Wills - anyone know about them?

[chel86]

I have a sum of money coming to me on the 30th June. I plan to use this for a deposit and legal fees on a house, but it's unfortunate that the perfect house has turned up now and they've accepted our offer.

There is a sole executor on the will, my dad's wife, who I have never been best friends with but we have built some bridges. Does anyone know if a large portion of the inheritence I'm due in 4 months time can be released early? The money is sat in the executors savings account waiting to be paid out, but she has said that she has to follow the will to the letter and will not release any. Is this the case or is it at the executors discretion whether money is released?

Any advice would be great!

its sitting in her bank account?

The will has to be paid out in order - bills & debts first, legacies & other and then divided up.

You should be able to get it early but it involves going to court which will take a while. Pehapse it's better to either take her out for a coffee and cake or just to wait. If you are over 18 then you should be allowed to have it when you want. Is there any reason why the will stipulates that you have to wait until 30th June? Normally they only say X's 18/21st birthday.

do you have legal advice? is she working with a solicitor?

It does seem odd that there is a specific defined date. Is this because you are due to come of age for example? In which case there are likely to be clauses in the will fairly specific to your inheritance which will indicate whether the trustee has discretion.

Otherwise she could be waiting for probate to be granted -it can take while for all assets and libailities to be identified and agreed. But in this case I am surprised that she would already ahve a specific date? But in this instance it wouldn't surprise me that she would wait until everything was finalised, as in the event that you have been overpaid she would be left in a difficult and unpleasant position.

you can only pay out when all assets are available & all debts are known

My dad specified a date because, as I have a level head on, my sister doesn't. He didn't want to give her the money straight away because he wanted her to "grow up" a bit first and didn't trust her fiancee. Didn't work because she's borrowed and flitted away most of it already. And he didn't think it was fair to give me my share straight away and my sister to have to wait. So he set a date for a few years later.

Probate is all sorted. All that is left to do is to transfer the money over to us, and according to the will it specifies the 30th June.

I think that it will depend on the terms of the will as to whether there is any discretion then. Was a separate trust set up (I'm guessing it must have been if your father died more than 2 years ago?)

I thought you could override this as long as you were over the age of 18 and were fully competent. I'm not sure how you'd go about it though.

If it is at the discretion of my husband's wife then I don't think she's going to allow it. I don't know what happens to the interest either? It's been sat in her savings account for 3 years almost, but I'm assuming that as the will states nothing about the interest she keeps it. (about £18k!)

Thankfully I have just spoken to my Grandpa and he has offered to lend me the money I need to get this house, against my inheritence, so I will pay him back when I get it. I would have been stuck otherwise and lost the house!

I would check to see what the provisions of the will said wrt the interest. In principle legacies are paid with interest, but it would really depend on what was stipulated at the time. I dont think there is a fixed 'legal rate'...perhaps someone could clarify this??

The will states nothing about the interest. It simply states the figure on the 30th June 2008. It's not something I want to push - things are going so well for me at the moment I don't want to push my luck and ruin it all! But I would be interested to find out if anyone knew?