nearpost1

My fathers solicitor and executor of his estate, back in England, will be distributi g about £75k to me in the near future. Although I do not have a bank account or address in England, I do see that if necessary I may open such an account (International bank account with Barclays u.k. for example) This may be helpful as I would like to give money in sterling to those who were close to him.

I am looking at using Transferwise for the eventual transfer of funds to the usa but they have a list of items they will need from the solicitor before accepting a wire from my Dads estates bank account . They also have an international bank account product called "Borderless" which will be easier for the solicitor to make a transfer to.

Finally, my question is has anyone had a similar experience, and how did it go with the solicitor. Transferwise do not deal with checks, so if the solicitor simply writes a check, I presume I will have to open a Barclays intl acct. And then use transfer wise to get the money from U.K. to USA.

Thanks

rpjs

That amount of money will certainly put you into FBAR territory and probably FATCA as well.

One option would be to figure out the gifts you'd like to make in Sterling to the UK friends/relatives and ask the solicitor to disburse those direct to them, and the residue by SWIFT to your US bank account.

When my father passed on, I was sole executor and myself and my brother were equal beneficiaries and my solicitor had no problem with disbursing direct to my brother. In our cases we both had UK bank accounts, but I would have thought any competent solicitor should be capable of setting up a SWIFT transfer, although they'll probably charge you a modest fee on top of bank fees to do so.

And if the solicitor will only write you a sterling cheque, check with your US bank if they will accept it. They probably will, but will probably charge you fees to process it.

chawkins99

My mother-in-law passed away last year leaving my wife around £25k and the solicitor could not have been LESS helpful. They would not respond to emails and it was impossible to get past their receptionist by phone. ALL communication had to be by snail-mail.

They would not entertain any method of international transfer.

I eventually had them issue the cheque to my brother-in-law who then sent it via TransferWise.

So, do you know anyone in the UK you would trust to disburse the funds? That would also avoid the problem of TransferWise having to deal with the Solicitor.

nearpost1

My thanks to both of you. Since I am the only named beneficiary I would understand if the solicitor declines to disburse any gifts to anyone other than me. Since posting the initial message on here, I have been assured by Transferwise that I should open an international bank account with them (no u.k. residency required), I think their product is called borderless banking.Anyway, this will save the solicitor from having to send them all the back up documentation that Transferwise would have needed if I did not open an account.
Transferwise assure me that as long as the solicitor is willing to wire funds, it will be as simple for him/her as if he was wiring to Barclays or Lloyds.

In the event the solicitor will not wire and insists on writing a check, I will open an international bank account with Barclays, who unlike transferwise, will accept a cheque deposit. After that I will then use Transferwise to send money from Barclays to my citibank account here in usa.

Does anybody see a better way?

I am sorry the second poster in this thread had such a difficult time.

Again, my thanks to all.

Nutmegger

When I received an inheritance, the Executor of the Estate wired it directly into my US account, in dollars, with no fees. If you do a search you will find a number of threads on the topic of inheritances, including the form to file with your US taxes, the 3520. (Don't worry, it is purely informational, no taxes will be levied!) I received a UK Revenue form R185 from the Executor, and was advised by him (an accountant) that the form showed my percentage of the net income during the administration period and the tax already deducted therefrom. He told me the total gross figure that I needed to declare on my US tax return and the amount of UK tax that had already been paid thereon that I also needed to indicate. I was to convert both figures into USD and he suggested that I use the exchange rate on the date on which the legacy funds were transferred to me. The income made during the admin period is all that you are liable for tax on.