Financial Details (Mum)

[raybush]

Hi .
I want to try and pre-empt a situation that may arise and need a bit of help.
My mother recently passed away aged 87 (not sure yet if it was Covid19) .
My younger brother (who some years ago moved her into a sheltered unit away from her immediate family) had sole charge of her finances and payment of her bills of which there weren't many .
He has kept her finances very close to his chest and I have a feeling that when I approach him regarding her estate he'll say that she had no funds left .Going off of what I can work out to be her monthly income and outgoings she would have been able to save quite a few hundred pounds a month ,I also think that she had a building society account with a fairly large lump sum in.
I know that if I ask for her bank/building society account details i'll get fobbed off with some lame excuse ,or lies . If I have no joy from my attempt to get the old accounts from him and can ascertain where she banked ,can go to the bank/building society prove who I am and request the relevant accounts ? .
As yet he has not been forthcoming with any details of her finances and her personal effects and I am a bit suspicious ,all I want to see is about 3 years of accounts to put my mind and ease .

Any help would be great.

[zebo]

If he applies for probate then it will become a public document. Is there a will?

[raybush]

As far as I am aware there is no will.

[ladybirder]

What exact authority does your brother have over her financial affairs? Is it Power of Attorney because if so that ceases upon you mother's death.

[ladybirder]

Ray this may help you.
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/family/death-and-wills/who-can-inherit-if-there-is-no-will-the-rules-of-intestacy/

[bednobs]

did he have "sole chhrge" of the bills under a POA? did she have a will?

[bednobs]

sorry, my wifi cut out and I didn't realise it would take so long to post. If there's no will, you could apply for letters of administration then you'd have sole control over everything

[raybush]

I think he took over control to help Mum out...….hhhmmmm , nothing legal in place and no Will .I just want to make sure that there has been no miss management of her finances . Mum also had quite a bit of valuable jewellery ,which when I mentioned it was told that Mum had promised a few bits to my brothers wife , my Mum despised her and would never have promised anything .

[bednobs]

Ray, I think you've probably missed the boat. if there was no formal arrangement, you are not going to get 3 years accounts - it will be impossible to say what purchases your mum made, what purchases your brother made on her behalf and what purchases (if any) your brother made on his own behalf. the time to have asked for accounts to be kept would have been 3 years ago. Aslo, what seems unreasonable to you may have been perfectly reasonable between your mum and brother.
I was in your brothers situation with my mother in law. She has 5 geographically widespread children and we got her into sheltered accom near us. She asked us to help out with her finances but there was never a POA in place. We made withdrawals on her behalf, paid bills from her account on her behalf and as she was asking us to do it, we never made notes. She gave us her PIN and internet banking details to do this. I could [robably look back at her bank account and see what was for what, but she used to like having cash in the flat too, so would ask us to withdraw, say, £400. I couldn't prove that I just didn't take the £400 (I didn't)
As I said, if there is no will, someone will need to apply for letters of administration (if her estate is likely to be over £5k). If she has no husband, that could be either you or your brother. I will warn you though, sorting out someone's tricky estate isn't a job for the fainthearted!

[bednobs]

meant to add my MILs estate was made trickier owing to the fact it was insolvent (she owed more than she had)

[raybush]

Thanks for the reply.
As her outgoings were very minimal and her weekly food shop was/should have been small ,I just wanted to see what her weekly spends were , I had a very rough estimate as to her income and would have loved to have seen her accounts in real life and where if any the discrepancies were if any .

[bednobs]

For all I know your brother kept accounts. You can but ask.