Death and wills/last wishes

MrThrifty

Maybe a silly question, but when one dies, how do their last wishes and will come to surface if they have no family etc.? Presumably their last wishes (maybe part of their will?) and will would be with a solicitor but how does this solicitor become aware of their death and get involved? Is there maybe a legal register of all people who have wills and who their wills are with?

johnnyskeleton

1. Last wishes are not legally binding as such. I suppose you could have a last wish tied to a bequest to make it profitable for someone to carry it out, but usually such things are done to honour the recently deceased by their loved ones.

2. Solicitors would find out because typically people go to their local solicitor who might know them personally or at least know them from the community. Other times, Solicitors would not find out. But in a sense it doesn't matter. If there is no one to claim their property then eventually a squatter will take it over and any money in bank accounts will probably revert to the State as a dormant account.

3. A solicitor does not have any special status, as far as I know, in holding someone's will. A bank could do this, or a relative, or a lot of people keep their wills themselves.

coylemj

MrThrifty wrote: »

Is there maybe a legal register of all people who have wills and who their wills are with?

I recall that Senator Terry Leyden made a few attempts to kick off a bill along these lines but I don't know if he ever made any progress.

annieoburns

It is part of a will to nominate an executor. It would be a courtesy to inform such a person in advance and even supply them with a copy of the will and let them know where to find the original.

It is one of the functions of an executor to locate the will and organise the probate of same. A death notice in a newspaper would be useful and sometimes a notice is placed if no will can be found. Again an executor should be in charge of making arrangements for funeral, placing of a notice in paper etc.

nuac

I usually get testator's permission to notify the proposed executor of last wishes, including name of undertaker, place of burial etc etc

I had to go to the office one Christmas Day in the case of someone who died suddenly abroad to start arrangements, so since then I have done as above.

In the provinces most families would know who was the deceased'd solicitor, or the solicitor who drew the will would know of the death.

However Terry Leyden's Bill was a good idea and should be followed up.

MrThrifty

That's a bit scary and, to be honest with you, a bit backward! So basically if there was hypothetically a relatively young couple who were not close to their families and had relocated to some other part of the world, and then were both killed in a car crash, nobody might know of a will they had hidden at home or had with a not-so-close solicitor in that other part of the world?! Sorry for the long sentence and the morbidness! Sure I would think that probably happens for sure, given that couples might often assume that one of them would always die in life before the other and therefore so long as they each knew about the last wishes or will location, they'd be grand...

I wonder if the solicitors themselves or the law society here could set up some kind of will register themselves at this stage. You could imagine then that any death of an Irish person would immediately trigger a check of the list and get the appropriate wheels in motion etc. If it's left to the government to do something, well... we'll probably all be dead by then!

Milk & Honey

In the vast majority of case a death is going to come to light. Particularly if there are assets involved. Most people will leave a considerable trail in this day and age. Banks will have photocopies of passports/ driving licences and family can be traced through birth certs etc.
A register of will may also bring some practical problems. Someone dies and then a will is found unregistered, later than the registered one. The more immediate difficulty is that wishes in relation to the funeral may not come to light until it is over.
A simpler method might be if the law Society set up an online register based on PPS number where each solicitor could register himself of the will pertaining to xxx no. made on ???. On death any solicitor could check the register and find where the latest will is.

MrThrifty

What the ....? Get a mod in here!

Cran

not to hijack this discussion, but have a question before I go into my solicitor next week to write up my death notice have a question out of curiousity as sometimes struggle with legal language.
How does a solicitor distinguish between two relatives with the same name when one is a benefactor and the other isn't. I'm thinking specifically between two nieces with same name??

annieoburns

Being aware of the possible confusion, perhaps include the middle name of the person as well and also an address?

coylemj

Cran wrote: »

How does a solicitor distinguish between two relatives with the same name when one is a benefactor and the other isn't. I'm thinking specifically between two nieces with same name??

I'm sure the solicitor will have come across this situation before. I'd state the exact relationship to the testator, and include the person's address which is normal anyway in order to remove ambiguity and to assist the executor......

.. and to my niece Mary Murphy, 1 Bridge St., Anytown, daughter of my brother Martin, I leave the sum of xxxxx

Bogger77

I was referred to as "my nephew X og, son of X Senior and Z" in the will on a late uncle, presumably to differentiate between me, my dad, and other relations with same or similar names.