Family trust / probate issue

[Karlos77]

Hello,

I have a situation whereby a sibling is a trustee of a living family trust and also named as executor in my fathers will, but has neither applied for probate nor distributed the contents of the trust over a year after my father and mothers deaths. From recent interactions it seems quite likely that the sibling doesn't want to share the history of my fathers bank account since they took considerable sums of money from it which I believe is supposed to be deducted from their inheritance. They have added their partner as a trustee despite this being against my wishes
Could anyone offer any advice or suggest a relevant decent (and inexpensive) solicitor that could assist with making sure that the trust and/or probate is dealt with as per my fathers wishes? I have just moved house and therefore short on cash at the moment. What are the chances that a solicitors fees would be paid for out of the trust/estate?
Any advice that anyone can offer on the best way forward would be very welcome.

Thanks

[echat11]

Hi KARLOS77

des8 Can you take a look and advise, many thanks.

[des8]

Assuming a grant of probate is required (the estate includes real property &/or stocks and shares)as a potential beneficiary you could issue a Citation for Probate.
As your sibling has already intermeddled with the estate this is a way of forcing him via a court order to obtain a grant of probate or explain why he has not already done so.
If he fails to respond appropriately you can then seek Court directions either for him to obtain a Grant, or allowing you to obtain a grant themselves.
.

[Karlos77]

Assuming a grant of probate is required (the estate includes real property &/or stocks and shares)as a potential beneficiary you could issue a Citation for Probate.

Thanks for your reply DES8, and apologies for the late reply. It's good to know about the possibility of issuing a Citation for probate.
There is a question of whether there is any estate to process through probate or not since the house and his bank account are both included in the family trust and I don't know whether there are any other accounts / shares etc. I do have details of some investments he had although I don't know if these were liquidated by the sibling and put into the account or not. The sibling has claimed that there's nothing left in the estate to process through probate as it's all in the family trust, although they have also claimed (more recently) that the bank account is not in the family trust as well - what they say seems to depend on what suits them at the time. The bank account is detailed in the family trust document although I'm not sure whether the bank where it's held has the family trust as a co-owner - I'm not sure if that makes any difference or not.
Do you know what kind of hourly rate / fees I'd expect to pay for assistance with this matter?

Thanks

[des8]

Your best way forward is to approach a number of solicitors and ask for their charges.
You could ask if they could give you a one off consultation for a fixed fee (or free even) so you can outline your concerns and see if they can help.