Brother wants his inheritance paid into his kids accounts

[renouncefifty]

My Father passed at the end of 2020 and I was named executor in the will. I was granted probate recently and have began the process of selling his property. My bother and I are joint beneficiaries in the will.

My brother is on benefits and has been for many years, he and his partner have some disabilities. My Brother has asked me to pay his share into his sons bank accounts. - I think this is his attempt to not lose his benefits.

I don't have to make any payments as yet as the flat my father owned has just gone on the market, but to be honest I'm worried that my brother is dragging me into something dodgy. I don't claim benefits and never have, the last thing I want is to commit fraud not to mention the fact if he isn't entitled due to an inheritance he really shouldn't be on benefits.

Where do I stand legally when it comes to making the payment to him once everything is wrapped up ? If I was to send the money to his kids accounts isn't that going against the will ?

Thank you in advance for any replies x

Well, they do if they stop working.

To Fonty

Could paying it into his mortgage or put towards buying a “main home” help him to keep at least part of his benefits while reducing his expenses?

Pay it as per the will to him into his personal account. The welfare state was meant to be an absolute last resort, if he has the money to support himself he should.

I would take some legal advice, it should be straightforward for a lawyer to answer and you should be able to pay for it out of the estate monies.

I think the money might till be regarded as his ''assets'' if his children are minors.

OP, ask your brother to get in touch with a benefit advocate, CAB or talk with charities that support people with their disabilities. Probed with loosing benefits is that as they keep changing, you may end up worse off once you try to claim again after you use the windfall.

There should be a way to help him deal with this without compromising their future in a way that this windfall ends up being a curse. And honestly, tell him to ask about using it/ paying it into a mortgage, sometimes benefits are unaffected if the windfall is put towards a main home.

He would organise the Deed of Variation with his legal advisor. It would be approved by your advisor as being valid or not.
Then as Executor you would have to comply with it.
That is how I see it. You would not therefore be seen to be aiding him.

There are all sorts of things that could go wrong for him and for the children. These are not your problem you would not be a party.

Problem with loosing benefits, not probed.

I think , consult an expert is the way to go.

Wills, money, property, siblings.....utter nightmare , but thats my stuff.

@FontyMcFontface

As are most people's earnings.

Yes, but most people’s living expenses don’t get taken away when they inherit 🙄

But they now have the means to cover those living expenses themselves rather than relying on others to do so. That’s how it works.

You wouldn't be dragged into any sort of fraud but I think paying money directly into children's account could prove difficult.

Why doesn't your brother open another account at a different bank or even a joint account with his son? That would make things easy.

@celiafforcandle ALL beneficiaries have to agree to a deed of variation, it’s not something that one beneficiary can do in isolation

Fuck that. If it's "considerably over £16,000 he's got no bloody business trying to hide it so he can claim benefits he would not be entitled to!

articcle

Just found this article. If your brother passes away with in seven years, they would have to pay inheritance tax.

@jessstan2

You wouldn't be dragged into any sort of fraud but I think paying money directly into children's account could prove difficult.

Why doesn't your brother open another account at a different bank or even a joint account with his son? That would make things easy.

Op is a named executor. Failure to follow the terms of the will is quite a serious act. It beggars belief that you're suggesting opening a different bank account to hide the inheritance is anything other than an attempt to defraud the benefit system?

I did this for my uncle when my DM died, but I was the only named beneficiary of the will and she asked me to make monetary gifts on her behalf, and it was £5k. I'm not sure I would've felt comfortable if he was a named beneficiary & it was considerably more money though...

I agree with a PP, it's a shit system, especially when the benefits are disability or carer benefits

Definitely get advice.. it might be possible to get approval to use the money to pay off his mortgage or buy a house. In that case, he would declare what he was about to receive, declare his intention to use the money for a defined purpose and then prove that the ko eye was indeed used for that purpose.

Dodgy

No don’t do it. As executor you are responsible for executing the will, which states your brother is a beneficiary. Therefore the money gets paid into his account so there is a clear audit trail that you carried out your responsibilities

It’s then up to your brother if he then transfers it into the children’s account

It’s not your problem if the sum involved takes him over the threshold and the benefits stop, he know has money to live on and doesn’t need benefits

I am always amazed that people ask the sorts of questions on an anonymous internet forum of unqualified people!

My completely unqualified advice:

Legally the safest option for you as executor is simply to pay the money into his account under the instructions of the will.

However I do think that you may be able to do as he wishes without legal consequences for yourself, but you absolutely must take legal advice first. Paying the money into his children's account could have two consequences for you legally. First of all you would not be complying with your fiduciary obligations as executor of the will to do as the testator has instructed. The only person who would be able to complain about this is the beneficiary who loses out, in other words your brother. Theoretically after you have paid the money into his children's account he could complain that he has not received it himself. I think you can avoid that problem by getting him to sign a receipt to say that the payment into whichever account number he nominates means that he has received money.

The second legal issue is that you may be on the hook for aiding or abetting some form of benefit fraud. To avoid that the less you know about what he is up to the better.

But again, take advice!

Pay the money into an account in his name. There ends your involvement.

What he does with it after that is his problem.

@FontyMcFontface

As are most people's earnings.

Yes, but most people’s living expenses don’t get taken away when they inherit 🙄

They don’t get taken away because they work to earn this money 🙄

Ill not be popular saying this but I actually feel sorry for him.
I think the system is crap and an inheritance that would allow people like your db to improve their lives ends up eaten by day-to-day living which I'm sure is not what the giver would have wanted.

I completely agree with you. If it's a huge inheritance, it will usually enable you to buy a house and turn things around so that you probably won't need (non-disability-based) benefits any more. However, if it's a decent amount but not enough to get a foothold on the property ladder, you essentially have to waste it. You can't use it to improve your lot in any other way (even quite modestly and for good reason - say investing it in a vehicle or tools to help you slowly get into work), as you'll be scrutinised and deemed to be voluntarily depriving yourself of assets. If you get a whole ladder, you'll do just fine; but if you only get a few rungs, you'll have them immediately smashed right from under you again.

It must be particularly galling if you're temporarily unemployed for a few months (between contracts, made redundant etc.) and you receive the inheritance, when, if you'd received it a bit later, once you're back in work, it would be yours to keep without any official judging you on how you spend it.

That said, I was under the impression that disability-based benefits are designed to help you pay for the extra costs of being disabled and are thus meant to even up your financial situation a bit with that of somebody lucky enough to enjoy good health and physical ability - rather than 'punishing' you for being 'too lazy to work' (which of course is an outrageous and very frequently mistaken prejudice anyway) - in which case your financial situation is not taken into account; is this not the case? Are you really officially told that you automatically deserve to earn less, just because you're disabled? Utterly disgraceful, if so.

This smacks of a swindle - I think your brother is being deceitful.