Can anyone help with this scenario please?

swingaloo

A person dies and has named one of his children as executor of his will.

The will divides the estate (property and cash) equally between 3 siblings and one grandchild. 

The property was abroad and has been sold and distributed between the 3 siblings and grandchild.

Probate was needed to be applied for in the UK as there was a sum of money in the bank in the UK (£44,000) and this figure was declared as being the 'Value of the Estate in England'.

Despite the will specifying that the the property and any cash was to be shared between the siblings/grandchild, the sibling who is the executor has claimed the money for himself. His reasoning is that because he dealt with his mothers finances in the UK as she lived abroad as well as being the executor the bank account was held in joint names and therefore he now is the rightful owner of any money in that account. (POA had not kicked in as the deceased was still managing her own money)

Now I know that if a joint account is opened and one person dies the money in that account belongs the remaining person but does that apply in this case? The money did belong to the mother but sibling helped with banking arrangements as parent was living abroad and so was addecto the account.

But, if the executor has applied for probate stating the £44,000 is part of the deceased estate does that override the fact that the account was joint?

Keep_pedalling

If it was a joint account the executor would not need probate, so it sounds like it was not a joint account.

DullGreyGuy

swingaloo said:

The money did belong to the mother but sibling helped with banking arrangements as parent was living abroad and so was addecto the account.

But, if the executor has applied for probate stating the £44,000 is part of the deceased estate does that override the fact that the account was joint?

If they were added to the account as a joint account holder then legally the money is owned 100% by each of them. Alternatively if they were just granted third party management of the account then the account was fully in the deceased's name and it goes through the will/probate process

swingaloo

Thank you so much for those replies. The executor did need probate so it looks like a bit of lying is going on.

swingaloo

DullGreyGuy said:

swingaloo said:

The money did belong to the mother but sibling helped with banking arrangements as parent was living abroad and so was addecto the account.

But, if the executor has applied for probate stating the £44,000 is part of the deceased estate does that override the fact that the account was joint?

If they were added to the account as a joint account holder then legally the money is owned 100% by each of them. Alternatively if they were just granted third party management of the account then the account was fully in the deceased's name and it goes through the will/probate process

Im assuming from the answer from Keep-Pedalling that it must not be a joint account as Probate would not have been needed if that was the case?. I cant see any reason to apply for probate unless it was needed to access the money.

When the Spanish solicitor was dealing with sale of the villa and distributing the money from the sale they asked for mums financial details and they had statements from the Spanish bank account  which had next to nothing in it so probate was only needed for the money in the English account which according to the executor was a only couple of hundred pounds. Its only since getting a copy of the will and probate that it has been discovered that £44,000 was sitting in the English bank.

The executor had told the other siblings that he had to apply for probate because of the villa in Spain but that was not even mentioned on the English probate application. He has kept the £44.000 very quiet but now our sister has a copy of the probate its time to tackle the executor but I just wanted to be sure we were on solid ground before doing so.