National savings certificate.

davidat19

I recently acquired a 50 pound 2nd index linked issue National Savings Certificate dated May 81 in a package of documents from Barclays, held on her behalf by a deceased friend of my late uncle. The will in the package was 1963, she died in 1990. The package had been opened by the bank as they knew she had died, but contained no reference or address for my uncle, and showed no bequest for him. I know he did inherit from her and have found a probate number. Two questions...i. Can I get a copy of the will .. 2. Is it worth spending the time and money to claim this certificate which will have gone up in value.
I should add that I inherited the balance of my Uncle's estate and as the bank tracked me down via him, I would surmise that he probably inherited her balance of estate...

retiredbanker1

Is there a question in there?

Nat Savings should be able to tell you if the NSC has been cashed in or not.

Normally Probate includes a copy of the will used to obtain it.

eskbanker

retiredbanker1 said:

Is there a question in there?

Two, albeit not flagged with a conventional question mark:

davidat19 said:

Two questions...i. Can I get a copy of the will .. 2. Is it worth spending the time and money to claim this certificate which will have gone up in value.

https://www.gov.uk/search-will-probate is the place to start for the first, and only OP can decide if it's worth chasing around after this, especially bearing in mind that the certificate in itself doesn't necessarily signify that the investment wasn't encashed....

davidat19

Fair comment, eskbanker...I have asked for a copy of the will, and will advise on here if/when it turns up.

davidat19

I got a copy of the will.....it does name my uncle as the only beneficiary, his will left the balance of his estate to me, so I will contact NS&I and see where that goes. Interestingly, the will which names my uncle was not in the walllet from Lloyds, and there was no reference to him (and thus, me) in anything within the wallet. I have written a sharp note to Barclays suggesting that they have lost some paperwork and demanding a response...lets see what happens there.....

retiredbanker1

On what basis do you think Barclays have lost paperwork?

How did Lloyds come into this?

davidat19

Lloyds didn't...my bad...I have been dealing with another odd problem...a slip of the finger, please forgive. 
The reason Barclays must have miss-placed at least some paperwork is that the will that came in the wallet was from 1963 and had no reference to my Uncle. Her later will named him as her beneficiary. None of the contents of the wallet referred to my uncle, and in the original letter stated that they had opened the package to find me (my name is the same as my uncles and I am his beneficiary). Ergo, there must have been something in the package connecting to my uncle, which I do not have. 

retiredbanker1

davidat19 said:

Lloyds didn't...my bad...I have been dealing with another odd problem...a slip of the finger, please forgive. 
The reason Barclays must have miss-placed at least some paperwork is that the will that came in the wallet was from 1963 and had no reference to my Uncle. Her later will named him as her beneficiary. None of the contents of the wallet referred to my uncle, and in the original letter stated that they had opened the package to find me (my name is the same as my uncles and I am his beneficiary). Ergo, there must have been something in the package connecting to my uncle, which I do not have. 

Could it be that some of the papers had been withdrawn by the account holder?

davidat19

Not unless she is haunting Barclays...she died in 1990...my point is, how did they contact me without any mention of my uncle in the wallet?

IanManc

davidat19 said:

Not unless she is haunting Barclays...she died in 1990...my point is, how did they contact me without any mention of my uncle in the wallet?

Barclays executors and estates administration team will have obtained a copy of the probate and the last will just like you have done. Big estates administration firms have contracts with the probate registry for this and so the marginal cost of them getting the documents in this case will have been zero.

After that they have used the documents to go to the trouble of tracing you through your uncle, just so they can return the package to you.

Instead of thanking them for their considerable effort in finding you - which they needn't have bothered doing because they could have binned the unclaimed package and you'd never have known - you make up that they "must" have lost documents from the package and then write a "sharp note" to them "demanding a response".

You seem nice.

davidat19

My point is more that if they have lost one, what else might they have misplaced.
Yes, I am "nice".