I assume your father died in the UK, that you are also resident there and you are applying for Letters of Administration so that you can deal with his Estate. You will need a Solicitor to advise and assist you but it is worth remembering that this matter will be dealt with under English Law and not Philippine. From your closing sentence, I take it that you've been approached by (his) family members in the Philippines, presumably the former wife. They will need to lodge a formal - and legal - claim against his Estate but they will need to prove the previous marriage and their entitlement: the legal separation document you hold may carry some weight in reducing, or negating, any claim they may have. Your solicitor could make it both (relatively) expensive and tedious for these "unwelcome" claimants by requiring all (Philippine) government documents be notarised and apostilled (aka "red ribboning") as the Philippines is not a signatory to the relevant Hague Convention on government-issued documents and their recognition internationally. Legal Aid is not available for this type of legal work but you should bear in mind that as your late father's Executor, you can charge his Estate a reasonable fee and all your expenses incurred in dealing with the Estate.
Thats the thing, he isnt, on paper, Filipino, he is British. We need to confirm that from legal, I spoke with my friend and shell be back by the end of next week which is a fair bit of wait, plus the time on top for her to research. Only problem is that there is no beneficiary. Thank you. No will is in place . Mum nagged Dad about it, just didnt happen due to hospital visits and I guess he was too caught up in watching flippin' TFC.
Yes he did Markham, absolutely the case since, we are preparing for a possible legal battle with the other family (they also have access to funds if needed). We have. They havent said they are starting a case, but they have produced their marriage certificate (and will request to prove authenticity) and asked for my mums certificate (but will give nothing nor say a word indicating we have a marriage certificate until we have sought legal advice). His brother has also mentioned the word, "embassy", and considering hes wealthy and an intelligent man, we will approach as a contest. I sure do hope the letter has some weight, especially under UK law but as far as Ive read, it just means separate but to not re-marry, again, we dont know if this is valid internationally. Although the certificate states that they were separated a good 28 years ago and if it stipulates dissolution because of the separation time under UK law is another question. Very interesting and thats what we will do for sure. Ive also mentally noted, and not heard anyone noticing but Dads signature on the philippines certificate at his age of that time, isnt the same as what is on his Philippines passport which was valid at the time, nor do I recognize that signature on any document he signed (and I know it because I used to copy it to get me out of trouble at school!!). Thats I did not know but I can only assume that this would happen if the estate has those funds to pay for the service whatever the outcome. We have a ball park figure of the value but at the same time, we do not wish to use much of to pay for unnecessary legal expenses as we know, the payout may also be taxed. This situation is only half the problem that we have on our hands. My mum is getting stressed and I have no siblings to turn to, all of this is on me which is rather difficult, my wife and baby isnt here and I myself live abroad so the battle is also with the remaining time in England (born and raised British but moved abroad for good). Id just like to thank you all so far, for replying to this thread and giving me more points on what I could do or think about if this was to ever be a legal case.
Bit of a twist now. Ive looked on a family search side to see if I can find the same marriage certificate as the one I was sent. I couldnt find it and there are a few inconsistencies between the marriage certificate I found on that database and the certificate I received. Hmmm, the digging continues.
Will do. What really threw me off is that Dads signature on the certificate they sent me is nothing like any of the signatures Ive ever seen him do before. I looked at Dads passport during the period of said marriage and again, not the same. It then clicked, with money, you can get anything in PI, a degree certificate, birth cert, counterfeit receipts etc, then did some digging. Ive just paid for cert off the NSO site which someone did on another post off of this forum to clarify the situation they were in..... But yes, will update in due course.
Whilst I appreciate this was really a question about inheritance: A Filipino married in Phil can get a legal divorce in many countries, UK, Spain, USA etc. which means they can remarry. That applies even if their partner is not present in that country. Of course the antiquated law in Phil means they might be still be regarded as married in Phil. However, if a non-Filipino spouse brings a divorce action against their Filipino partner, the Filipino national can make an application in Phil for that divorce to be recognised and the Filipino may remarry in Phil.
Yep, I understand that too. Okay, so now its gone tits up lol. We received a letter from the insurance company and he did have beneficiaries, which is of the family in philippines!!!!!! He told my mum there was no one! What a guy 'ey. So, the policy has a trustee, but that trustee is also deceased. We understand that the executor of said trustee will replace their role, but we need to know the process on doing that. If this is the case, its good for my side since that trustee and all of his family is over here in UK and are close family friends of ours. I do not wish to take the current beneficiaries out of the policy (since they are still his family after all and I totally respect that, even though theyre a bunch of bums (apart from 1 of his 3 other sons!)), but to include the people who really looked after Dad recently, my mum and his granddaughter. Madaming and problema!
Source: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo5/15-16/19/section/36 (1)Where a trustee, either original or substituted, and whether appointed by a court or otherwise, is dead, or remains out of the United Kingdom for more than twelve months, or desires to be discharged from all or any of the trusts or powers reposed in or conferred on him, or refuses or is unfit to act therein, or is incapable of acting therein, or is an infant, then, subject to the restrictions imposed by this Act on the number of trustees,— (a)the person or persons nominated for the purpose of appointing new trustees by the instrument, if any, creating the trust; or (b)if there is no such person, or no such person able and willing to act, then the surviving or continuing trustees or trustee for the time being, or the personal representatives of the last surviving or continuing trustee;
