Q: I was very close to my late uncle and his wife who regarded me as the child they never had. I visited them on a regular basis and took care of them in their latter years. There was an expectation that when my uncle died, he would leave funds to my siblings and I. He died a few years ago and everything was left to his wife. There was some grumbling amongst my siblings, but of course it was only right that everything was left to his wife. She has recently died and she appointed me as executor. She left the bulk of her assets to me, though some small gifts were given to my siblings, and some relatives on her side of the family. My siblings are annoyed and seem to be making the suggestion that I had influenced my aunt with regard to her will. This is certainly not the case. I didn’t even know the contents of her will. My siblings have vaguely suggested that they might go legal. Can you advise if that is something they can do?
A: You should consult with your solicitor first to ensure that all is correct with the will and that all the usual formalities have been complied with. Provided that there is a valid will, and that there can be no suggestion that any party influenced her, the will should stand.
Your siblings could challenge the will if they had firm evidence of undue influence on your part. This would be a large burden for them to prove.
However, if that will were to fail, the assets would be distributed according to the rules on intestacy. Any assets would be divided between your aunt’s siblings, if any survive her, and only thereafter between all her nieces and nephews.
Neither you nor your siblings would be considered to be your aunt’s nieces or nephews for the purposes of intestacy. It would be children of your aunt’s own siblings and not the children of her brothers or sisters-in-law.
In the event that the will were to fall, neither you nor your siblings would stand to inherit – even in the event that their challenge was successful.
In the circumstances, I think your siblings would be ill-advised to challenge the will both on the basis that they would not stand to inherit anything but also on the basis that you appear to have been very close to your aunt and uncle and – while you did not say it directly – it would appear that you are much closer to your aunt than your siblings. After all, you say that your aunt and uncle “doted on you and considered you to be the child they never had”.
In those circumstances there would appear to be nothing untoward in your aunt leaving you the bulk of her estate.
