The Daily Mail recently ran a story about a Sikh family’s dispute over their father’s Will.

Ranjit Singh died in his 70s and left a Will stipulating that almost his entire £870,000 estate be split between his 3 sons; leaving 2 of his daughters with just £40,000 between them. A third daughter was left nothing.

As a result, his daughter Balvinder Kaur Ahluwalia felt aggrieved enough to contest the Will and take the case to court.
One son, Jarnail Singh, argued that the Will reflected Sikh tradition which allows the eldest sons to take the main role within the family and that daughters were provided for through large wedding dowries earlier in life.

However, Mr Singh’s next door neighbour Maurice Grantham who witnessed the Will testified that neither he nor the other witness were present when Mr Singh signed it. This evidence had a strong bearing on the case, as for a Will to be valid, it must be signed by the testator in the presence of two unrelated witnesses.

Due to this technicality, the Will was declared invalid by the court and as a result the estate became an intestacy (this means all six children will now inherit in equal shares).

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2034959/Daughter-overturns-fathers-870k-leaves-vast-estate-brothers.html

It is the duty of the estate administrators to satisfy themselves that all family members have been identified in cases where the deceased died intestate. However, occasionally a family member that other relatives knew nothing about may get in touch after the estate has been distributed.

In these cases they are entitled to their inheritance even if the estate has already been distributed. All the other beneficiaries would be required to pay a portion of their inheritance to the new family member.

For this reason, it is normal practice for the estate administrator to ask beneficiaries to sign an indemnity agreeing that if any further family members come forward they will pay them the applicable portion from their share.  After a period of 10 years, it is unlikely that such a claim would be successful simply due to the amount of time that has passed.

In order to safeguard against issues such as this, it is possible to obtain suitable insurance.

Charlotte Cumbicus-Gunn
Probate Advisor

If you need further help or advice on dealing with estate administration or require more information on Probate or Wills in general, please call The Probate Bureau‘s free helpline on 0800 028 2837

Do unmarried/divorced couples inherit?

In the absence of a Will only married couples automatically inherit from their spouse’s estate.

Unmarried couples have no automatic right to inheritance and the estate would instead pass to the closest living relative (see our blog on the Rules of Intestacy). However, if the survivor was financially dependent (fiduciary relationship) on the deceased then they can contest this and may be awarded with either a regular maintenance payment or a lump sum. It is, however, unlikely that the entire estate would be awarded.

In the case of couples divorcing, it is important to note that until the Decree Absolute is issued they are still considered to be a married couple and would inherit in accordance with this should one of them die during the proceedings. However, once the Decree Absolute is issued the marriage is dissolved and they no longer have any entitlement to each others’ estates under the Rules of Intestacy.  In the event of a divorce, the law automatically revokes any provisions in your will that favor your ex-spouse, however if you have a Will whereby your spouse is the sole Executor and the entire estate passes to them with no substitution, your Will, will no longer be valid.  It is vital that you review your Will under these circumstance as the Rules of intestacy may not distribute your estate the way you intend.

Patricia Steinfeld & Charlotte Cumbicus-Gunn
Probate Advisors

If you need further help or advice on dealing with estate administration or require more information on Probate or Wills in general, please call The Probate Bureau‘s free helpline on 0800 028 2837

When you write your Will, you have the right to nominate whoever you want as beneficiaries of your estate. Even if you have children or are married, you are still entitled to nominate someone else to receive your estate, be it a family friend or a charity.

The only thing to bear in mind is that, once you die, if your relatives are unhappy with the Will they can contest it. Whether or not they are successful will largely depend on how well the Will is written (hence the importance of having a professionally drafted Will), whether they have any evidence to prove you were not in your right mind when you wrote it and whether they were dependent on you financially.

For further advice on writing a relative out of your Will, it is advisable to call and speak to one of our advisors who will be able to ensure that your Will is competently drafted so that there is as little chance as possible of the Will being successfully challenged.

Charlotte Cumbicus-Gunn
Probate Advisor

If you need further help or advice on dealing with estate administration or require more information on Probate in general, please call The Probate Bureau‘s free helpline on 0800 028 2837

If you think you think you may have some outstanding share dividends you can check by contacting the company registrars, who will be able to search their records for you. If they locate unclaimed dividends they will simply issue cheques to the value of the dividends due.

There are three main share registrars: Capita, Computershare and Equiniti. You can find out which registrar deals with the company you have shares with by searching www.hemscott.com/advisers/registrars. Alternatively, you can call the company in question.

If you have old share certificates in a company that you cannot find, contact the registrar named on the certificate and they should be able to trace the history of the company. At this time they will also be able to search for unclaimed dividends that may be outstanding.

With regard to out of date or lost dividends, you can ask the registrar to replace them however; there may be a fee for this. The time limit for claiming unclaimed dividends is usually 12 years.

Please be aware that when it comes to shares, companies are always changing names, merging, de-merging or ceasing altogether.  If you of the deceased have old share certificates that may still have a value, it is important that you contact the registrar as soon as possible.  If you discover that the registrar named is no longer in existence, enter the name into the Google search engine and you will often be able to find out which registrar took over the holding.

Kate Wallace
Probate Advisor

If you need further help or advice on dealing with shareholdings or require more information on Probate in general, please call our free helpline on 0800 028 2837