Anyone know about wills?

[miggy]

I have a lovely young boy working for me. His Dad was much older than his mum and died last year, having told x that he had left him £25,000 for when he was 18 1/2yrs. x's mum then took up with very unpleasant man who was abusive to x so x moved out. His mum is pure evil as x is the nicest teenage boy I have ever met. X has seen no money and has employed Solicitor to try and extract some. So far he has had bill for £2500 and no results. Does anyone know the legal position-is there a statutory right to see someones will. Personally I think that his father did not mention him or there was no will and would like to help hiom stop wasting his money.

all wills that have gone to probate are published in the Probate registry as far as I know and therefore are public documents. I think it costs about a fiver to obtain a copy. Hulababy's dh is a Wills expert - it may be worth trying to CAT her - I think she comes on in the morning instead of working

Did his dad tell him who the executor of the will is? Most people appoint two people, so that they can keep an eye on each other and not cheat the beneficiaries. Some people appoint their solicitor - it might be worth him getting in touch with his late father's one, if he knows who it was.

If the boy was under 18 when his dad died, the money will have been placed in a trust for him and trustees appointed to administer it. You have to hope that his mum wasn't one of the trustees.

He can check the contents of the will at the probate registry and find out who the executors were. They should then be able to tell him what happened to the money.

miggy - I will send this to DH at work and see if he can help. He's out of the office most of the day though so it might actually be this evening he sees it when he gets home. Apparantly he has a "propagtaing business" event - hmmm, playing golf more like!!!

He's looked at the initial post and has replied to me with this:

"Will is a public document. He can get a copy from the probate registry for about £10. I would seriously question the solicitors bill if hasn't even got a copy of the will. That is the basis of the claim.

If there is a gift and his mother is the trustee then she is in breech of trust and there is a straight forward civil action for the recovery of the money. The problem comes if the mother has no assets, but if she has spent the money it is also a criminal offence, straight forward theft.

Hope this helps."

Thank you so much
Will print this and take to work tonight to have a chat with him. He is such a lovely boy and his mum has let him down so badly, I dont want to see him taken advantage off by a possibly unscrupulous solicitor, and the money side is making him really stressed out.