Will administration

rach2008

My Mum died when I was 12 and she was survived by my uncle and aunt. When my aunt died she left a 6 figure sum to my uncle and his family cutting out myself my brother and sister. At the time I accepted this but as I have gotten older I have felt quite disappointed as this is family money from older generations we have missed out on. Myself and my sister were however left some jewellery by my aunt. The will gave no details as to the value of the jewellery however my aunt was a wealthy lady. To date we have not been given this jewellery which is in my uncle's possession. He has over the years tried to arrange meeting us to give us the jewellery but always found an excuse not to meet. He is now claiming the jewellery is merely costume jewellery with no financial worth. What can we do in this situation? My uncle was one of the administrators and a solicitor the other.

marcia_

 Tell him you don't care if its costume jewellery. That you want it anyway as it was left to you. 

 Cant you just turn up on his doorstep? 

Ms_Chocaholic

What did your late mum's estate consist of?

Did your mum's parents pre-decease her?

rach2008

thanks for your responses. My cousin (my uncle's daughter) was also left a share of the jewellery and my uncle says we must all be together to divide the jewellery up. We all live in different parts of the country. 
My mother's Dad died earlier than her but her Mum (my Gran) died after. My gran divided her estate three ways (my uncle, my aunt and a third share for myself and my siblings). My gran also left us a third share of her home although my aunt and uncle immediately offered us money for our share, which we felt forced to accept.

Keep_pedalling

Did you mother leave a will? Was she married at the time of her death?

if the answer to both those questions is no then you and your siblings should have inherited her estate and the assets (assuming the estate was not insolvent) should have been held in trust until you were18. 

rach2008

No my Mum did not leave a will. I don't think she had many assets. She was married to my father when she died. I'm not sure I follow though, are you saying we would have had a legal right to my aunt's estate? We were all over 18 when my aunt passed away.

lincroft1710

If your aunt left a will then if you and/or your siblings were not financially dependent there is no right to inherit anything from her estate if you/they were not mentioned in the will.

poppystar

Did you and your siblings actually get the third share from your gran? If so and aunt only got a third too then surely you have got your share of the family money and aunt had no more than you so I’m not clear how you’re missing out on family money? 

rach2008

yes, we had a third share from my Gran. I feel if my Mum had outlived my aunt then a half of her estate would have come to her rather than all gone to my uncle. But that is an aside. The real point of this post is to ask what we can do about jewellery we have been left in the will but not been given.

Savvy_Sue

Well, if uncle wants the 3 of you together, set a date, get together and turn up together!

sheramber

rach2008 said:

No my Mum did not leave a will. I don't think she had many assets. She was married to my father when she died. I'm not sure I follow though, are you saying we would have had a legal right to my aunt's estate? We were all over 18 when my aunt passed away.

Your mother was survived by her husband who would inherit any estate she left.

Your aunt’s estate would go to her husband , if that is what was stated in her will. It doesn’t matter where her money came from it was hers.

Your mother would not have been entitled to any of it unless your aunt had left her some in her will. 

If your aunt left some jewellery to be split three ways, rather than stipulating specific items to each person, then yes, you would all need to agree who gets what. 

You can only try to arrange something with  all parties involved.