Nick Beetham, Business Development Manager, Title Research
Where you’re acting as Deputy to an intestate Protected Person one possible commercial opportunity is to be involved in the administration of the estate, on the Person’s death. Having acted as Deputy, you’ll be intimately acquainted with the nature and whereabouts of the assets in the estate and, arguably, are the best person to administer it.
Where an application for a statutory will is made, the court will usually want those who will be disadvantaged by the distribution other than on the terms of the existing will or (much more usually) intestacy to be given the opportunity to be heard.
Under the PGO’s practice note F of 2007 – Applications relating to statutory wills, codicils, settlements and other dealings with P’s property – Section 6 lists the information to be provided with the application form and at subsection (d) asks for details of P's family, preferably in the form of a family tree, including details of the full name and date of birth of each person included in the family tree. This will furnish the court with the information it needs, although we would always include the addresses of the relevant people on the tree too.
We take care to manage the expectations of those we locate in such cases quite carefully. Although the research is identical to that in a missing beneficiary matter, the handling of the case is not – we notify the next of kin of what is happening and that they will be hearing from the solicitors acting in the statutory will application accordingly.
In one case, the Patient (as she then was) had, before losing her capacity, told everyone that she would be leaving her estate to a particular charity but did not make a will. The statutory will was drawn partially in favour of the charity and partially in favour of the siblings – all of whom were surviving but had become more or less estranged from the Patient - who would have taken on her intestacy. We located them and all were happy with the terms of the will and even surprised that they were to be considered.
In another case, on similar facts, the Patient had benefited from charity herself (the British Heart Foundation) and the will was to be drawn partly in that charity’s favour with the balance to go as on intestacy. The next of kin was in the class of the uncles and aunts of the whole blood and their issue. I remember at least one first cousin saying “I’ve always had a dodgy ticker – we can cut out the middle man here - can I have a larger share, please?” I don’t think he was successful…
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