes unless you want it to bypass you and go to your children. They can do that.

I thought the same.  I read about the insurance policy, may be worth a thought.  Hopefully the solicitor will request that they decline in writing and we can get sorted.

charlysays85

Mojisola said:

Mrs_pbradley936 said:

Plus I thought that if a person declined then their share stayed with the Estate and the other beneficiaries got their share.

That's true. 

The problem is when the executors can't get the beneficiary to actually reject their inheritance.  If the beneficiary just refuses to communicate, the executors are left in limbo.

An insurance policy seems to be the way to go.

Hopefully we can find out soon if they are declining or just uncommunicative; will look into the insurance policy.