Executor breach of duties

rubyroads

Im suspecting bad intent. A family member (child of the deceased) who was the executor, a beneficiary and had LPA on my nans will and estate has not discussed anything with other beneficiaries. Myself 2 siblings and my deceased dad were the only other beneficiaries mentioned on the will the split was 50/50 between my deceased dad and his sibling but my dads 50% was to be split 4 ways between my dad and 3 siblings were talking around the 550k mark. The family member tried to avoid tax and care cost loss and transferred all money over to themselves using the 7 year rule with no say from the other parties included on the will. My nans house was sold and the family member moved my nan in to their own home. The family member then purchased a second home (which we can only assume was done by using my nans money) and then got a buy to let mortgage on their previous home. To the government my nan had no money so her care was provided by the nhs free. 

We’re not sure if the ‘gift’ the family member took fell into the 7 years which would mean tax is due. We have read online that it’s the executors duty to investigate but with the family member being the only executor and holds the entire deceased estate they have no reason to investigate themselves.

The family member is now claiming there is no money to be inherited by my dad’s side of the family. The executor appears to have found loopholes that benefit themselves. Essentially one side of the family has an inherited everything whilst the other nothing which was not the request of my nan will. 

Is this legal? Can anything be done about it? 

It’s incredibly shocking that this family member has done this as it’s not something we would ever of expected and it’s our first experience of seeing what greed and money can do to a person morals. 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. 

Flugelhorn

was most of this moving of money done while the LPA was active?

elsien

rubyroads said:

Im suspecting bad intent. A family member (child of the deceased) who was the executor, a beneficiary and had LPA on my nans will and estate has not discussed anything with other beneficiaries. Myself 2 siblings and my deceased dad were the only other beneficiaries mentioned on the will the split was 50/50 between my deceased dad and his sibling but my dads 50% was to be split 4 ways between my dad and 3 siblings were talking around the 550k mark. The family member tried to avoid tax and care cost loss and transferred all money over to themselves using the 7 year rule with no say from the other parties included on the will. My nans house was sold and the family member moved my nan in to their own home. The family member then purchased a second home (which we can only assume was done by using my nans money) and then got a buy to let mortgage on their previous home. To the government my nan had no money so her care was provided by the nhs free. 

We’re not sure if the ‘gift’ the family member took fell into the 7 years which would mean tax is due. We have read online that it’s the executors duty to investigate but with the family member being the only executor and holds the entire deceased estate they have no reason to investigate themselves.

The family member is now claiming there is no money to be inherited by my dad’s side of the family. The executor appears to have found loopholes that benefit themselves. Essentially one side of the family has an inherited everything whilst the other nothing which was not the request of my nan will. 

Is this legal? Can anything be done about it? 

It’s incredibly shocking that this family member has done this as it’s not something we would ever of expected and it’s our first experience of seeing what greed and money can do to a person morals. 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. 

It’s all a bit muddled.
No one has LPA over a will because power of attorney ends on the person’s death.
So you need to be very clear on what actions the LPA took before the person died in which case the LPA is solely responsible and doesn’t need to discuss with anyone else, and what action the executor has taken since the death. 

However there is no obligation on an executor to discuss anything with beneficiaries until the estate is distributed. 

With regards to your Nan’s care again it’s confusing. Nhs care (which you say she had) is free it is not mean tested. It’s only if she was funded by the local authority that there is a financial assessment. 

You are presuming the second time was brought with Nan‘s money – what evidence do you have of that? 

There is a lot of supposition going on here and some of it may be wrong.

You need to differentiate between what happened under the power of attorney and what has happened since with the well because they are two different things with possible different means of redress.
he will also need to doublecheck exactly how Nan was funded because again that will make a difference.

FlorayG

You would have to prove that the money was transferred and the house sold against your nan's wishes, which is going to be almost impossible now she has died. If your nan gifted it to this person fully cognisant of what she was doing then they are not breaking any laws by spending it on anything they want. If you know the date of the transfer then at least you can investigate whether tax is due on it.
If all is above board then there is nothing left of your nan's estate to distribute to the other relatives

elsien

The rest also comes down to the specific wording of the will and whether your father died before or after the will was made. There may be a clause saying "if X predeceases me (or if X has already died) their share goes to their children, or it may be that what would have been his share automatically reverts to the other beneficiaries. You would need the exacts words in the will to be sure either way. Because if it was a straight 50/50 split between your dad and his sibling, and a verbal agreement that he would share it with you, it could be correct that you no longer have any entitlement. 

doodling

Hi,

It sounds like there was pretty much no estate to execute so I'm not sure there has been any defect in executing the estate.

From what you have said, if there was any dodgy behaviour, this was carried out by the attorney whilst the deceased was still alive.

Was the deceased of sound mind?  Could they have chosen to give all their money to the attorney?

If you want to change things then you will need to prove that things that happened over 7 years ago were unlawful - can you do that?

Were significant care costs incurred by the council?  If you believe that the local council was defrauded by the deceased deliberately depriving themselves of assets then you could point that out to the council - doing so might make the council richer and the ex-attorney poorer but it won't help anyone else.