Estate Accounts Question

A question about : Estate Accounts Question

Hi All,

I have a question about a set of estate accounts supplied by a solicitor for my Aunt's estate. I must point out that my aunt died four years ago and my Uncle was her sole residual beneficiary. He wasn't given a copy of the estate accounts when the solicitor completed the probate back then as he didn't release that they had to supply such a document and it was only in May this year when he and I had a conversation about my Aunt's estate that he became aware that he should have had a copy.

Anyway after much chasing of the solicitor and finally getting the Legal Ombudsman involved, they have finally supplied an estate account for my Aunt's estate. Now we have received this document, its clear to see that the final cash settlement my Uncle got is about Ј36,000.00 short. I must also point out that the Solicitor refuses to take our calls, so all correspondence with them has to be in writing, which I do on my Uncle's behalf.

They have listed an item called interim distribution and this is a debit of Ј36,000.00.

I'm assuming this means an advance has been paid out of the estate, before my Uncle got his final settlement. I can confirm my Uncle did NOT receive any interim payment or advance prior to receiving his final settlement.

I need to find out what this payment is, who authorised it and who it was paid to. So before starting the process of writing a new formal complaint to the solicitor I need to know:

When dealing with an estate on who's authority can an interim payment be made ?

In what format must authority be gained ? i.e. is a telephone conversation sufficient or does a document need to be signed giving authorisation and should the solicitor confirm the advance has been issued in writing ?

What evidence of the interim payment can I ask the solicitor to supply ?

Can I ask for a copy of the client account that details the transaction ?

Can I ask for proof of when and who the payment was made to by what method it was paid ?

When I say can I ask, I mean writing a letter on behalf of my Uncle which he will sign.

Any clarification on this matter would be really greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

Best answers:

• Was the Solicitor the Executor? Or was the Solicitor acting on behalf of, and under the instruction of someone else who was, and remained throughout, the Executor?
  The Executor has the complete authority to make interim payments, at their own discretion. Where part of the estate is going to take a long time to be collected (e.g. needing sale of a property) the Executor can choose to make, from the rest of the estate, interim payments to the beneficiaries.
  I would expect the estate accounts to state to whom any interim payments were made.
  You state that your uncle was the 'sole residual beneficiary' but were there other beneficiaries who were left bequests of specific sums? If so, Ј36K may have been interim payments of their specific bequests, and nothing to do with your uncle's inheritance at all. Have you a copy of your aunt's will?
  I wrote a lot more but have edited out since wondering if their might, after all, have been other beneficiaries. Could you answer the questions in bold above before I tell you what sort of letter I'd write in the same circumstances.