When a Beneficiary cannot be found

[chloeb77]

Hello, I'm new to the forum & have a question that I'm hoping someone may be kind enough to give some advice on. Its regarding my late Grandmother's will. She passed away in 2001 leaving assets to family members. My mother's sister & her son were also beneficiaries. No one has seen my mothers sister or her son since 1988. Once everything had settled, the solicitor advised my mum (as executor) that everything would be done to locate them & would inform her of what was happening. In 2007 my mum contacted the solicitor again (he was by this time retired) & said someone would call back. She never heard anything, it was only last week where I sent an email on her behalf, the secretary called & said she would look into it & that she would need to locate the original will, which now apparently they have lost!! A copy is with my mum but again they have said they were going to pass it to someone else to deal with who would contact my mum. Apologies for the long post but I just would be interested to know this:

After 12 years should the solicitors still be looking for the beneficiaries? I do doubt that they have been looking to be honest but should they also have been keeping my mother (executor) informed of what they were doing? What exactly happens to the share that was left to my mums sister & her son?

I would like to add that the Solicitors were also executors of the will with my mother.

I would like to add that we have found correspondence from the solicitors dating back to 2002 where they have itemised what had been completed including a tracing agent firm & a rather detailed list of everything they had done also adverts in national & local newspapers. It also includes advice from the solicitor that no further research should be done.

 

[Vanilla]

If your mother received her entitlements under the will, then the original will must have been probated ( sent to the probate office) so the solicitors would no longer have it.

Solicitors only keep records for a number of years and even where they keep them for longer periods, they are archived ( often held in a separate secure location) so you will have to have patience- they will not have a ready answer.

If the solicitors appointed a tracing agent, put adverts in national newspapers and wrote to advise your mother of this, and even said they would do no more, then what exactly has your mother done about it since- did she instruct them to do anything?

 

[chloeb77]

Thanks for your reply, the will was archived in a holding room, they have now found it. They have advised her that they have passed it on to another solicitor to deal with & they will be in touch soon.

My mother never instructed them to do anything, its strange really. I think at that point she felt she could not do anymore, that maybe her sister would turn up. I suppose she felt as if they held all the cards. We also live over a 100 miles away from this solicitor, life goes on & it gets put to the bottom of the list so to speak. In the past year we have also conducted searches, but nothing.

After reading various posts, I gather she should of placed the money in an account herself, is that correct? Or taken out a Missing Beneficiary Insurance policy if she would be able to distribute the remaining shares to the other beneficiaries in the will.

I have advised her that she needs to get a second opinion & get legal advice from a local solicitor as back up, so when they do call back she will have a little knowledge on what to do as after 12 years she would like to have closure

 

[Bronte]

My mother never instructed them to do anything, its strange really.

Well your mother really should have made contact.

Anyway now you have and the solicitor dealing with it has retired, they've assigned a new solicitor and already found the will so it all sounds reasonable. The new solicitor will look at the file and tell you the next step. Which presumably is to distribute the remaining proceeds of the estate. If you go to another solicitor this will cost you more money. If the current solicitors don't come back to you in a reasonable time frame, say two weeks then contact them to see what is going on and then maybe go to a new solicitor.

What is the value of the missing siblings share?

 

[chloeb77]

Thank you for the reply, I appreciate it. The value of the share is just over 10k which the solicitors stated it would be invested back in 2002. Once again, thank you.