Inheritance

[tamborine]

If a solicitor dealing with a Will finds a Life Assurance the beneficiaries were not aware of, does the solicitor have the right to keep the payout from the Life Assurance ?

[joko]

but you have signed it over to him...he has not just kept it...you may find he will be allowed to keep it...

[Barmaid]

Well that would depend joko. There are strict rules about what solicitors are and are not allowed to do. There is also case law which may help tamborine have this "gift" set aside - depending on the circumstances.

[dzug2]

Couldn't 'signing it over to him' be just a mechanism to allow him to collect the money for the estate? It sounds the simplest explanation, which is always the best place to start, if not finish.

[factor-fiction]

I'm almost 100% certain that the solicitor is simply paying the money into the estate which will then be paid out once the estate is settled.
However as Barmaid has pointed out there are special rules which can apply to life policies which I recall can mean they don't always have to go into the estate. I suggest you ask your solicitor about this.
The length of time this has dragged on for does call into question again the wisdom of appointing solicitors as executors for many cases, especially when there is only one beneficiary in the will.