A Father’s Secret Will

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

There was a case where the father died five years ago and a daughter discovered that there was a will kept secret from her by the solicitors.  It emerged that the solicitors were holding on the father’s will and the daughter was named as a joint executor together with the stepmother.  The child was never informed about this and it came as a shock to her when she discovered it.  The father clearly left everything equally to her and her stepbrothers but she did not receive any inheritance.

There might be a case for this or there might be none.  The first point is that if the father held joint property with the stepmother, everything could have passed automatically to her anyway, regardless of the contents of the will.  However, this is unlikely in second marriages, and if the will is valid, there’s certainly a slip-up when the father died and the will’s solicitors failed to inform the daughter of her rights.

In a case like this, the daughter can consult a lawyer and file proceedings to recover assets from the estate of the stepmother - the costs of these proceedings should be covered by the solicitors.  They may also bear costs of consequential losses such as capital growth and interest accruing to the assets of the stepmother.

Tags: daughter, estate, father, inheritance, joint executor, lawyer, losses, proceedings, rights, solicitors, stepmother, will
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