Executors (where there is a Will) and Administrators (where there isn’t a Will) are under a legal duty to fully administer an estate. This means that they must identify all the assets, pay all debts and liabilities and then distribute the estate to the right people.
Being able to distribute to the right people means that the Executors/Administrators need to be able to identify and locate all the beneficiaries of an estate. Where someone has left a Will, you would generally have a name to search with, but this isn’t always the case. You might find that the Will just refers to ‘my nieces and nephews’ which then means that you have to work out who all these nieces and nephews are.
Whilst you might be able to make some fairly low-level enquiries of the family, friends and social media to locate them, you may also find that you need some professional expertise if these enquiries have failed.
If there is no Will, then it can be more difficult to identify the beneficiaries as these might be remote family members entitled to inherit under the Intestacy Rules. This is further complicated when some of these beneficiaries have died before the deceased but left children who would then take their parent’s share.
Here, the Executors/Administrators would be sensible to instruct a professional genealogist to prepare a family tree with supporting evidence to ensure that they have identified all the beneficiaries entitled to a share of the estate.
However, identifying the beneficiaries isn’t the end of the story, as you then need to get in touch with all of them.
Sometimes, beneficiaries may have deliberately cut themselves off from the family and are actively trying not to be located. Here it might be necessary for the Executors/Administrators to instruct a private investigator or heir hunter to trace that beneficiary and establish contact.
As you can imagine, this process can be very time consuming and burdensome for Executors/Administrators; and of course, there is always the risk that you might inadvertently distribute to the wrong person or miss a beneficiary out. This means that you might then be personally liable for that error.
No matter how simple the estate administration appears to be, it is always a good idea to seek some legal advice and/or assistance with the administration to ensure that it is carried out properly.
If a Will was professionally drafted, then the solicitor who drafted the Will may well hold some information key to the administration i.e. a name or an address that you would otherwise not have.
Next Steps...
If you would like any help with the above, or any Wills and Probate matter, please contact me on 01283 214231 or email c.day@timms-law.com
For more information about Wills, visit our webpage here.
