If you think someone has taken assets from an estate, or you’ve been accused of taken them yourself, our solicitors can offer specialist legal advice.
Trustees and executors of estates have a great deal of control and power over the assets for which they are responsible. In a small number of situations an executor of an estate, or trustee, may have acted without integrity and may have used the trust or estate assets for their own benefit. The rogue trustee or executor may not have declared all of the assets and/or claimed them for themselves. They may have transferred assets to themselves such as property or money from a bank account and refuse to hand it over to a rightful beneficiary. They may not have declared all of the assets and claimed them for themselves. This is formally known as misappropriation of estate/trust property.
Do you have concerns that an executor or trustee may have wrongly taken estate or trust funds, or is refusing to tell you anything about your inheritance?
Or if you are an executor or trustee, has a disgruntled beneficiary made allegations against you personally and you are worried about your position?
Or request a call back if you’d like one of our no-win, no-fee experts to call you
Our inheritance dispute lawyers are happy to discuss the number of different fee options with you.
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Mrs C is appointed as the sole executor of her mother’s estate under her Will. Mrs C has one sister, Mrs D.
The Will says that the estate is to be split equally between Mrs C and Mrs D. However, the sisters do not get on. Mrs D is upset that she was not named as an executor in the Will along with Mrs C. Mrs C begins the estate administration but straight away, Mrs D starts making complaints about the way in which the estate is being dealt with, accusing Mrs C of the following:
Mrs D is demanding that Mrs C steps down as an executor and lets her take over the estate administration. She is also threatening to report the matter to the police.
We can assist Mrs C to defend these allegations against her and resist any claim for her removal as an executor. We can also deal with any queries from the police.
Mr A is the residuary beneficiary of his late father’s estate which is being administered by his father’s friend, Mrs Z, who is appointed as the sole executor.
Under the Will, Mrs Z receives a small legacy of £500 and the rest of the estate is left to Mr A. The estate consists of a property worth about £250,000 and some jewellery including a signet ring worth £10,000. The signet ring is very important to Mr A and has a great deal of sentimental value.
Mrs Z decides she doesn’t want to instruct solicitors to deal with the estate administration and wishes to do it herself to save money. Mrs Z contacts Mr A and lets him know that she is sorting out the estate. She said that she has arranged to clear out the property but that there was no signet ring in the house, so his father must have sold or given it away before he died. After 12 months, Mr A hasn’t heard anything further from Mrs Z and is becoming concerned. He is aware that Mrs Z has got the grant of probate but when he asks her about the estate she keeps fobbing him off saying that the property is proving difficult to sell.
Mr A then discovers that the property has been sold some months earlier when he sees it on Rightmove. He was then told by Mrs Z’s son that Mrs Z has recently come into money and has bought herself a new car, and been on a number of expensive holidays. Mrs Z’s son also said he had been given an expensive signet ring from his mother as a Christmas present. Mr A asks Mrs Z to set out what exactly what is happening with the estate and Mrs Z admits that there is £70,000 missing from the estate but refuses to explain what happened to it.
We can help Mr A to bring a claim against Mrs Z to recover the monies that were wrongly taken. Mrs Z would be personally liable to pay back all the money due under the estate. Mr A would also be able to trace the signet ring to Mrs Z’s son and to recover that from him. We would also discuss with Mr A about whether or not he wishes to involve the police.
Miss B receives a gift of £50,000 under her grandmother’s Will which she is entitled to when she reaches the age of 21. Miss B is only 11 years old when her grandmother dies and so her share of the estate is put into trust for her until she reaches 21.
Miss B’s uncle is named as the trustee under the Will and so he is responsible for looking after the £50,000 and investing it on behalf of Miss B. When Miss B turns 21, she contacts her uncle to ask for her share of the estate. However, her uncle ignores her calls and emails for some time and when he finally responds he is vague about what has happened to her share of the estate. He finally admits that he spent the £50,000 on a property many years ago, which is in his sole name. He rents out that property and it is now worth £100,000.
We can assist Miss B with a claim against her uncle to get the money – he wrongly spent her money and so her uncle is obliged to repay it to her. Also, we can advise Miss B about bringing a claim for breach of trust against her uncle. As he was acting as a trustee, he is not allowed to profit from his position as trustee. Miss B will have a claim against the property that her uncle bought using her trust money, and even though the property is in her uncle’s sole name, we can help Miss B get a declaration from the court that her uncle is holding the property on trust for her.
Therefore, Miss B is not only entitled to all the rents from the property since it was bought (which her uncle will have to account for and repay to her), but she is also entitled to all the equity in the property – the full £100,000.
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There is a time limit for bringing Contentious Probate claims. They normally have to be issued at court within 6 months from the date of the grant of probate. You can search online to see whether or not a grant has been issued.
Depending on how complex the deceased’s estate is, a grant of probate could be issued only a few weeks after the deceased’s death so this may not leave a lot of time for someone to make a claim. Therefore you should act quickly and get in touch with legal professionals.
It is possible to bring a claim after the 6 months has expired, but you will need permission from the court to do so. The court looks at the full range of factors, such as the reasons for the delay in making the claim, and what prejudice would be suffered to the estate and any other beneficiary. There is no guarantee that the court would grant permission even if the delay is only a few weeks. Similarly, just because a claim may be brought many years after the grant, it doesn’t mean that permission would be refused.
It will be up to the court to decide, and again depends on the individual facts of the case.
