Inheritance

[chocolatesaltyballs22]

Need advice please. My daughter (17) has inherited a substantial sum from her grandparents on my ex husband's side. They died several years ago and I knew there was an amount held in trust for her until she's 25. I didn't realise there was an issue until recently when my ex brother in law got in touch with me.

Basically there was a pot of money split between 3 surviving grandchildren. The issue is that my ex has since had another child (who his parents didn't even know existed) and is now contesting the Will to try and get his new child a share of the money, despite what the will says. His brother is obviously tied up in all this as it impacts how much his kids will get. It's likely to go to court and as part of that we are trying to get the money released for my daughter when she is 18 so that he no longer has control over her.

My concern is that my ex has control over the trust and we know that he has not ringfenced my daughter's money from his own inheritance. So if he died tomorrow the money would likely be split between his two children.

His brother has fallen out with him over this and has a solicitor involved. My ex is very controlling and abusive and my daughter rarely sees him any more. He's being very difficult about the whole thing and just keeps telling my daughter that she doesn't need to worry about it. I don't trust him.

Do I need to get my own solicitor involved or should I leave it to the brother? I could really do without the extra worry at the moment but I don't want my daughter being screwed over by her own father.

What are the next steps for the remaining money he owes her?

Basically he doesn't have the money to pay her until his share of the remaining estate from his parents is released, and this is tied up in a court case. Very messy.

is her money now protected OP

Nope! Not resolved yet but hopefully will be in the next couple of months.

Wow, you drew the short straw when you married him! It must be so tough for your daughter to see him for who he truly is.

I sure did @HollowTalk, it only took me 10 years to realise it! Yes it's been very tough on her. Understandably, she no longer wants to see him.

Get a solicitor dealing with trusts, wills, inheritance etc to deal with this. They will be able to put some force behind their requests that the shenanigans stops immediately. When the GPs wrote the will the youngest child wasn't born so cannot be included in the will. That's simply ridiculous. A solicitor can write a letter very quickly. A cease and desist type letter stating they will be held personally accountable for any misappropriation of your child's inheritance.

My ex BIL already has a solicitor on the case as his kids inheritance is also tied up in the overall dispute. I kind of don't want to muddy the waters with another solicitor.

Your ex-BiL’s interests in the matter are in line with some of your DD’s interests (not wanting the pot split into 4 instead of 3), but it sounds like she has other interests your ex-BiL doesn’t. Would it be possible for you to engage the same solicitor as ex-BiL to ensure her interests are fully protected?

That's already happening @BoomBoomsCousin. We have had many conversations about it and he is also protecting my daughter's interests. She is his niece. He was the one who brought all of this to our attention. I did offer to engage my own solicitor and he insisted that his solicitor would cover it all off.

Your ex-BiL is just engaging the solicitor in regards to the splitting of the pot, though, isn't he? He isn't instructing the solicitor to do anything in regards to ensuring your ex handles your DD's trust monies properly?

Also, what happens if your ex's attempts to get some of the inheritance for his new child end up trying to just split in half your DD's inheritance and not encroach on her cousins' at all? Will Ex-BiL's solicitor still act for your DD then?

Look, I'm just waiting to see what happens with the court case. After that, if necessary, I will get a solicitor. Things are stressful enough right now waiting for the A level assessments, will she get into uni, dealing with the fallout of her dad's behaviour, and the rest. There's only so much we can deal with in one go.

It wasn't a criticism, chocolatesaltyballs22. I only offered a perspective because you posted here asking for input and you seemed to suggest you thought your DD's interests were already well covered by solicitors when what you have actually said about solicitors indicates they are only peripherally covered.

If you want to wait and see I totally understand that. Solicitors can get expensive so if you can get what your DD needs without one, that's probably going to be a better outcome overall.

I know... just feeling the pressure a little bit!

No wonder... you're doing all the right things 🌸