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Hi, never been an executor before (thankfully), but the loss of a distant friend and a promise to be the executor many years ago means this has now come to fruition, following this person’s death.
Prior to death and while suffering dementia I believe evidence points towards cash being misappropriated and jewellery taken.
An elderly person living distantly but who, upto a couple of years ago was fully engaged and communicative has died. Suddenly a mistrust of everyone caused a withdrawal and dementia was blamed before going into care.
A year or so later the person has passed away.
As executor I have begun the task of collecting a list of bank accounts and will arrange for their collection and sale of the property in due course once probate obtained, followed by settlement of all debts, the main ones being care home and funeral. Net estate I estimate £285k and I did not expect anything too contentious with the residual shares being distributed.
For the sake of transparency I am a minor beneficiary, as are a further number with one person, a former neighbour I do not know, benefiting the majority of the estate.
I attended the departed’ s property with the aim of securing any cash/ jewellery - I expected some sterling and euros as this person was a great traveller. I also expected to find fairly substantial jewellery collection.
The property has been empty since the person entered a care home just over a year ago. The majority beneficiary held a key.
There was no cash in the property when I visited, I searched all rooms methodically for cash ( hidden or otherwise) and also for non existent jewellery. This was very odd and I became concerned.
I have managed to locate many bank statements going back some years - the deceased always had cash in the house, too much - and I have counted iro of £12500 being withdrawn prior to 2015 using cashback from supermarkets - I have no doubt this was the deceased. In 2015 instead of cashback every week in supermarkets it became a different transaction of £250 per fortnight taken from a cash machine - I believe this may have been the neighbour ( who is the main beneficiary of the estate) getting from a cash machine and doing some shopping but not shopping for this amount - I would have expected substantial change due to a frugal lifestyle. I am suspicious because there was not a single pound in the property - literally not a pound.
So cash and jewellery missing.
I have also not been able to locate any handbag or purse/ bank card etc.
Unknown to everyone I also have a picture of jewellery taken by the deceased for my records - just about everything is missing, save a number of rings which were worn at her death.
The neighbour I understand had cash problems - was made homeless around the time the dementia got worse.
So my question. I clearly want to manage the estate for all beneficiaries, but not least our friend to make sure her wishes were met.
Is this a common problem? Essentially a safeguarding matter where the deceased was potentially robbed in effect prior to or while in care - what is my responsibility to have this looked into, and where to start?
Thanks
Prior to death and while suffering dementia I believe evidence points towards cash being misappropriated and jewellery taken.
An elderly person living distantly but who, upto a couple of years ago was fully engaged and communicative has died. Suddenly a mistrust of everyone caused a withdrawal and dementia was blamed before going into care.
A year or so later the person has passed away.
As executor I have begun the task of collecting a list of bank accounts and will arrange for their collection and sale of the property in due course once probate obtained, followed by settlement of all debts, the main ones being care home and funeral. Net estate I estimate £285k and I did not expect anything too contentious with the residual shares being distributed.
For the sake of transparency I am a minor beneficiary, as are a further number with one person, a former neighbour I do not know, benefiting the majority of the estate.
I attended the departed’ s property with the aim of securing any cash/ jewellery - I expected some sterling and euros as this person was a great traveller. I also expected to find fairly substantial jewellery collection.
The property has been empty since the person entered a care home just over a year ago. The majority beneficiary held a key.
There was no cash in the property when I visited, I searched all rooms methodically for cash ( hidden or otherwise) and also for non existent jewellery. This was very odd and I became concerned.
I have managed to locate many bank statements going back some years - the deceased always had cash in the house, too much - and I have counted iro of £12500 being withdrawn prior to 2015 using cashback from supermarkets - I have no doubt this was the deceased. In 2015 instead of cashback every week in supermarkets it became a different transaction of £250 per fortnight taken from a cash machine - I believe this may have been the neighbour ( who is the main beneficiary of the estate) getting from a cash machine and doing some shopping but not shopping for this amount - I would have expected substantial change due to a frugal lifestyle. I am suspicious because there was not a single pound in the property - literally not a pound.
So cash and jewellery missing.
I have also not been able to locate any handbag or purse/ bank card etc.
Unknown to everyone I also have a picture of jewellery taken by the deceased for my records - just about everything is missing, save a number of rings which were worn at her death.
The neighbour I understand had cash problems - was made homeless around the time the dementia got worse.
So my question. I clearly want to manage the estate for all beneficiaries, but not least our friend to make sure her wishes were met.
Is this a common problem? Essentially a safeguarding matter where the deceased was potentially robbed in effect prior to or while in care - what is my responsibility to have this looked into, and where to start?
Thanks
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