Sorry if this is long, please bear with me.
My friend's mother died in 1978, very unexpected, leaving 2 children. Her husband went on to remarry, have another child, and split up before he died earlier this year.
His will states that his estate should be held in trust for his grandchildren. This was expected so no axes to grind there.
However, my friend has just found out that her mother had an account with a large financial institution which not even her husband knew about. There has been no action on the account since before her death. No idea what sort of account, how much is involved, but there is an account number.
Does this account have to form part of the father's estate (which would mean it being shared amongst children with whom the lady had no connection)? Or is it possible for the lady's two children to claim the account as her husband is now dead and in any case had no knowledge of the account.
If he HAD known it is highly likely that he would have set aside the account solely for the lady's children anyway, so I think it's safe to say he really was not aware of it.