Cash missing from estate

[Xenosarus]

Hi,

My auntie passed away a few months ago with a large estate. She used to keep large amounts of money in the house rather than in her bank account. When she was being transferred to the hospital she was worried about leaving the money in the house since nobody would be there. She therefore gave this money in a bag to her other nephew to look after as he had a safe where he could store it. Multiple people saw the money be given to the nephew but nobody knows how much was there (a bag full of notes kind of suggests a lot).

A few hours after she died the wife of the nephew told my mother that the deceased had told them they could keep the money. Nobody has any verification that this was said and the nephew isn't listed in the will.

Myself and the nephew are executors of the estate and I'm trying to decide whether to bring this up to the solicitor. This money currently hasn't been brought up during probate. Since this money is cash and nobody knows how much it is I'm wondering if it will be pointless and will quickly end up in some sort of legal battle which will waste all of the remaining estate. Can anyone offer advice on what would happen in this situation?

Thanks.

[charitynjw]

Re: Cash missing from estate

Hi Xenosarus & welcome to LB.

Multiple people saw the money be given to the nephew

Or did they see a bag which they assumed contained a large quantity of money?

[Xenosarus]

Re: Cash missing from estate

Hi charitynjw,

The money was stored in multiple locations throughout the house. It was collected and put into the bag by the sister (who is the main beneficiary) so the bag was definitely full of money. I omitted this to try and be concise in the first post!

[des8]

Re: Cash missing from estate

When was the money collected and handed over to nephew?
Who witnessed the giving of instructions to look after the money? (they saw it being handed over but did they hear the instructions?)
Did the deceased pass away in hospital, or did she return home or to a care home?
How soon after giving the money over for safe keeping did the deceased pass away?
During that interval did the nephew or neice visit the aunt, or speak to her on the phone, when she could have gifted the cash to them?

I'm just indicating the areas anyone contesting the gifting will have to explore, I'm not looking for answers!

However the executors will have to have an accounting of that cash as IHT may need to be paid on it (by the recipients if it was a gift).

But it is going to be so difficult it may be worth ignoring it, unless there are those in the family who will cause problems for the executors on the basis they haven't fulfilled their duties.
Talk to your solicitor about it, if you have one acting for you