Inheritance q

[cassa333]

Hopefully this is in the right section...

If the executors of a will overpaid one person and underpaid others would the person that was overpaid have to rufund the money?

Thanks
Cassa

[woofgang]

mmmm. difficult one..I would get some legal advice if the amount of money is large.

[cassa333]

It is a bit tricky I think.

I shall go for A, B & C

A is the executor
B is sibling
C are 4 children with equal shares each

Before the death B was given £80000 and for no other reason than the death A was going to get the same but didn't get it.

The will stated that the assets were to be divided three ways between A, B & C (C divided between the 4 children.

The hotchpot rules were in place.

When dividing the estate A took out £80000 and then divided the rest three ways.

The way this has been done A has £80000 cash B has (approx) £26000 more than he should and each child has £13000 less.

In the grand scheme of things A's family and B's family have more or less the right/same amount as the adults have each had £80000. It is the children who have been short changed.

As far as I have been informed the calculation should have been... estate plus £80000 divided by three (then four for the kids). With the £80000 then deducted from B.

[cassa333]

Sorry just reread it and one part is unclear.

A and B in total have had the same amount but for the purposes of the calculation both A and B have had £26000 too much and the the children £13000 each less than they should have (A has two children and so does B) It does sort of cancel itself out.

I don't think it is worth making a fuss over but wondered what would happen legaly if someone had been over paid by an executor? What would happen if the children weren't related to A or B? Who or how would the lost £13000 be paid?

For me it just goes to show that A who thought that the sun shinned out of their own backside got it wrong.

[themas]

I can't work out exactly what has happened (& I don't know what the "hotchpot" rules are).

But as a generalisation, if the executor has not divided the estate in accordance with the terms of the will (& you seem to be implying this is the case, although I am not sure) then the executor can be personally liable. If the way in which the error has occurred results in the executor getting more than his/her correct amount then he/she would have to pay it back. If someone other than the executor got more than the correct amount then it may be that the executor would have to find the shortfall amount rather then the person who got too much - I am not certain about this - it might depend on what the person wrongly benefiting knew about the situation.

[cassa333]

The hotchpot rule is that any gift within 7 yrs before the death(in this case £80000) is taken into consideration when dividing the accets. and should be divided equaly between A,B and C.

It has in effect worked out that A and B have £80000 more than C

The actual calculations are the cash estate was woth £635000 and what should have happened was as follows

635000
+ 80000
= 715000
¬ 3 238000

A gets 238000
B gets 238000 -80000 = 158000
C gets 238000 ¬ 4 = 59500 (per child)

What has actualy happened is as follows

635000
- 80000
= 555000
¬ 3= 185000

A gets 185000 + 80000 = 265000
B gets 185000 + 80000 = 265000 (80000 is previous gift from before death)
C gets 185000 ¬ 4 = 46250

Each child has lost £13250 although as a family unit (A and 2 children and B and 2 children) they have the right amount of the money.

As I said previously,in this case it doesn't realy matter that it has been done this way as in the grand scheme of things they will get it all anyway lol.

It was more a case of how would this be resolved if the children weren't related to A or B? would they have recourse through the executor? Would bothe A & B have to pay back some money or just teh executor or would they just have to accept they had benn diddled out of that much money? (A is the executor)

[dzug2]

If he executor has made the error, he is in the first place personally liable to make it up.

However it is then up to him to recover the money from those who have been overpaid. In most cases a court action to do this would succeed.