Inheritance/will

[beanypie]

Need some advice! We are beneficiaries of a relative’s will. When they died, a will trust was set up to hold the proceeds of the sale of their property, with the interest being paid to another relative for their life time to provide an income. Thei solicitors set up and managed the trust as trustees of the will. The relative who should have received the jnterest died almost a year ago. The solicitors have been ‘chasing’ details from the investment apparently. It came to light this week, that the interest was never paid to the relative who should have recieved it. My question is - who should have been monitoring g all of this? Why was this not picked up beforehand and why has it taken a year for it to be discovered? Has there been malpractice here?

The responsibility lies with the executors, ie. the solicitors. As to whether or not they’re at fault for not paying out the interest depends on when probate was granted and whether there was an unreasonable delay in dealing with the estate. Subject to the terms of the will, the accrued unpaid interest could form part of that beneficiary’s estate and go to their beneficiaries in any event.

No-one monitors trustees. However, the estate of the relative who should have been receiving the interest should now be paid the outstanding amount. Their executors should chase the solicitors for this. The executors may also want to make a formal complaint to the solicitors for failing to pay the interest in your relative's lifetime.