making a gift

[meredeux]

DM's lawyer wants to charge £300 for the legal work involved in making a (largish) cash gift to each of us three children. The gift will be from DM to us and she's alive and fully "Compos mentis". the lawyer doesn't say what the work exactly is but it does seem to me that he is very keen to earn more fees now that he's been paid for the probate work he did on my dad's estate. DM gets anxious about this sort of thing.

Does anyone know if there is there actually any legal work involved? is it something we could do ourselves (e.g. fill out a form and store it with the will or send it to the inland revenue).

A solicitor can only bill his client (your DM). Not a matter for you to get involved in as the recipient of the funds. If she's asked him to do work, she'll be best placed to know how much work/time it involved. Speak to her.

She hasn't asked him to do the work, but he came to hear of it (from me). He's been liaising with me too because after dad died, Mum was too upset to deal with things. However, she's more herself now.

Mum is the bill payer though and she is his client, not me.

Last week he went round to her house - said he had a duty to see her - and asked her what she intended to do with the money. She thought it was none of his business, but he said he had a responsibility to make sure she knew what she was doing. So she told him anyway. Then he said he'd do it for her but the charge would be £300. Mum didn't ask him though and she didn't agree - she called me instead and was a little upset because she feels pressured by the solicitor into subscribing to more of his services.

She'll pay up if it needs to be done by a lawyer, but I said I'd research for her whether a lawyer is required for this at all. So here I am...!

bump!

Without knowing the specifics, or being a lawyer myself, I would say there is no need for a lawyer to be involved to simply make a gift. The issues you need to be aware of are around inheritance tax I would think, but if your dm (or you) educate yourself about the issues there is really no need. I've received plenty of large cash gifts from parents or parents in law and we've never involved lawyers.
If your mum feels uneasy about being bullied by the solicitor (and frankly coming to her house uninvited rings alarm bells for me) then time to find a new one I would say.

To make a simple cash gift to each of you she just has to give you the money and not die (sorry to put it so bluntly in view of your recent loss) for 7 years to avoid inheritance tax.

If she wants something more complicated like a trust fund she would need legal advice.

Thank you both.

It really is just a simple cash gift and we've already read up on the inheritance tax rules. I wonder what the lawyer is thinking he would be doing whilst earning the £300??

Sounds like she owes him nothing. She didn't ask him to do any work. He will have had to send her a client care letter setting out his terms of business, and a cost estimate. She will have to have signed it. Looks a bit dodgy. Has he sent her a bill? If so, what did it say? Is he doing any other work for her, and if so what is it? Has he done any other work for her in the recent past?

The lawyer has only just finished the probate work. In fact he's still holding the proceeds from my dad's estate on his account.

With regard to the new work, at the moment he's only saying "If you want me to do this for you then I'll charge x amount". Mum didn't ask him to help or what he would charge, he volunteered to do it (for money obviously). She didn't ask him because she thought it was just a simple case of writing three large cheques and posting them, so she believed that she didn't need any help (until the solicitor put this doubt in her mind).

Even now, I can't see what work there is to do and the solicitor is prickly when asked to explain things like this so its awkward to ask him. I was hoping someone here could shed some light on it so if there is genuinely some legal work to be done, then my mum can instruct the solicitor without any souring of the relationship.

I think your mum's initial thoughts were correct, and she should just say 'no thanks'.
If he's prickly about being asked a straight question about fees and charges, find someone who isn't.

Don't see what legal work he feels needs to be done. Tell your mother to politely decline.

Are you sure they're not rearranging the estate so that you get the funds from there (which may well be more efficient from an IHT perspective)? That would involve doing a deed of variation, for which £300 in fees is very reasonable.

Technically the lawyer shouldn't speak to you about your mother, but in this situation I would ring up your mum and ask her to call the lawyer and give permission to speak to you, then you can ask direct what the fees are for. There may be a very simple explanation (such as deed of variation). This seems a likely scenario if the probate work has just finished and he is holding the funds.

good point - that would make sense.
Are the gifts your mum is making coming from the proceeds of the estate? In which case varying the will so that they are part of the inheritance from your dad rather than a gift from your mum might make sense, since she'll have to survive 7 years for it not to count as part of her estate (if your mum's estate is going to be liable for IHT)

Thanks. that makes sense. Mum's estate will be liable for IHT and the money is due to come out of the money we are about to receive is from Dad's estate.

She's due to see the solicitor this afternoon, so I've asked her to ask him if its to do with a deed of variation and to get an outline of the benefits and disadvantages of having a deed of variation.