My brother has just been shafted out of £29k , I’m really angry.

[AchillesLastStand]

My Dad died in June this year from Alzheimer’s and left a valid will from 1993 leaving his estate of £115k to shared equally between his two children. My brother and stepbrother are down as executors. Since he died my two stepbrothers, the executor one and the other one have been making demands on the estate, as large as 75%. Now tonight, after 5 months of fighting them , my brother waves the white flag of defeat and offers them 25% of our inheritance without even asking me. I’m furious with my brother. He can just give away his sister’s inheritance without at least talking to me first. It’s the lack of communication that hurts the most.

What would you do? I can’t get them both removed as executors because the legal costs are enormous and it has to go to the high court. They have however acted illegally and are guilty of gross misconduct. I’m not sure I can even speak to my brother again after such a betrayal. It isn’t what we agreed.

An executor is really just doing the admin.
They can't change the content of the Will.

This is why many people choose someone neutral as an executor like a solicitor.

This! 100 times this. You need a solicitor

I haven’t drip fed. I started this thread last night after I received the message from my brother. My hands were shaking.

I’m the dishonest one her. I was shafted my dad in 2007 and last night I was shafted by brother. I feel sick.

My brother has decided without my consent to pay my step brothers off out of my share of the estate. Legally an executor can’t do this. My stepbrothers are entitled to nothing.

It's not likely this would go to court.

A strongly worded letter to all parties who are flouting the Will should be enough.

You might be looking at a few letters costing you between £500-£1K depending on who you choose.

If I were you, instead of ranting on here, I'd be looking online for a good solicitor who can represent you and write to your family.

Stop wasting time asking here for answers.

Your only way forward is a legal one.

Why can't you accept this?

If you've had a solicitor look at the will is this solicitor handling the estate?

They may have done wrong but their wealth is irrelevant.

So your brother has given his share to your stepbrother? Tell him you expect your full amount else you'll be taking him to court. He can give away his money, not yours.

You need to tell your brother you expect him to divide the estate legally in accordance with the will ,you don't agree to any of your legal share to be given to your step brother.
Should he not act legally you will have no option but to instruct a solicitor and legally challenge him .

Don’t let your anger distract you from the fact you can stop this. It’s not a done deal.

Point out to your brother he’s obligated to follow the will, and not give in to bullying.

Presumably you’d be have to sign a deed of declaration- so don’t do it.

You could write to the banks and tell them the executors aren’t behaving properly.

Use a solicitor for advice.

Don’t roll over- this isn’t the same as last time.

Your step mothers will is irrelevant. Once she’s dead her will is settled and it’s your dads. They have no claim.

You need a solicitor. Also your brothers off means nothing. He cannot sign over your money nor can they do anything other than distribute assets according to what’s in the will.

Go to court. Costs will be theirs.

Your stepbrother are being greedy. Tell your brother he can give them some of his share. You want all of yours.

Executors execute: it's not up to them to rewrite/bargain!!

Surely executors cannot just dish money out to anyone not named in the will - unless all the named legatees agree, in which case there needs to be a Deed of Variation. OP, IMO you need a lawyer.

Dh and his siblings did this, after one of them had been left out for a reason that was no longer valid.

OP get a solicitor to write a letter

If you can't afford this, get ChatGPT to generate one, it's incredibly good at legal letters. I used it win a battle against some estate agents

My friend died recently and he'd left requests to change his will to give some away to friends who had helped him. The solicitors drew up a deed of variation that the original beneficiaries had to sign to agree to this change. They all did because they knew it was his genuine intention he just hadn't been up to formally changing the will.

The executors can't just decide to change who they give the money to.

I would have thought the best thing to do is ask for legal advice.
Executors don't have power to change the will only sort the will out.
The steps would need to contest the will.
Speak to a solicitor. If they say it's ok then you have been shafted.
If they say it will take you X amount to fight it and it's more than you are getting again you have been shafted.
Try and fight your corner legally if you can.
This sort of family shittery happens so much. I have utter sympathy for you OP. All sounds very greasy

I agree you need proper legal advice.

My sister tried a similar stunt, and I insisted that if she really wanted to give X a share of my fathers estate, it should come out of her (larger) share. She did haughtily agree to this. Might this be a solution?

If DB wants to give DSBs money, it can come from his share, not yours.

That’s awful but, you’re right, you’d probably lose it all in legal fees. Such dreadful behaviour on their behalf though. Check with a solicitor first though to see if there’s a way ahead but bear that in mind.

It sounds like your father left £29k x 2 so an estate of about 60k with no inheritance tax due and presumably no or few debts to pay other than funeral costs and a few bills up to date of death like electricity. His will did not include his step children. There are some rights for some people who depend on others to make claims after death in court which potentially might included children of the family even if not blood relatives, particularly if they are under 18 and if supported by that parent. If you think that might apply or your father housed them at his death that might affect things.

Assuming that is not relevant here and they are independent adults, I am surprised the father made a step son executor and not you - may be the father was sexist. The two executors are allowed to pay bills after death. sometimes the estate has quite a lot eg I did my father's which took me 100 hours (I recorded my time) and we had things like income tax to pay (took a while to find out from HMRC on that one), council tax, gas and elec bills, funeral and we had to deal with sale of the house, estate agents to pay) so the fact the 2 executors have had to pay some bills /may not be wrong but what are they paying? If you said it were 75% of the estate that would be 75% of 60k if your 50% share is 29k approx. it is possible your father DID have bills of that amount but the executors should show you the proof.

You need to work out your net share after all the bills are taken off which may be less than 28k. it can take a while to write to banks to find out balances which is why it is not a quick process to wind up an estate. The brother and step brother should produce accounts to show where the money has gone.
If the brother proposes eg 10k to each step brother eg 20k of the 60k reducing your half to 20k rather than 29k for example that might be defensible IF but only if the steps. have a dependency claim under legislation I mention above and this is cheaper than court. If they have no valid claim then you are entitled to our 50% after your father's debts are paid.

I apologize if I am wrong, however this is what you said on a previous thread;

The will states ‘my estate should be shared equally between my two children’. However, the will has a codicil which states that should the ‘said children or stepchildren’ in the original will not survive then the estate should go to their children, ie the grandchildren.

My stepbrother is latching onto the stepchildren word in the codicil even though it’s not relevant because the beneficiaries in the original will are alive and the ‘said children’ in the original will does not include stepchildren.

Unless you can prove that there was undue influence, fraud or incapacity involved in the codicil's creation, I think you are going to struggle to win any litigation based on what you further say below;

What we think has happened is that my dad and stepmother had their wills drawn up at the same time and the solicitors has cut and paste the codicil in her will into my dad’s. We’ve spoken to the solicitor in question and they’ve confirmed that is what has happened.

At any rate, unless this thread like the 3 others ( Executor trying to extort money from estate - what to do?, Stepbrothers trying to steal my inheritance, and 'Executors year' is just letting out your frustrations, go and proper legal advice and wish you good luck.

I'm not in England, but really struggle to follow any of this

Surely the executors have a duty to wind up the estate in terms of the will and codicil. Stepbrothers are either entitled to inherit, or they're not

My brother and I have both received independent legal advice that has said that codicil is not relevant. In English law stepchildren would have to be named in the original will, they aren’t. Any will that mentions children is talking about biological or adopted children only.

Im going to speak to my solicitor tomorrow. This whole situation is a mess.

Your brother cannot decide for you.

I'd be writing to him via email to say you don't agree with it.

I'd also be writing to the executors to make it clear that you do not agree to what your brother us saying.

Then get legal advice pronto.

No they’re not. See my post above.

Yes, executors should be executing the will. If this case they’re doing something different entirely that is illegal.