My mum is withholding my inheritance from my grandfather because of ideological reasons

[Camde]

None of this is confirmed, but I have strong suspicions.

my grandfather sadly passed away last year. He owned a very successful business, and was very generous with all his grand kids.

since he died, I have heard my mother (his daughter) and uncle having conversations about dealing with the inheritance from him. For context, I know that my uncle received enough to pay off all the mortgage on his new £1.2m house, so I know my mum likely received a similar amount.

My grandfather also told me before he passed a few times that I’d be receiving a good inheritance and shouldn’t waste it.

the issue is, my mother is very ideologically opposed to the idea of she or her kids inheriting money. She is very left wing, and believes that it is immoral for some people to receive inheritances when others don’t receive anything. Therefore, she has refused her portion of the inheritance.

it also means that I have no idea how much I have inherited. She is the executor of the will, and I have not seen it. I only ask as I’m saving up to buy a house, and it would be great to know whether I’m likely to receive any money to help with a deposit.

Every time I’ve asked her about my inheritance, she gets very angry and accuses me of not loving my grandfather and only caring about his money, which isn’t true.

how do I deal with this? I don’t want to fall out with my mum over this, and she is still very much grieving.

If you want someone to have something from your estate then make sure you give it them directly by stating it in your will. Don’t rely on other people to do what you want if you haven’t put it in writing

Even better, attach a statement of wishes to the will. This is what our solicitor advised. As we see here wills can be highly ambiguous, even though they are legal documents.

In this case the deceased could have said something like 'Put £X thousand pounds in the trust, then grandkids A, B and C can apply for money from the trust if they need it for (add list of specific reasons like house deposit).'
It gives the executor far less wriggle room.

Surely you contested that regarding your father @FairKoala ?

So what happens when these in charge of the trust, ie, DM and DU die?

You can check probate for £1.50 here
Search probate records for documents and wills (England and Wales) - GOV.UK

This will establish the amount of the estate to start with.

Is your mother the only executor named on the will? Executors have a legal obligation to notify beneficiaries, although I don't know how that applies to trusts. If your uncle and/or a solicitor are also executors they may have assumed your DM would have informed you. I think you should initially contact the solicitor named in the will but be prepared to pay for an hour with your own solicitor experienced in wills and trusts, just to get an explanation of what the will means.

Also if she refuses her inheritance it may "go down the line" or back into the pot to be distributed as well.

What you don't say is if you are over 18 assuming so if looking for a house. Probate office if any solicitor is not involved and copy of the will etc. I would suggest you get your own solicitor as well as you may have to remove her as executor as she is not behaving as one should etc

I agree with PP’s that if you get on with your cousins, speak to whenever you’re closest to and explain the situation.

I’m sorry this is happening, OP, your Mum sounds controlling and is deliberately ignoring the spirit of your grandfather’s Will, I.e., by setting up the discretionary trust, he clearly wanted his grandchildren to benefit financially, and she’s ignoring this. I’m sure that your grandfather would consider buying a house good use of the money, so why on the earth won’t your Mum distribute some funds? Doesn’t she want you to buy a house?!

I thought this was odd too

OP you are getting quite a lot of bad advice here.

You should contact your own solicitor who can properly review the will and the discretionary trust. Your solicitor can contact the firm handling the executry. As a beneficiary you are entitled to do this.

If you're mother is a solicitor she is breaching several professional conduct rules.

Listen I can apply for a copy of the will. Anyone can. It's public record. Don't get ahead of yourself.

Once probate has been granted you can apply for a copy of the will. Then you will know whether your grandfather left you any money or not. If he did, you're entitled to it regardless of your mother's views, and she is breaking the law by not distributing the estate in accordance with the will. If that's the case you should take legal advice about how to enforce the terms of the will. If he didn't leave you anything directly but left it to your mother in the expectation that she would pass some on to you, it's just tough, I'm afraid. The money is hers and she has no legal obligation to give you any.

All other issues aside, I’m dying over here that your mum is so hard left that she doesn’t believe in inheritance and passing on generational wealth but is a corporate lawyer! (I’m a stench leftist by the way)

You have to wonder who else due an inheritance is being kept in the dark.

We got involved trying to buy a house the son kept refusing to exchange on the parents home the day before. His sister went through hell for two years. Finally she went to court who removed him as executor.

Sorry I missed these updates.

Are any of the grandchildren still minors? Are there any time limits on the trust portion of the will?

You can look at wills on line. You pay a small fee to do it.

Well there are corporate lawyers and corporate lawyers.

For example charities need corporate lawyers as well as investment banks.

This

@Camde I am a lawyer, but not this kind of lawyer. I can tell you a couple of things though.

Firstly, if your mum has refused her share of the inheritance, it goes back into the estate and is redistributed in accordance with the terms of the will. Without seeing how the will is worded, it's not possible to say who your mum's share would go to. One possibility is that her failed share would go to your uncle. Another possibility is that her failed share would have gone into the trust. (These are not the only possibilities.) What is certain is that her share has to go somewhere. A solicitor who specialises in this area should be able to tell you where it should have gone by looking at the terms of the will.

Secondly, your mum and your uncle as trustees of the discretionary trust cannot simply do whatever the hell they like. A discretionary trust is intended to provide the trustees with some flexibility to act in the way they think is most appropriate. If your grandfather left a letter of wishes indicating that the trust should be shared equally between his grandchildren, or that it should be used for a particular purpose or distributed at a certain point in time, this letter would not be legally binding but it is legally persuasive. For example, if it said in the letter of wishes that each grandchild should get their share when they reach the age of 21, but the trustees decided it would be better to wait until the age of 25 because they thought the grandchildren weren't responsible enough yet (or conversely, if they decided to pay out when the grandchildren turned 18 to help with university costs), that's the kind of discretion that can be justified. HOWEVER, they do have a legal duty to act in the best interests of the trust itself, and the beneficiaries. When deciding how and when to distribute the trust funds, they are supposed to take into account relevant factors and disregard irrelevant factors. So, for example, your grandfather's wishes would be considered a relevant factor, and the specific needs of individual beneficiaries could be considered a relevant factor, but your uncle's feelings towards you or your mum's political views about inheritances in general are irrelevant factors. With this in mind, if they decided to pay out nothing at all, or if your uncle decided to distribute everything to his own children and your mum went along with it, you and the other beneficiaries could have a strong case to say that your mum and uncle are not carrying out their duties and should be removed as trustees.

In your position I would be trying to find out whether any of the other grandchildren have received any trust funds. If the trust fund is untouched and the grandchildren are all adults, that's a good thing because the money is there and if your mum and uncle are replaced as trustees then it can be paid out in accordance with your grandfather's wishes. If the trust fund has been paid out to certain beneficiaries without the others being aware of it, it's a much more difficult situation. Your mum could be held personally liable if she is found to have mismanaged the trust though.

Either way, you probably can't do anything without there being a row with your mum.

If my mum wanted to go against my grandfather's wishes and make the next generations lives more difficult than they need to be due to her own political views, it's a row I would be willing to have.

Final point: a trust of this type cannot continue indefinitely. The bad news is they are allowed to continue for a very long time and you may not live long enough to see it wound up. So this is a fairly hypothetical point, because if they just let the money sit there for 20 years I think you and your siblings and cousins would have a strong legal case against your mum and uncle. But the money cannot stay in the trust forever.

pmsl at 'stench leftist'

Great advice to the OP, @MissScarletInTheBallroom. Honestly, you'd think that her Mum, a corporate lawyer, would realize that the trustees can't "simply do whatever the hell they like" as you so aptly put it.

With regard to a discretionary trust, dispensing some funds for a house deposit is such a sensible use of the money - what legal reason would the trustees have to deny it? It's not as if the OP is planning to blow it all on gambling or something daft!

Do this, read the will and if you have been left money from him it is none of her business

There will be clauses in the trust as to when you can inherit the money or why it cannot be given to you now and you need to find out what they are. There has to be a valid reason why they have not given you anything or I would have thought you could contest it.

Presumably one of the Great Unwashed.

@RusticChips That could be the case, but if so, why isn’t her Mum telling her what the trust’s terms are? If, for example, none of the grandchildren can receive any money until they’re 25+, why not just say that?

The fact that she refuses to discuss it makes me suspicious tbh.

If you're named in the Will, it's legally yours. If not, you have no rights.