Struggling to collect inheritance.

pazman69

My mother lived with me a number of years before she died. I made sure her tenancy rights were documented legally. I thought it best at the time to remove myself from sorting her will and it was the only thing I left my brother to tidy with the solicitor. She died a year ago and only then did he tell me that he did not do it. I know and can show that my mum gave him regular monies to invest in low risk stocks and shares/savings accounts. He has reluctantly agreed verbally that he has monies of.our late mother's but has now gone silent. What can I do, even if banked alone with interest a calculation over 10 years is needed. I need to know what I can legally demand
 

Linton

I do not think you can demand anything legally, unless perhaps your brother used a Power of Attorney to benefit himself at Mother's expence.  It is up to him to act honourably.  If not what evidence do you have that any monery transferred was not a gift?

Marcon

pazman69 said:

My mother lived with me a number of years before she died. I made sure her tenancy rights were documented legally. I thought it best at the time to remove myself from sorting her will and it was the only thing I left my brother to tidy with the solicitor. She died a year ago and only then did he tell me that he did not do it. I know and can show that my mum gave him regular monies to invest in low risk stocks and shares/savings accounts. He has reluctantly agreed verbally that he has monies of.our late mother's but has now gone silent. What can I do, even if banked alone with interest a calculation over 10 years is needed. I need to know what I can legally demand
 

If your mother died intestate, then all you can 'legally demand' (assuming you and your brother were her only two children) is half her estate, after all debts have been settled.

Presumably you'll both be applying for letters of administration if you've not done so already?

Voyager2002

Do you have evidence that (i) your mother passed specific sums of money to him and (ii) can you prove that these were not gifts? Unless you have such evidence then there is nothing to be done.

Savvy_Sue

Voyager2002 said:

Do you have evidence that (i) your mother passed specific sums of money to him and (ii) can you prove that these were not gifts? Unless you have such evidence then there is nothing to be done.

Agreed. Go ahead and apply for letters of administration, split your mother's assets between you. 

If you start arguing that he had money from her which was NOT gifts, I'd expect him to start arguing that you have had similar, because she was living with you and presumably paying towards your household expenses. Maybe that's why she gave him money? 

pazman69

Harsh assumption. I paid for a grannie annex so she could live with me and she paid for nothing other than any food she fancied. All utilities etc were paid by me.  She always told me he was putting it in investments for her

Savvy_Sue

pazman69 said:

Harsh assumption. I paid for a grannie annex so she could live with me and she paid for nothing other than any food she fancied. All utilities etc were paid by me.  She always told me he was putting it in investments for her

Any harshness in my suggestion was more directed towards your brother than to you! However, unless you have any evidence of the above, it's going to be difficult to prove anything. You say "Mum said she asked you to invest it for her", he says "she gave it to me." 

Who's applied for Letters of Administration? You are probably in the best position to do this, because as her attorney you're more likely to be aware of what bank accounts she had. You then hold the responsibility for dividing the estate - if your brother has done so, it will be his responsibility. 

Being pragmatic, how much are we talking about? And how much do you want an ongoing relationship with your brother?  

sheramber

Are these investments in your mother's name or in brother's name?

pazman69

He didn't invest it but I believed he kept it as cash flow. He has a property portfolio which his wife inherited. 

Malthusian

In the absence of any written evidence to say that she loaned him the money, or he was holding her money on trust, this is almost certainly going to be seen as a gift.

There was nothing stopping her investing in stocks and shares and cash accounts herself. If she needed his help he could either have used a Lasting Power of Attorney, or informally helped her to fill out the application forms in her own name. Or you could have done the same for her.

It sounds an awful lot like she knew that the money was subsidising his lifestyle but didn't want to tell you. If not, it matters little; it is far too late to complain about how she "invested" her money now. The opportunity to protect her from losing the money was when she was telling you what she was doing. 

I need to know what I can legally demand

In the absence of evidence that your brother owes money to the estate, nothing.

If he has previously misappropriated her money, then the fact he didn't actually bother to apply for letters of administration sounds like a good result to me. Now you can do the job without worrying about him taking any more than he's owed (half her estate assuming she had only two children, and no children predeceased her leaving issue).

GDB2222

pazman69 said:

He didn't invest it but I believed he kept it as cash flow. He has a property portfolio which his wife inherited. 

You have an uphill battle to prove that money she passed him was intended to be held in trust for your mother. Indeed, the law presumes it is a gift to him unless there is evidence to show that it wasn’t.