Will we see the will

[pmorley]

My father in law left his 4 children his estate equally, however as the mother feels this will have been a mistake they are all signing the money back over to her. We don't know why he would have done this other than he thought she had sufficient money of her own. We are happy to sign the money back over, but would quite liked to have seen the will to see exactly what it says. My mother in law says that a letter is coming out from the solicitor for us all to sign. The question I have is, is there likely to be some details of what we are signing back over with the letter, or do we just have to sign over blind? My husband obviously does not want to rock the boat and become ackward, however two of the four siblings are executors and know what the will says and it seems unfair.

[JRB]

You can see the will once it has gone through probate if you are not one of the executors. Why don't you delay any action until you have satisfied yourself to its contents? The duties of the executors of any will are to follow the wishes of the testator, not his widow!

[Oneeyedvic]

By giving the money back to his mother, your husband is disrespecting his father's wishes.

This has happened to a neighbour of mine - she died recently and left the money to her daughter and not her son - she did this for personal reasons (but wrote to her son explaining her reasoning). That was her wish, and whilst the daughter could just give her brother half the money, she won't as it would be expressly against her mother's wishes.

I would assume his father (on the basis that he had a will drawn up) had legal advise. He obviously did not want to leave the money to his wife for whatever reason (and there could be thousands) - if he did not leave a will, or if he had taken legal advise, his wife would be the main beneficiary.

If it was me - I would not sign the money / will over.

[dzug]

You cannot be expected to sign away your rights without knowing what they are - to vary a will all beneficiaries must be in agreement. The solicitor is probably drawing up a deed of variation.

It's actually usually done the other way round - passing part of the estate directly to the children rather than all to the widow - to avoid future inheritance tax. You could be storing up a future large bill by agreeing.

You will either see a copy of the will or at least know precisely what you personally are giving up. If you don't the process is illegal and you should refuse to sign.

[pmorley]

Thank you all very much, my husband will go along with everyone else as he does not want to be the od one out. However the bit about the inheritence tax is very useful. Maybe my mother in law should give the money to us and then get it back rather than doing the variation of will thing.

[dzug]

If the estate is large enough, I'd suggest you ask the executors why they haven't considered a Discretionary nil rate band Will Trust - in this way your m-i-l can benefit now and you can avoid IHT later. The Deed of Variation can set this up.

Indeed if it were me I'd consider suing the solicitor for failing to suggest it

[Eve]

This is how you can obtain a copy of the will http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/cms/1226.ht m but only once it has been lodged with the probate registry.

I'd suggest independant legal advice to make sure you know exactly what's going on before anything is signed or handed over. You coudl try the local Citizen's Advice Bureau or a free legal surgery for an initial view or try http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/choosingandusing/ findasolicitor.law to find a solicitor.

Good luck!