Advice needed concerning inheritance

[Roel]

Hope a British member can help me with this.
Recently I was contacted by an old friend, a Thai lady in her 50s. She informed me that she had been with her English boyfriend (they were not married) in the UK to take care of him as he was seriously ill. He was in his 70s and in June last year he passed away.

Before my friend traveled back to Thailand she received a copy of her boyfriend's will from a solicitor. She left her Thai address and bank account number with the solicitor on his request and he told her to do nothing, everything would be done automatically but it could take a while.

In the will she is entitled to receive a certain cash amount as well as 6% of the estate. Now almost a year has gone by and nothing happened so far. Her boyfriend's children (one son and one daughter) are the executors. She told me she tried to contact the solicitor twice by email but did not receive a reply.

Now I am about to try to contact the solicitor but I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask for some advice here first. Trying to get in touch with the solicitor seems the obvious thing to do.

P.S. Can the children being the executors simply ignore her?

[Big Boy]

I've it successfully done before. Get the wife or Girlfriend back to Thailand promising the world. Then it's a case of out of sight out of mind.

[Bristolian]

Looking on the positive side there is a will, and therefore the estate will not need to go to probate

Does your friend have a copy of the will?

The will can be contested by the family on a number of grounds but not knowing the circumstances of family relationships it is impossible to say if this has happened or is likely to have happened.

The estate is likely to comprise of a house, land and personal possessions and again without knowing the circumstances it is difficult to comment except to say that the housing market in the UK is slow and it may be taking time to sell.

The solicitor should be the main contact for any beneficiary the executors only have responsibility to ensure that the will is executed as the benefactor intended.

I would suggest that you phone the solicitor to find out the current status of the process.

I hope that all works out well for your friend. If the will is written correctly and the necessary funds are available there should be little problem other than time.

[Big Boy]

Your friend is lucky to have you in their corner. I don't know your friends status, but where I've seen this happen, the lady has not had any natural right to return to the UK to contest it. 6,000 miles is a huge distance under such circumstances.

[Roel]

As I said I must contact the solicitor first, but IF the children are ignoring her and with that their father's last wishes I assume she has to take them to court for not executing the will. I was hoping for more reassuring posts as in 'a year is not unusual' or 'maybe it takes long because they have to sell the estate first'.

While I typed the above more reassuring words were posted by Bristolian.
Yes, she has a signed copy of the will.
Family relations: her late boyfriend was not on speaking terms with his children. Especially not with his son, they did not speak to each other for over 10 years. At his death bed my friend met the children for the very first time. Although I must say that the two spend most time together in Thailand. Only after his health deteriorated they went to the UK.

I will try to contact the solicitor this Monday.
If the will is contested should my friend not automatically be informed about this?

Can I simply contact the solicitor on my friends behalf? I can imagine that he not responds to an unknown third party. Should my friend maybe authorize me to handle her case in writing?

[Big Boy]

Family relations: her late boyfriend was not on speaking terms with his children. Especially not with his son, they did not speak to each other for over 10 years. At his death bed my friend met the children for the very first time. Although I must say that the two spend most time together in Thailand. Only after his health deteriorated they went to the UK.

I wish that I could be more positive/reassuring, but this is a familiar set of circumstances. The kids think the estate is theirs by right - get the girlfriend/wife back to Thailand, and she can do very little about it.

The kids will not be expecting intervention by another solicitor. Good on you - go for it. I wish you every success.

[Bristolian]

I would suggest that you phone together unless your friend gives you a letter of Proxy (you are acting on her behalf), which is then submitted to the solicitor.

The executors have very little power unless the will is being administered incorrectly

Normally any contestation of the will should be informed to the known beneficiaries. Does the solicitor the correct contact details ?

[Roel]

I just heard about all this myself. Unfortunately I am in Phuket. My friend is in Chaiyaphum. She says she did not receive a reply to two emails. But I cannot even be sure she typed the email address correctly (with all due respect of course) so it is possible her emails were never received. Or she misspelled her own email address. Or she did not see the replies in her spam box. Anything is possible. Hard to say.

I will go to see a lawyer friend here in Phuket first thing on Monday to get a standard letter of proxy and have my friend sign that. I take it from there. Keep you posted.

She has been with her late boyfriend for about 15 years and she fully deserves what he intended to give her. She is a very nice person and not the greedy type. The greedy one would have taken action after a few weeks. She waited almost a year and if I have to tell her tomorrow to forget the money she will not lose a minute of sleep about it. But I am going to try.

[Bristolian]

I just heard about all this myself. Unfortunately I am in Phuket. My friend is in Chaiyaphum. She says she did not receive a reply to two emails. But I cannot even be sure she typed the email address correctly (with all due respect of course) so it is possible her emails were never received. Or she misspelled her own email address. Or she did not see the replies in her spam box. Anything is possible. Hard to say.

I will go to see a lawyer friend here in Phuket first thing on Monday to get a standard letter of proxy and have my friend sign that. I take it from there. Keep you posted.

She has been with her late boyfriend for about 15 years and she fully deserves what he intended to give her. She is a very nice person and not the greedy type. The greedy one would have taken action after a few weeks. She waited almost a year and if I have to tell her tomorrow to forget the money she will not lose a minute of sleep about it. But I am going to try.

Good luck. I hope that it works out well. Keep us informed

[migrant]

Can't speak for the UK rules, but here in the states a year is a long time for disbursement of an estate. The exception is when the estate has a lot of assets to sell. If the kids (executors) are holding out for the highest dollar then perhaps a year is not too bad.

I've had clients hold assets (especially houses in this economy) over a year hoping for the price to increase.

Saying that if there was considerable cash then a partial distribution to beneficiaries is warranted

Nice of you to help, hope it works out for her!

[Dannie Boy]

I think it was mentioned by Bristolian that because there is a will then it will not need to go to probate. I don't think this is necessarily the case and what is called Applying for a Grant of Representation is required altough it depends on the value of the estate and inheritance tax will be due if it is above £325,000.

As you have suggested, getting a power of attorney to represent your friend is a good starting point, followed by contacting the UK solicitor.

Dealing with probate can take up to 6 months and you have to pay any taxes due to HMRC before they will grant probate allowing for the proceeds to be distributed, so it could depend on a number of factors (unknown to you) why it could be taking time.

I think that despite your friend being a Thai national living here, there is every reason to be hopeful of a successful outcome.

Good luck.

[malcolminthemiddle]

Sorry, I have to disagree with Bristolian.

Looking on the positive side there is a will, and therefore the estate will not need to go to probate

Probate is the second step in the legal process of administering the estate of a deceased person, resolving all claims and distributing the deceased person's property under a will. The first step is determining and paying any inheritance tax.

A probate court decides the legal validity of a testator's will and grants its approval by granting probate to the executor which in this case will be either the son or daughter who would have taken an oath before being granted probate.

I suggest your friend first contacts either the son or daughter or both in writing/email politely requesting the current status of probate. The lawyer who drew up the Will may well have no further interest unless he has been instructed by the son/daughter for example he has been assigned probate.

If there is no response or the response indicates that the son and daughter are intending to cut your friend out of the Will, she will need to appoint her own lawyer in the UK to act on her behalf. A letter from a lawyer is often enough in such cases. She will need a copy of the Will to provide to her own lawyer.

Before doing anything you should read the Will to satisfy yourself your friend has a valid claim.

Hope this helps.

[Roel]

The will looks fine to me, but what do I know.
Unfortunately my friend does not have any contact details of the children/executors.

Meanwhile I found this website http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/for-the-pu ... s/probate/ but now still not sure whether it has to go to probate. Quote:

If the person who has died leaves a will, it will usually name one or more people to act as the executors of the will - that is, to administer their estate.
If you are named as an executor of a will you may need to apply for a grant of probate.
A grant of probate is an official document which the executors may need to administer the estate. It is issued by a section of the court known as the probate registry.

(Underlined is mine). It does not say what the criteria are whether or not a grant of probate is needed.

Furthermore the website give some reassuring words:
Dealing with the affairs of someone who has died can take a long time. It is not unusual for it to take up to a year, perhaps longer if things are not straightforward.

But also some worrying ones:
The estate cannot be dealt with until all claims to it have been received. Individuals have six months from the date when probate was granted to make claims against the estate.

Does this mean my friend has to make a formal claim although she is already mentioned in the will?
If so I hope not that probate was granted and the six months have already passed. This is of course possible as she did not receive any communication since she went back to Thailand almost a year ago.

[Dannie Boy]

Hopefully time is still on your side, but the Executors have a legal responsibility for distribution of the deceased assets in accordance with the wishes set out in the will - as per the following:



In order to be able to distribute the estate the executors will need to collate a full picture of the value and extent of the estate. They must first pay any inheritance tax due and once the grant of probate is received (or the letters of administration where there is no will) collect in all the assets, pay all the debts and liabilities and then distribute the remaining estate in accordance with the terms of the will.

The executors and administrators are legally bound to carry out their duties properly. They are personally liable for any mistakes or incorrect distributions.

It is important to understand that the executors must carry out their duties comprehensively. In other areas of law, people often have to weigh up the advantages and disadvantages of a course of action, such as deciding whether the costs of taking action outweigh the benefit of winning. Executors must make as full enquiries as they are able and deal with all assets within the estate, no matter how small. This can involve carrying out searches with relevant institutions or placing legal notices in appropriate publications.

[malcolminthemiddle]

It is unlikely that the son/daughter will be able to collect all the assets without probate. Probate plus death certificate is needed by insurance companies, banks etc to release funds to an Executors Bank account.

It may well be that the son/daugter have completed probate but have no way of contacting your friend to distribute her share?