Death - how to deal with Will/Estate
Discussion
A friend of mine has just passed away leaving the practicalities of dealing with his estate/will etc. He never married, lived alone and in total including his flat(owned outright)/cash/paintings is probably worth around £300/400k no debts.
His family have never taken any interest in him or his wellbeing so in recent years I and his other friends have in their absence helped him with life and health generally in all sorts of ways. Needless to say now that he has passed away and there might be a few quid to be had his family all of a sudden care for him deeply.
When he was alive I always looked out for him and would like to carry on doing so after his death.
He knew what his family were so has written a Will to reflect that, to supersede the previous one and both are in a safe place (but not opened yet). I am fairly confident the family are not mentioned in it.
The Will was done properly by going to a local solicitor and paying for it to be done, not a DIY will.
I don t know the contents of the will and don t care what is in it, what I don t want is his family to wade in and clean up when I know for a fact he would not have wanted them to.
Looking for some input on the following points from anyone who has been there and done that, I haven t.
The Will is sitting there, what is the next step? I have no idea who the executor is, it could even be me for all I know.
What would happen if this Will mysteriously disappeared? If it is done by a solicitor (no idea who that was) will there be a copy somewhere that anyone can get to and retrieve?
Plus any other pointers that may come in handy thanks in advance for any input.
His family have never taken any interest in him or his wellbeing so in recent years I and his other friends have in their absence helped him with life and health generally in all sorts of ways. Needless to say now that he has passed away and there might be a few quid to be had his family all of a sudden care for him deeply.
When he was alive I always looked out for him and would like to carry on doing so after his death.
He knew what his family were so has written a Will to reflect that, to supersede the previous one and both are in a safe place (but not opened yet). I am fairly confident the family are not mentioned in it.
The Will was done properly by going to a local solicitor and paying for it to be done, not a DIY will.
I don t know the contents of the will and don t care what is in it, what I don t want is his family to wade in and clean up when I know for a fact he would not have wanted them to.
Looking for some input on the following points from anyone who has been there and done that, I haven t.
The Will is sitting there, what is the next step? I have no idea who the executor is, it could even be me for all I know.
What would happen if this Will mysteriously disappeared? If it is done by a solicitor (no idea who that was) will there be a copy somewhere that anyone can get to and retrieve?
Plus any other pointers that may come in handy thanks in advance for any input.
The executor/s are the only ones that will get access to the will.
As you appear to know who the local solicitor is I would simply inform them of his death and take it from there.
Legally I imagine his next of kin are responsible for arranging things such as his funeral with or without a will being in place.
If you have access to his house ( ie you hold keys ) then a quick search may provide details of whom the solicitor is if you don’t know.
In terms of winding up his affairs again it will be down to the named Executors assuming such a will exists.
As you appear to know who the local solicitor is I would simply inform them of his death and take it from there.
Legally I imagine his next of kin are responsible for arranging things such as his funeral with or without a will being in place.
If you have access to his house ( ie you hold keys ) then a quick search may provide details of whom the solicitor is if you don’t know.
In terms of winding up his affairs again it will be down to the named Executors assuming such a will exists.
Sorry to hear this, my only input would be to mention that unfortunately the law doesn't care about emotions.
Should be a copy of the will with the solicitors, let's hope he has an executor that he trusted.
I suspect family will be in pillaging the place, let them.
As for assets whomever goes to access cash, house, insurances etc. will need a copy of the will, so take comfort in that.
Let them have the crap and leave them to it!
Should be a copy of the will with the solicitors, let's hope he has an executor that he trusted.
I suspect family will be in pillaging the place, let them.
As for assets whomever goes to access cash, house, insurances etc. will need a copy of the will, so take comfort in that.
Let them have the crap and leave them to it!
PabloEscortCar said:
So the original copy is held by the solicitor who wrote it?
Yes, that's the way it usually works. Or if the deceased held the original the solicitor will have a copy. This ensures that if someone opens the will, doesn't like what it says and destroys it then there's always the fall-back of the copy with the solicitor.The Will and its copies almost always have the solicitor's name and address on the front cover, so there should be no risk of not knowing where the original is held if all that's found is a copy.
As Alscar says, the original Will is what's used to obtain Probate. But if the original is missing and there's no evidence that the deceased wanted to deliberately destroy it then it's possible for the family to get Probate from the copy. But it can all get a bit messy. Much better to locate the original.
Inform the solicitor, these days they keep everything on file via digital storage. It all depends on who the executor is but it may be the solicitors themselves which saves you the hassle and stops the family from pressuring you. Good luck. My FIL just passed and of course the vultures have gathered for the feast, even the ones who couldn't be bothered while he was alive.
PabloEscortCar said:
He knew what his family were so has written a Will to reflect that, to supersede the previous one and both are in a safe place (but not opened yet).
I'm slightly confused. Are those just copies of the wills that are in the "safe place"? The original version of the latest will is the only document that matters. As others have already said, it's probably stored with the solicitor who helped write it.In the absence of any close family members, I'd be surprised if the solicitor isn't the executor, too.
Has your friend's death been registered yet?
C69 said:
Has your friend's death been registered yet?
That's what I was thinking. Who has registered the death, arranging the funeral and all the other admin ie. contacting state and occupational pensions, banks, utilities etc.If there is a physical will sitting in an envelope then maybe whoever's taking responsibility for the other practicalities should open it. Probably still worth contacting solicitor whi drafted it.
Edited by oddman on Tuesday 20th January 18:36
C69 said:
PabloEscortCar said:
He knew what his family were so has written a Will to reflect that, to supersede the previous one and both are in a safe place (but not opened yet).
I'm slightly confused. Are those just copies of the wills that are in the "safe place"? The original version of the latest will is the only document that matters. As others have already said, it's probably stored with the solicitor who helped write it.In the absence of any close family members, I'd be surprised if the solicitor isn't the executor, too.
Has your friend's death been registered yet?
The death is being registered and the funeral plan my mate already had in place and paid for in advance years ago is being arranged, there are a few of us involved with this.
My only concern was that vulchers might step in but based on the above helpful replies it would seem that is unlikely, who gets what other than that I am not too fussed about. It is a messy situation made worse by the fact there are a few of us doing different parts, it probably would have been easier to have one person doing everything.
PabloEscortCar said:
There are a few of us that have been helping out with this, knowing that he was in his last days one of us took the Will out of his flat at the weekend in case the family got access to it. He has since passed away so she has been asked to open the will (don't know if it is a copy or the original) and contact the executor to get the ball rolling, not sure where she is with that yet.
The death is being registered and the funeral plan my mate already had in place and paid for in advance years ago is being arranged, there are a few of us involved with this.
My only concern was that vulchers might step in but based on the above helpful replies it would seem that is unlikely, who gets what other than that I am not too fussed about. It is a messy situation made worse by the fact there are a few of us doing different parts, it probably would have been easier to have one person doing everything.
As long as your friend had already had chats with you all about what to do I would agree that only having one person act as coordinator would make sense. The death is being registered and the funeral plan my mate already had in place and paid for in advance years ago is being arranged, there are a few of us involved with this.
My only concern was that vulchers might step in but based on the above helpful replies it would seem that is unlikely, who gets what other than that I am not too fussed about. It is a messy situation made worse by the fact there are a few of us doing different parts, it probably would have been easier to have one person doing everything.
Doesn’t mean everyone can’t get involved.
It might well be that within the will envelope your friend even left an expression of wishes ?
However the other friend that took the will needs to pass that onto the Executor asap.
I’m not even sure who can register the death - usually it’s family and doubt “ just “ a friend can.
alscar said:
I'm not even sure who can register the death - usually it's family and doubt just a friend can.
It needs to be somebody clutching a death certificate. Usually family, friend, landlord or whatever although for practical purposes I think anyone can do it - so long as they've got the death certificate.Techno9000 said:
the Executor would make the decisions based on the Will.
Yes. "Expression of wishes" letters add nothing, unless the beneficiaries under the Will agree to a change of their stated pay-outs.Any Will can be varied by agreement between the beneficiaries whether or not there's an Expression of Wishes letter. It's done by means of a Deed of Variation which puts everything beyond doubt.
Panamax said:
alscar said:
I'm not even sure who can register the death - usually it's family and doubt just a friend can.
It needs to be somebody clutching a death certificate. Usually family, friend, landlord or whatever although for practical purposes I think anyone can do it - so long as they've got the death certificate.A Doctor no doubt needs to sign the cause of death first and then the right person goes to register the death and picks up the death certificate ?
Panamax said:
alscar said:
I'm not even sure who can register the death - usually it's family and doubt just a friend can.
It needs to be somebody clutching a death certificate. Usually family, friend, landlord or whatever although for practical purposes I think anyone can do it - so long as they've got the death certificate.A Doctor no doubt needs to sign the cause of death first and then the right person goes to register the death and picks up the death certificate ?
Panamax said:
Techno9000 said:
the Executor would make the decisions based on the Will.
Yes. "Expression of wishes" letters add nothing, unless the beneficiaries under the Will agree to a change of their stated pay-outs.Any Will can be varied by agreement between the beneficiaries whether or not there's an Expression of Wishes letter. It's done by means of a Deed of Variation which puts everything beyond doubt.
Given the OP’s comments about family and “ vultures “ I can see the DOV conversation looming anyway !
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