Intestacy Dilemma

AgitatedCat

Some advice would be appreciated. England.

My only brother W died last month in hospital just before a will was to be signed by him (he was too ill to complete it, hence intestate) in which he names a child he and his wife (d 2014) gave up for adoption due to health and addiction problems. It is a cash only estate. I wasn't told of his passing initially, but an uncle X who lived nearby saw him in his final days and gave his contact details to the hospital in order to be contacted.

X then said to me that the hospital applied some pressure to move the body as they needed the bed. So, somehow he was able to obtain the DC and arrange a funeral as he knew that W had the funds to pay, but less than what would normally trigger a probate process for his bank.

X then contacted W’s bank with the DC to allow only payments for the funeral and a period of time for other creditors to get their bit (e.g. rent arrears). At no stage did the bank question who the next of kin was.

However, I am the legal next of kin though X disputes this: W had a son which he gave up for adoption 23 years ago and he says that despite a will not being formalised, he should receive the remaining money.

I contacted this bank separately and they are saying that they will only deal with uncle X, as they presented the DC and started the process of account closure. 

Said account is now locked and they said they will imminently release the balance to uncle X. I am not sure what X will do with the balance, but he said he is in receipt of several benefits. There is obviously no contact details for the son, despite X believing that the will which my brother was to sign included him in his original name. His name may have even changed since.

Furthermore, I feel that X will try to scupper the process by doing nothing with the balance cheque and just holding onto it.

I feel this is unfair as I wasn't consulted, and I should receive the money and trace the son at a later date (and present the monies myself if even he wants to be contacted)

Regards

Brie

Sorry for your loss. 

And given that this is such a recent event I'm not surprised you are upset by what has been happening.

Ultimately thought, X is right in that your nephew should get the full estate.  The fact that he started the process with the bank has likely saved you a lot of fuss.  Hopefully you and X can come to some agreement on how to proceed with searching for your missing nephew and hopefully the nephew will be happy to be found by blood relatives.  

Flugelhorn

Brie said:

Sorry for your loss. 

And given that this is such a recent event I'm not surprised you are upset by what has been happening.

Ultimately thought, X is right in that your nephew should get the full estate.  The fact that he started the process with the bank has likely saved you a lot of fuss.  Hopefully you and X can come to some agreement on how to proceed with searching for your missing nephew and hopefully the nephew will be happy to be found by blood relatives.  

I thought that if a child was adopted out of a family then he was no longer eligible to be a beneficiary of his intestate biological parent

AP3

I'm not an expert, but it seems that X has taken on the administration of the estate.

According to intestacy rules, everything would be split between any living children. Only if there are no living children would it then go to living parents (next), then full siblings after.

There's a chart of the rules here: https://www.hughjames.com/app/uploads/2023/07/Intestacy-rules-flow-chart.pdf

However, as the child was adopted by another family, they wouldn't be viewed as a child of W for intestacy any more.(see here: https://www.tozers.co.uk/insight/articles/can-an-adopted-child-bring-an-inheritance-act-claim/)

So, ultimately, assuming that W doesn't have any living parents, the inheritance should go to you and any other living siblings that there may be, equally split.

X doesn't have any choice in the matter, the rules have to be following.

Probably best to show him this information and hope he acts accordingly. Otherwise you'd probably need to get expensive solicitors involved. One thing that might be worthwhile is filing for probate yourself. Once you have letters of administration, and banks etc. should be more willing to deal with you over X.

Whether you share any of the money with the child, as was W's wish apparently, is purely an ethical dilemma for you.

That's my take on it anyway.

AgitatedCat

Flugelhorn said:

Brie said:

Sorry for your loss. 

And given that this is such a recent event I'm not surprised you are upset by what has been happening.

Ultimately thought, X is right in that your nephew should get the full estate.  The fact that he started the process with the bank has likely saved you a lot of fuss.  Hopefully you and X can come to some agreement on how to proceed with searching for your missing nephew and hopefully the nephew will be happy to be found by blood relatives.  

I thought that if a child was adopted out of a family then he was no longer eligible to be a beneficiary of his intestate biological parent

@flugelhorn yes, the adopted son has no right of inheritance.  If he wasn't, the process would be self evident.