U.K. legal problem.

IANAL
Does the will specifically say that the money held in the savings account should go to the grandchildren? If so, then that is what will happen. If not then I think the money in the savings account will be treated as part of the estate to be divided between the heirs.

I have no expert knowledge on this at all, however I was thinking the same as Waylander.

It's all in the detail. If you gave the solicitor specific details he should have been able to answer you. The "possible" response suggests to me he was not given full details of the situation.

...'for the grandchildren' is vague.

Depending upon how the Account was opened, the funds are either regarded as held in trust for named grandchildren, or not. Who has possession of the relative pass book (if any) may also be relevant.

And the UK has several legal systems.

A will is not absolute.There is an order of entitlement .It could be a problem if one of the other children ,of the elderly mother,contested the decision to pay the grandchildren.

The solicitor is absolutely correct and shows the difference between a clerk and the solicitor.

If the bank account is set up for "Elderly grandmother and grandchild," then it is a joint account, and immediately upon the death of the elderly grandmother, the grandchild obtains title to the account. The account never enters the grandmother's estate.

If the bank account is set up for "Elderly grandmother" then the account goes into her estate and is controlled by the will and the codecil.

If the bank account is set up for "Elderly grandmother or grandchild," the situation becomes a bit more complicated, and I'm not sure how English law deals with the situation.

This is possibility number one.

Second possibility is that the codecil says that the grandchildren should be paid first and the remainder going to the children. People taking under the remainder clause are always subject to specific bequests in the will. For example, A inherits under the remainder clause. B has a specific bequest of $10,000. Decadent dies with $9,000. B gets paid the entire amount and A gets nothing. But if Decadent dies with $100,000, that B gets $10,000 and A gets $90,000.

So just off the top of my head I can come up with two ways the solicitor is correct. There may be others, but these are probably the most common.

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe

Is there going to be an argument about it? If the heirs agree, it's not that difficult simply to alter what's done. "Let's consider this money in this account to be what she intended for the grandchildren" would seem like a nice easy way to do it.

I know when my baby daughter's great-grandmother died, the executors made sure that my daughter got the item (a piece of silverware) that great-granny had intended to give her, even though it wasn't in the will. (executors were family members). Not sure what would have happened if one of them had said they didn't want her to have it.

It was still part of the estate, though.

It does help if you specify which part of the UK, as the law is so varied.