Proving maternity

[michbright]

This is my first post here...

I recently found out my mother has terminal cancer and only has weeks/months left to live. I am her only child and it is her intention to leave everything to me when she dies. It is not a complicated estate because she doesn't own a house, but she does have a small private pension lump sum which would be enough to cover the cost of a funeral once she is gone.

I know she had a Will which was signed in 2018 but I can't find a physical copy of it anywhere in her papers, but I have seen emails between her and her solicitor at the time discussing the Will and attaching the Word doc, so I know it's a very simple Will. I have been in touch with the solicitor and she does not have a copy of the Will either.

I am hoping to get a new Will signed before she dies, but if I don't, I may have a problem proving I am her daughter. The reason for this is I have no birth certificate and I can't get one easily because I was born in South Africa and it's almost impossible to get any sort of documentation from them at the best of times, never mind during the pandemic, and there is not enough time to do that anyway. I am now married, so I don't have any idenfitication in my maiden name. I only have my British passport in my married name.

Would it be necessary to prove that I am her daughter by some other means, given that her entire estate is only worth about £7k? If so, does anyone have any suggestions?

I am fretting about this because I do want to make sure my mother has a decent funeral, but I can't afford that myself and she doesn't have a funeral policy in place.

Thanks in advance.

[George456]

Sorry to hear about your situation. As far as I know, I don't think you need to worry about the funeral issue, because the cost of that will be borne by your mum's estate before any of it is paid out to beneficiaries.

It would be much better all round if you can get a new will signed... (presumably it specifically names you, and doesn't just say "daughter"?). If your mum is physically and mentally capable of understanding and signing, it shouldn't be an issue to simply print out the Word copy and have her sign it now, appropriately witnessed obviously. If a previously signed version ever comes to light (do you know if your mum ever did actually sign it?) it will simply be superseded by the later dated version.