A distressed friend has come to me for advice.
Jayne’s elderly mother recently died in a care home due to COVID. As if that wasn’t bad enough she recently made the shock discovery that her only sibling - a brother who had power of attorney over their mother’s estate and assets - had made a false declaration to the local authority. As a result of his action the care home fees where met entirely by the local authority for the last year or so of their mother’s life.
When Jayne’s brother revealed this to his sister he asked her that if the local authority were to catch up with his deception, would she be prepared to pay back a proportion of her share to the local authority.
Confused and shocked, Jayne could not give him the assurance he sought so instead asked to see the will,
Two weeks later she received an electronic will from her brother as he was also the only executor ( a solicitor had only been used to help with probate). Jayne was upset to realise that she was not a beneficiary as her brother had led her to expect. Instead, her late mother had left a 1/10 share to be equally split between Jayne’s three adult children and the other 9/10 share to the brother.
Her children have now received money from the estate and they are none the wiser of their uncles fraud .
Jayne came to me anxious and distressed . She’s prepared to compensate her children if they should lose their inheritance. However, the fact still stands She’s been disinherited and found out her brother is a fraud .
She’s tried to get the brother to own up and pay the money back but he refuses to, saying that he feels entitled to his £95,000share, despite the fact that he and his wife are reasonably wealthy already .
Should Jayne inform the local authority of her brothers fraud or just bury it?
Your thoughts please.
