Estate trust and will responsibilities

MrMojoRisin71

Hi,

I am the trustee for my Mum's estate. She is still alive, but created a trust in 2011. She also has a will. It turns out the will is unsigned, as she never got it done, but I am conflicted about what my responsibilities are.

My Mum has very limited mobility and has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's Dementia. She was staying with me after breaking her hip and being in hospital. The plan was to get her back home but her house was in such a condition she could not return there safely. Whilst staying with me she lost the will to so anything for herself and her mental state and mobility was getting worse. The frustration of trying to get her to do things to help her improve and her unwillingness to do so, saw our relationship becoming strained. She moved to a care home to temporarily to help with this. Her doctor advised that she needed to remain there as it was the best place for her, and I have to agree as she wouldn't be safe at her house.

This is where the confusion starts. I am looking after the house which is in trust to me, but her will has provision for what happens to the house upon her death. I don't know if I am supposed to keep up the maintenance on her home until her death, or sell it and put the proceeds in to some sort of stasis until the event of her death and honour her wishes at that time. I have no idea what is required of me legally. I have no idea if the will, can still be honoured, or as she is in the early stages of her Alzheimer's it can now be signed or a new one completed.

I have spent the last few months corresponding with a solicitor, who was recommended as someone who can help, only to be told that they can't offer the advice I am looking for.

Keep_pedalling

The house does not form part of her heritable estate, but it will do for IHT purposes if she continued to live thereafter transferring it in to trust. That bequest would fail if she had actually signed it. What other assets does she own?

If seems pointless maintaining an empty house so sake should be the better option, despite the length of time the property has been in trust you may find the LA may take the line that was done so to solely to avoid card costs so may treat it is deliberate deprivation of assets.

Who were appointed as trustees?

elsien

The will has no meaning if it was not signed. She can sign it still if she has capacity to do. Given she has an Alzheimer’s diagnosis then I would suggest her capacity around this is professionally assessed.

Broadly speaking, she needs to understand what a will is and what its effect will be; roughly what assets are in her estate; and recognising those people be an expectation of a moral obligation to benefit from your estate, such as a spouse, or children. So potentially some understanding of the the trust and its implications.

If she can’t do that, and you do have to wonder why she left it so long without signing it because that is relevant , then you are in the realm of the court protection and statutory wills. Otherwise the rules of intestacy follow.

Are you a power of attorney for her?

Keep_pedalling

Do you have a rough idea of the house value? Is your other a widow?

MrMojoRisin71

Thanks for the replies. @Keep_pedalling @elsien

The trust has been in place for 15 years, and the Local Authority have no claim to the property, and have made no claim once she fell under the threshold for self funding.

She has some money in her bank account but I am not concerned about that as I am aware of the legalities surrounding this.

Both, my wife and I are trustees on the estate (house and adjoining land) and I am her POA for her finances and estate. The estate is a modest estate and is not worth over an estimated £150K.

My mother was divorced long before she bought her house and had any assets; one of the reasons for the divorce, and her husband has now died.

As I have previously stated, she is at an early stage of Alzheimer's and I would argue, has capacity to understand, the signing of the will, especially as it was her that pointed out that she had forgotten to get it signed across all of those years.

In terms of living next of kin there is only me.

I hope that this has answered all of your queries

poseidon1

Please provide a redacted copy of the 2011 trust deed, together with an estimate of the property value then and now, and confirmation that you are one of the trustees.

It's possible under the terms of the trust the trustees have power to sell the property and reinvest the proceeds to provide your mother a lifetime income, but I would need to check that this is actually the case. It's concerning a solicitor you consulted indicated they could not assist.

As for the Will and as indicated by others, an unsigned Will is a meaningless document with no dispositive or legal effect.

In any event, if the 2011 trust of the house has an uncontesteable legal exsistence, the will as currently drafted cannot purport to make alternative disposition of the legal and beneficial interest in the property, unless the trust deed grants the life tenant of the trust a specific power of appointment either inter vivos or by will ( extremely unlikely for a modern trust). It is perhaps this conflict between the provisions of the trust and that of the unsigned Will which has left the solicitor perplexed?