Trustee moved abroad

[R.Gulliman]

My brother has been made trustee on my dad's will and moved abroad with all the inheritance money. He may be in an EU country but also may not. I'm a beneficiary and have no idea what to do get my inheritance. Can anyone help?

[atticus]

Start by finding him! If you cannot do that, you will remain shafted by your loving sibling.

Does he by any chance own property in the UK?

[PallasAthena]

How much is "all the inheritance money" in £££ (approximately)?

[R.Gulliman]

Not property here. It's around 600,000.

[PallasAthena]

So what is the inheritance that you are expecting to receive (approximately)?

Whether action on this is worth taking depends in part how much money is at stake.

[R.Gulliman]

Half, so around 300,000

[atticus]

You are going to have to track him down, then. Once you do, what do you think will be the chances of him still having your money?

[R.Gulliman]

Even if I could. What jurisdiction does UK law have in other countries? Id be lucky if he still has any of it.

[atticus]

There are numerous reciprocal enforcement treaties.

But if the money has gone, it's gone.

[PallasAthena]

Have you reported it to the police yet? Report it as theft not fraud. Otherwise they'll fob you off with "we don't investigate fraud, report it to Action Fraud".

[Pezza54]

You can try to find your brother using social media, Missing People, Missing Persons Unit and asking other relatives if they are in contact with him.

Have you got a copy or seen your late father's will?

If yes who was named as executor?

[Pezza54]

A long time ago the Salvation Army located my uncle that had lost contact and been missing for many years.

[atticus]

That might be a start. Was the uncle abroad?

[Pezza54]

I can't remember. The S.A. operates in many countries around the world

[PallasAthena]

I doubt the Salvation Army will be of much help to you because even if they can find your brother they will not disclose anything about his whereabouts, not even what country he is in, without his consent. If he has run off with £300,000 of your money he's not likely to give his consent to the SA telling you where he is. And the SA family tracing service isn't set up to find people who have absconded with your money and don't want to be found. They aren't private investigators.

What we do - family tracing | The Salvation Army

There's a lot of money involved here. Instructing private investigators is more likely the route you will have to take to find him. Of course as has been flagged already he may no longer have the money. But if you don't find him you'll never know.

There's still some basic facts we don't know here:

-- Do you have a copy of the Will? If not then you can download a copy here as long as Probate has been granted Search probate records for documents and wills (England and Wales) (probatesearch.service.gov.uk)

-- The Probate grant will say what the value of the Estate is. What is it (in round numbers, not the exact amount)?

-- Is the Estate now all cash/investments, or is there any property in the UK that has not been sold?

-- Who are the Executors named in the Will? Your brother? Anyone else?

-- Who are the named beneficiaries in the Will? Are you named? Who else? Just you and your brother 50% each?

-- When you say your brother was a "trustee" what do you mean? What type of Trust?

I suspect that getting an order from a UK court instructing him to pay you then enforcing it abroad might be the route to go but I'm not a lawyer and that isn't an area I know much about. I'd be interested on atticus views on that possibilty.

Otherwise if you find him without a court order the laws of the country he is in might not allow you to get the money out of him anyway. It would just alert him you are on his trail and give him time to hide the money &/or move on.