Understanding will

GrumpyDil

I hate to say it but this sounds possibly dodgy. When you say it was professionally drafted do you know who drafted it and the circumstances around the signing. My saga started with an issue around the execution and expanded to include issues around how the solicitor was instructed. I did have the benefit of one of the witnesses contacting me to say they were unhappy with the whole situation. 

It might be worthwhile you asking a solicitor to help you investigate around the will being executed. 

Grumpy_chap

Sorry for your loss.

IANAL but, to me, clause 4.1.4 is saying that the Trust Fund only gets set up if there are no living descendant of the deceased:

I hope you can get this clarified with relative smoothness.
It is quite a complex Will so possibly the Executors are also mis-understanding what has been said.  
Having a Solicitor explain it in lay terms would help.

EDIT:

For a Will drafted by a Solicitor, there are other oddities also.

The Will does not seem to make provision for a Spouse, yet 4.4.1 goes on to explain what happens if the Spouse does not survive the deceased.

4.1.3 seems to allow any two Beneficiaries to just add Beneficiaries, irrespective of whether this is to the detriment of the other Beneficiaries.
AIUI, a DoV (Deed of Variation) would normally require consent from all Beneficiaries that stand to receive less by virtue of the variation.  Can the Will override that?

Malthusian

Grumpy_chap said:

IANAL but, to me, clause 4.1.4 is saying that the Trust Fund only gets set up if there are no living descendant of the deceased:

That's not the case, it's a backstop clause. It says that if there are no descendants of the deceased living, the trustees may give the money to charity.

The reference to a trust in that clause is to charitable trusts, not the Will Trust.

Keep_pedalling said:

If the trustees are going to help themselves to £900k and feed some crumbs to the other beneficiaries they need to be removed. 

What for?
There are two contradictory parts to the Will, but one (6) says the Trustees, those being Father and Sister, get the £900k absolutely.
The other (all the clauses from 4.1.1 to 5.1 inclusive) says "The Trustees shall pay or apply the remainder of the income to or for the benefit of any Beneficiaries, as the Trustees think fit." i.e. the Trustees are free to give the whole lot - or the whole lot minus some £5k pittances - to Father and Sister, who are both listed as beneficiaries in 4.1.1 and 4.1.2 respectively.
Nope, got that wrong, I overlooked that clause 5.1 refers to income from the trust, not the capital. But if the Trustees distribute the capital to themselves, which clause 6 appears to allow them to, there is no income to apply.

You need a serious conversation with your sister, they can’t just wind up the trust and distribute the bulk of it to themselves. 

It's a discretionary trust; based on the Will quoted, they most certainly can.

tetrarch

Sorry to hear this, do you know what you're going to do?

Tet

Dave_5150

Waterlilly1 said:

tetrarch said:

Sorry to hear this, do you know what you're going to do?

Tet

Nothing 

What can I do? 

What legal advice have you sought? What did they say?

propertyrental

Waterlilly1 said:

tetrarch said:

Sorry to hear this, do you know what you're going to do?

Tet

Nothing 

What can I do? 

That's absurd! Sorry no disrespect but your sister has been acting selfichly and possibly illegally.

Just because she's spent money (Maldives etc) does not negate a legal claim. If necessary, she should sell her car, draw down money from her pension fund or do whatever to give you what you are owed.

But so far as I can see, you've not taken proper legal advice, obtained a proper interpretation of the will, nor instructed a solicitor to write requiring her to pay you what you are owed.....

Why not?

Spendless

Have you received the £5K your sister said that you would do in the first place? 

Waterlilly1

Spendless said:

Have you received the £5K your sister said that you would do in the first place? 

No, not received a penny. 

Spendless

When we made  wills last year, we explained our wishes to our solicitor. He then asked us to consider things we'd not thought of, which we did and got back to him and then the will was typed up. I still feel our solicitor was amiss because the wills  were then posted out to us unsigned. We had to do this and get them witnessed. 

That someone can come up with a will that many didn't understand,  when someone is in a care home 4 days from death and in a bad way and mentions a spouse already gone (from your previous posts)  surprises me. It's always possible that this will was like ours and just hadn't been signed and witnessed and that bit had been brought to attention and was signed just before death.

As you say nothing you can do. The lesson I'd take from it, is to make sure that your own affairs are in order. Even if you feel you have nothing now, it doesn't mean you'll die with nothing. There was a case on here recently when someone had had an accident in middle age and a huge compensation claim, had died intestate before it had all gone and it would be inherited by someone currently in a care home who was unwell followed by others who weren't related/deceased had had nothing to do with. A similar example of this happened on my own premises, when my son's Uni friend inherited from his estranged Dad who he hadn't seen for years who had also received a large compensation claim.  I'm guessing they've had to pay IHT on the amount? My son's friend did. I don't know how it works but I'm guessing that is paid out before beneficiaries receive. If so they won't have quite received the full amount you've mentioned.

I'd now make my will. I'd ensure that regardless of any quirk of fate meaning all the rest of my family went , the 2 that have received the lot from your relative  would never receive a penny from me. 

Waterlilly1

Yes and I agree, everything is a learning curve. 

In the situation I am in now, I think its more the level of shock at how family members can act when money is involved that is the burner, and the level of lies involved.