Advice needed re Uncles Will

Hhzg

So my Uncle has left both me and my two siblings some money in his will. He has left me and my younger brother some independently and left some to our mum and dad who are deceased. 

Both our mum and dad’s estate has been sorted but my uncle’s solicitor is being a right pain to deal with. 

She has copies of both my parents wills and has said the monies are ready to be paid out but she is insisting on a joint account for three of us. Now since my parents passed, we have not spoken and live at other ends of the country from each other so this is virtually impossible to set up, not only that but one party is not trustworthy and I’m worried the whole amount that should be split between the three of us will simply vanish. 

We are all in agreement (the one time we have spoken) to have mum and dads part of the inheritance split between the three of us, as according to their wills but the solicitor is just not listening and totally ignores all emails. 

Is there anything I can do?? I just want it all over and done with now. 

Sorry for the long post - any advice greatly received!

Marcon

Hhzg said:

So my Uncle has left both me and my two siblings some money in his will. He has left me and my younger brother some independently and left some to our mum and dad who are deceased. 

Both our mum and dad’s estate has been sorted but my uncle’s solicitor is being a right pain to deal with. 

She has copies of both my parents wills and has said the monies are ready to be paid out but she is insisting on a joint account for three of us. Now since my parents passed, we have not spoken and live at other ends of the country from each other so this is virtually impossible to set up, not only that but one party is not trustworthy and I’m worried the whole amount that should be split between the three of us will simply vanish. 

We are all in agreement (the one time we have spoken) to have mum and dads part of the inheritance split between the three of us, as according to their wills but the solicitor is just not listening and totally ignores all emails. 

Is there anything I can do?? I just want it all over and done with now. 

Sorry for the long post - any advice greatly received!

Don't know why you think the money will vanish, but if she's ignoring your emails, that's not on. Make a formal complaint (look on the firm's website for the details) about:

• failure to respond to reasonable communications
• insisting on a course of action (setting up an account in the name of the three of you), without adequate explanation as to why she believes this is a 'requirement', when is neither viable nor welcome.

Nearlyold

Cannot see why you would need to open an account in your three names.  Having said that, are you asking for a bank transfer to each of you indidually rather than a cheque each, I can see how that possibly would be more faffing about for the solicitor as they would presumably have to verify each account separately, its probably easier just to send three cheques That's what our solicitor did when distributing my late mum's estate

jimbo6977

The solicitor sounds totally unreasonable. Imagine if the three beneficiaries were not siblings, but were Cats Protection, a neighbour called Mrs Bloggs, and the Conservative Party. Would the solicitor expect them to open a joint account? Of course not, and there's no good reason why siblings should either. 

Brie

Marcon said:

Hhzg said:

She has copies of both my parents wills and has said the monies are ready to be paid out but she is insisting on a joint account for three of us. Now since my parents passed, we have not spoken and live at other ends of the country from each other so this is virtually impossible to set up, not only that but one party is not trustworthy and I’m worried the whole amount that should be split between the three of us will simply vanish. 

Don't know why you think the money will vanish, but if she's ignoring your emails, that's not on. Make a formal complaint (look on the firm's website for the details) about:

• failure to respond to reasonable communications
• insisting on a course of action (setting up an account in the name of the three of you), without adequate explanation as to why she believes this is a 'requirement', when is neither viable nor welcome.

I think the OP's concern is that one of the siblings isn't trustworthy and might empty the account.  And i would think that if the solicitor was advised of this they might be more willing to send things to 3 accounts.  After all how much time does that actually take?  5 minutes each account?  So slightly longer than writing a cheque for each but not much.  

Sea_Shell

Sounds wrong to me.

Noone should be "forced" into being financially connected to someone else, by way of a joint account.

I definitely wouldn't want to be financially linked with some members of my family!

As above, the beneficiaries (of parents wills) might not have even been related.

poppystar

Is it easy to even set up an account in three names? Presumably any bank would have to satisfy itself of each of the beneficiaries being suitable to have an account with them. I know more than two is a problem for executor accounts but even for a normal bank account I think the bank would regard three as highly unusual. The fact you are siblings shouldn’t mean you’re treated by the solicitor as an item any more so than any other three beneficiaries outdated be. 

Hhzg

Thanks everyone, I’m going to put a complaint in and see how I go. Thanks again