Mom just passed and we're clueless about wills etc..

[ssinkk]

Hi all.

Mam passed away last week. There's two of us. When our father died 8 years ago he had no will and two homes in his name only - the family home and his deceased mother's house. We went to a solicitor with mam and she signed over one house to me and one to my sister. So that's sorted. Mam also made a will herself in there that day I'm almost sure. She had a credit union book and a bank account and we found a post office book too.

Now that things have settled we are trying get sorted, we don't know what to do. Obviously neither of us were in the room when mam was in with the solicitor so we're afraid to do much cleaning incase she specified anything about her belongings. We are assuming she gave instruction about her money. Neither of us are stuck or anything and she may have even left it to the grandchildren we don't know.

What's the process now? Do we go to the solicitor? Do they send the will out to us? We went through her document drawer and couldn't find a copy of the will (do you get one?) Reading here I've learned about the executor. We don't know who that is either. So which of us should go to the solicitor? Unfortunately (and stupidly) no one else in the family has made a will with her so it's the blind leading the blind.

 

[PaddyBloggit]

Condolences on the death of your mother.

Your first step is to contact her solicitor. He/she will guide you through the process.

 

[midleton]

So sorry to hear of your loss. Its tough to lose a mum. We made a will few months ago and we did not get a copy of it... its with our solicitor so your mums will be too. I am not an expert but definitely make an appointment with your solicitor first before you do anything with your late mums things. Solicitor will be able to advise you on all you need to do to sort your mums affairs they will have been through that so many times with other clients. I presume you will need the death cert to take with you also. Ref credit union.......I worked in a credit union for short while few years ago and I learned at the time that they have insurance on their customers and when an account holder dies there will be a sum of money due from that insurance. It may only be a thousand or something but people found it helped with costs of funeral etc at a sad time. The executor or executors will have been specified by your mum on her will. I know with ours we had to put down details of all accounts, insurance policies, pensions etc so that if anything happened to one or both of us God forbid all of the information was there for next of kin. I would suggest both of you go to the solicitor together and do these final jobs together for your late mum. Ye will be in a quandry for the next few weeks its tough process to sort out a family members affairs but it has to be done even when your grieving. All will become clear as ye go along bit by bit.

 

[trojan]

So sorry to hear of your loss. Its tough to lose a mum. We made a will few months ago and we did not get a copy of it... its with our solicitor so your mums will be too. I am not an expert but definitely make an appointment with your solicitor first before you do anything with your late mums things. Solicitor will be able to advise you on all you need to do to sort your mums affairs they will have been through that so many times with other clients. I presume you will need the death cert to take with you also. Ref credit union.......I worked in a credit union for short while few years ago and I learned at the time that they have insurance on their customers and when an account holder dies there will be a sum of money due from that insurance. It may only be a thousand or something but people found it helped with costs of funeral etc at a sad time. The executor or executors will have been specified by your mum on her will. I know with ours we had to put down details of all accounts, insurance policies, pensions etc so that if anything happened to one or both of us God forbid all of the information was there for next of kin. I would suggest both of you go to the solicitor together and do these final jobs together for your late mum. Ye will be in a quandry for the next few weeks its tough process to sort out a family members affairs but it has to be done even when your grieving. All will become clear as ye go along bit by bit.

Again my sympathy on the death of our mum. Just wondering if the only assets she had were the bank/credit union accounts?

 

[noproblem]

Sorry for your loss and it does take time to try and get back to half normal. Just a comment on the will and apologies if I seem insensitive, i'm trying to be.
Maybe i'm wrong in saying this, but if neither of you are named as beneficiaries in the will there is no onus on the solicitor to make contact. He only needs to contact people named in the will as beneficiaries.

 

[ssinkk]

Thanks all. Yes as I say the 2 houses were signed over to us when dad died. That's all we want. We're lucky enough that funeral costs won't be an issue and we will split the bill and pay it as soon as possible.
The only other assets would be credit union/post office/bank account and she hadn't collected her pension for a few weeks before passing.
I think we both have a suspicion that she may have left some or all of the money to her granddaughter. She left her job 2 years ago to look after our mother and for for the last few months she would often stay with her 10 hours a day while we went to work. And they were always very close. But the will was made before she got sick so maybe not.

In total it's all maybe 25k so even if it's left between us we might just give it to granddaughter as a token because we would have had to take unpaid leave or get care for her if she hadn't been there.

There are some sentimental items in the house. Items belonging to my late grandmother. Late grandmother's wedding band and my mother's jewellery etc.. We want to make sure she didn't give instruction on how to divide those too before we do anything.