After Probate

[Icantknit]

Probate has been granted.

Executor of Will is fairly confident there will be no unknown creditors appearing - deceased was not able to manage their affairs for some time before their death & so Executor is opting not to place an ad in the Gazette.

However, an adult child of the deceased was deliberately left out of the Will, and the residual estate is to be shared equally between the other adult children.

Are there any steps the beneficiaries should take in case the Will is contested?

Has the executor had legal advice?

If there could be a challenge, should they not wait the 6 months before distributing?

Is the adult child aware they have been left out?

Was the will done long before capacity became an issue or had rhe person got medical aign off before the will was written?

Was the will written after legal advice?

Seek legal advice. When you send Probate off to financial institutions, have funds put in an executors account. Do not distribute for 6 months. Executors are personally liable if creditors come looking. Should place trustee act notices.

how about having an adult conversation with the left out party?

Yeah in that instance I would go completely by the book, even doing the gazette thing.

Do they know they’ve been excluded and why and what do the other siblings say. If it was an unfair exclusion I’d still agree a split between all if it were me but not all circumstances deserve that and not all people would agree.

"However, an adult child of the deceased was deliberately left out of the Will"

Does the child have a disability or illness? There have been successful claims where a child was not dependent on the deceased but had a disability or a life limiting illness.

Also, if this child was supported financially by the deceased then that would also be something to consider.

A claim from a child of the deceased must be brought within six months of the date when probate was granted. As others have said, I would wait until the six months is up before distributing the estate.

The Will was done when deceased had capacity & was written correctly. Solicitor quizzed the deceased in depth regarding their wish to leave out the adult child.

The adult child has no disabilities/illnesses, was not financially supported by the deceased and is unaware they were not included in the Will.

The deceased had their reasons for doing what they did. Adult child has no contact (their choice) with siblings.

From what I was told by a solicitor, the Gazette thing doesn’t completely stop people making a claim.
Perhaps some one can explain this for me -
‘’This measure will, however, only protect personal representatives. Thus, a disappointed creditor may recover the amount of his claim from the beneficiaries.’’

I don’t think there’s anything the Executor can do, but follow the wishes laid out in the Will and distribute funds as asked. My cousins have made Wills excluding one DS, but have written letters to say that under no circumstances is ….. to inherit from them. Of course there’s a chance the person may contest the Will, but from what I believe it is very, very, expensive to do so, they can also get a copy of the Will themselves. The Gazette Advert is not needed.

I was also offered an Estate Research Asset Search but I declined that aswell.

Its "housekeeping".

The estate owns assets (property/sharea/money),and owes money.
The payment of amounts owed has to be done first.

If the personal representatives follows the law and asks for creditors to look for what they are owed and pays all known debts off then after the correct amount of time the estate should be paid out according to the rules.

Then the personal representatives has no personal liability to make a creditor "whole" (pay the money owed themselves) once they follow the law.

If there was no time limit placed on the liability the personal representatives would not pay out because 50 years later a creditor is looking for the 500k they were owed and the inheritor/beneficiaries who was given it has spent it on wine and gambling so the personal representative is on the hook for not paying the creditor first.

The beneficiaries were given the 500k when they should not have been as the creditor was owed the money.

So the creditor can look for their money from the beneficiaries.

In this case the adult child could take a court case against the estate.

So the PR could speak to the adult about not being included and get them to give the PR a legal document confirming that they will not sue the estate or anyone dealing with it or being paid from it.

@PersephoneParlormaid Basically by placing a notification in the Gazette, the Executors have made an effort to advertise the fact the person has died and given any possible Creditors the opportunity to make a claim on the deceased's Estate for monies owed to them.

The Creditors can then be paid before the beneficiaries receive their inheritance & the Executor is then under no liability as they would be if the Estate had been distributed before the Creditor had been paid.

The Gazette bit doesn't really come into this case though, as the deceased doesn't owe any monies to anyone.
The adult child who is not included in the Will knows their parent has died, they don't know the Will contents though, although they will be able to check via the Probate records, should they wish and then they have 6 mths (I think) to make a claim.

I have just reached this stage with my late mum’s estate. I can’t believe how expensive the notice in the Gazette is. Over £200! Seems like money for old rope to me. I’m certain there will be no debts as I was handling her finances for the last couple of years. I’m still in two minds whether to do it.

Me too. My DF was 81, I can’t see that he would owe anyone money. The Gazette thing was quoted as over £300 plus vat to me.
The estate research asset thing was about £200.
I really don’t know what to do for the best. As I read it, doing the Gazette doesn’t completely get you out of it, and once I distribute the money I want to know that that’s it for ever.

@PersephoneParlormaid the Gazette just absolves the Executor of liability. Any Creditors could technically chase the beneficiaries for any money they're owed (I think) but if a Gazette notice is placed, then the Executor is covered.

@RainBow725 I probably wouldn't bother. If you've been handling the finances, you will have a good idea if there's any likelihood of money being owed.

if I was the Executor I would be waiting at least 10 months from the date on which the Grant was issued before distributing the estate. This is because the child that has been left out has 6 months to issue a claim, but a further 4 months to serve it. If the executor had already distributed the estate they can be personally liable.

What about if the Executor kept the left out adult child's share separate and distributed the other shares to the named beneficiaries?

The left out adult child's share would then be available if they contested & won their case.

How do you know how much the Court would award the left out child? You’re assuming it would be an equal share but that’s not necessarily the case. And there could well be significant additional costs to the estate if a claim is made, the Executor would want to ensure there are sufficient funds available for that. It’s up to the Executor to decide whether they’re prepared to take the risk of paying out some of the estate in the interim. As I say, I wouldn’t take on the risk of being personally liable, I’d wait the 10 months.

I take your point but wouldn't that be a bit odd to award the left out adult child more than the share that their siblings would receive?
It's not the siblings' fault that the adult child was left out.

You need to read the will to anyone who is a beneficiary. Then you need to talk with excluded adult child and tell them they were excluded from the will. It would have been better if deceased left a letter for excluded DC explaining why they were excluded. In any case you should wait over 6 months to distribute funds to beneficiaries.

Deceased explained in a note attached to the Will why they had excluded one of their children.

Excluded person is NC with siblings.

I think it will be a case of wait and see, to see if they do contest.

Seeing this update, then I doubt if the sibling were to go to Court that they would be awarded anything, seeing as there is a letter explaining why one sibling is left out. As an Executor you have to divide everything as per the Will and then decide if you or your siblings noted in the Will want to give any of your own inheritance to the other sibling, who is not a creditor.

My friends parents are doing exactly this, they solicitor advised that if they left a note with valid reasons for doing so it and they weren’t financially dependent on theM it would be almost impossible to make a claim.

Why the f didn't you mention the note in the first place? It makes a difference.