Beneficiary Query.

[JoJo88]

My oldest son 46 is one of 6 beneficiaries of my ex MIL who passed away 6 months ago. She kindly left them all a large sum each along with her 2 sons who are also the executors. When the family were sorting out her home they found 2 building society books each containing large amounts. These were handed to the solicitor who looking into things and it turned both B/Society's closed down years ago. The books had to go to the Inland Revenue for them to sort out the interest on them etc. This was last November and my son has heard nothing. Each time he asks the executors they say things are still being sorted at the IR. Does this sound right to anyone? TIA.

[HansUrbancka]

Another issue of Solicitors being very slow pursuing matters on behalf of Executors and Beneficiaries being delayed their inheritance.

The Executors are also at fault and need to pressurise the Solicitors to get moving quicker in matters.

Hans.

[fiction-factory]

I'm not sure why they had to go to HMRC at that stage unless there was an issue with interest being taxed correctly. I'd have thought the main issue would have been finding out which building societies/banks the accounts went to and then getting updated balances

[ubasses]

Four months does seem a long time but Solicitors are notorious for not chasing hard on these things. However, when you handed the books over in November, they would firstly have to find out who took over the accounts of the Closed Building Society, then get them to trace the dormant accounts in their records. The accounts would have to have been brought up do date with all interest earned during the intervening years. At that point they could sort out the tax with HMRC. As you can imagine if they did not act immediately and keep chasing 4 months would slip by easily.

[fiction-factory]

Hans's point is a good one too. Solicitors who are acting as executors do seem to drag these matters out and will of course charge the estate each time they have to reply to chase-up requests.

[Freemanmark]

My father died 30 april 15 the solisitors messed me about the books are a stalling tack tick i had a go bonkers at them ITS NOT YOUR MONEY that the way they look at it the *** tax man come back twice to value his flat after in tax was paid and they wanted more ...is it over the 325k ask them what account its in and if its protected what frightend me is at the time a couple bought a house 400k and the solisitor ran off with the money and it started me wondering ....dont trust them they are not your friends

[HansUrbancka]

There are lots of Honest Solicitors. The problem is finding them. Money matters to all of them. My stepfather was a Solicitor in London and he told me that too many of them...pee in the same pot and refrain from opposing each other.

Hans.

[Buenchico]

Hans seems to have fallen asleep on the 'return' key!

I'm totally confused as to why HMRC should be involved with the building society accounts. Building societies don't just 'close down'. They get converted to banks, merged with other societies or otherwise taken over in some way. There's always a 'successor' and it's that successor who the solicitor should have contacted. For example, if one of the accounts was with the Woolwich Building Society, which no longer exists, then it's Barclays Bank that's the successor to it. All the solicitor needed to do was a quick google search to find the names of the relevant successors and then to approach them to release the funds (complete with any relevant interest).

[HansUrbancka]

I have posted in the Ed's Blog and asked about the wasted space in my above posting.

Hans.