My disabled sister died about 7 months ago. She wrote a will and made my brother a trustee of the will. I am not very familiar with legal terms. He has not said anything about the will. Is there not a legal process for him to get the beneficiaries together and let them know what is happening? What are the rights of the beneficiaries? Thanks

I'm not that up to speed myself, but your brother won't be in charge of informing everyone of the content of the will, a solicitor does that.

Ask him if he's spoken to a solicitor yet about it.

So far as a beneficiary is concerned, everything will be legally sorted out but it can take time. If she had a will that's a good thing.

Hope everything gets sorted soon.

If your sister died leaving a will then the named person i.e. your brother is the executor not the trustee, with this position comes resposibilities, you effectivly become the administrator of the deceased. Before any assets can be released to benificaries a liecence is required, this is called Probate, you can do Probate your self and save the Legal costs, it is'nt difficult but it can be time consuming, there's also a charge for obtaining Probate the last time i did it 2002 it was about £310 also the executor will have to attend the probate office and swear an oath. Hope this helps a little in understanding the proceedure, in a nut shell the executor can do nothing or realease nothing untill probate is granted

Thanks Queen and Tigerwuds for your advice. I just want to make sure that my brother follows due legal process. I think money may have got to his head.

I should perhaps add Spindozes that 7 months is an awfull long time unless there's complications Probate should be done in 6-8 weeks, you might ask him the question "as he been granted probate" good luck

He's taking his time about things but don't worry that because he's the executor or trustee it means he holds the inheritance, just that he's been appointed to take care of the proceedings. He's delaying things for himself as well as other beneficiaries so maybe give him a bit of a prod!

Yes from what I read via Google, after you provided me with the key legal words was that he would have to deal with the will properly because at the end he has to go and present the whole thing to the judge and show that the assets were distributed according to the will.

Just to let you know my sister died in awful circumstances being run over by a person who was giving her a lift. There is the coroners court hearing tomorrow, and Crown police proceedings start on Monday.

Wow Spindozes you have my heart felt sympathy i said unless there was unusual circumstances well of course if there's coronors and prosercutions involed the whole estate could be frozen untill the proceedings are concluded, any way good luck with ever thing

How awful for you Spindozes, but as tigerwuds says the circumstances will mean the estate issues will most likely be delayed. I hope the report and court proceedings give you some answers so you can start to rebuild your lives.

The Coroner's hearing was completed. His judgement was an "Open Verdict". The only other option was "Accidental Death". This option would have cleared the culprit from any further action. So the open verdict is a desireable result. I think the probate will now make progress as her death is officially certified.