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My wife’s aunt has recently died, the next of kin (my wife’s mother) has applied for the
letter of administration. She has now been informed by a niece from her other sister who is 17 year deceased that she is entitled to her mothers share of the estate. Is this correct or does the estate go to the next of kin, who then can divide up how she wishes?
Many thanks
What does the will say?
If theres no will then the neice is correct - the estate would be split equally amongst the siblings and if anyone has pre-deceased the aunt then their offspring would have that share split between them
There can be a fair bit of fannying about. When my aunt died without a will it meant that her partner (unmarried) of several decades was out of the picture entirely, meanwhile I had to provide evidence that my 70 year old aunt's parents had both pre-deceased her.
She was one of 7 siblings - several had pre-deceased her an one of those had estranged herself from the family and disinherited her children before she died. Not only that, but the 'children' (now in their 60s) had fallen out with each other so even when I tracked one down it didn't lead me to the others.
Sorted it out in the end though - I've actually forgotten how.
Note that the rules also differ somewhat between Scotland and England.
I wish people would write ****ing wills. Or more specifically, I wish my recently deceased relative had done so. Months of stress and bullshit from evil relatives could easily have been avoided. But no, they were too busy sticking their head in the sand.
No will left and my wife’s mother is next of kin (sister). Reading what I have I was under the impression that all money or estate would be left to her and it was upto her whether she split it?
So reading the link posted it all goes to the sister and no mention of the nieces or nephews.
Does this read the same for others?
cheers
my wife’s mother is next of kin (sister)
All her relatives are next of kin - but its a term that varies on context. In the uk - legally its a pretty meaningless / vague term and doesn't even necessarily mean blood relatives
In the case of probate theres a sort off weightings of nextness-of-kin-ness depending on who is still alive.
from link above.
Example: Abdul has two sons, Iqbal and Ismail. Ismail has one daughter, Habiba. Ismail dies when Habiba is two years old. Abdul dies intestate when she is 20. Habiba inherits Ismail's share of Abdul's estate.
looks like it half goes to the niece.
not sure actually
And this:
A grandchild or great grandchild cannot inherit from the estate of an intestate person unless either:
- their parent or grandparent has died before the intestate person, or
- their parent is alive when the intestate person dies but dies before reaching the age of 18 without having married or formed a civil partnership
In these circumstances, the grandchildren and great grandchildren will inherit equal shares of the share to which their parent or grandparent would have been entitled.
Cheers all
My Uncle has just had to sort out my Grandmothers will, even that had a a few issues due to a cheap rubbish probate solicitor and when that was finally sorted the DWP sent some threatening letters which further fouled up things and only after he’d proved they weren’t owed any money could it be sorted out.
yep. Don't expect things to happen in a hurry. You're lucky as it sounds like quite a small family, but you'll find yourself having to find the proof that everyone is who they say they are, that people who are dead are really dead that people who are related are really related. I was having to find birth, marriage and death certificates for my grandparents which was fun. and she was one of 7 siblings some of whom had pre-deceased her so I had to find all their children too. The DWP will get involved and you're on hold until they've made their mind up about things as they get first dibs.
As it seems - your mum and her neice would get a 50:50 split of the estate. That doesn't mean thats how the estate has to be split. They can both do anything they want with their share once they've got it, including give some or all of it to the other.
In the case of my aunty her partner got zilch while the disinherited children of estranged siblings got a cut as did her lottery-winning brother. Post probate all the siblings / descendants agreed to hand most of what they got back to the partner.