Surprise solicitor letter.

It is the norm, it doesn't indicate the size of the estate.

Hopefully it is a large estate.

A letter from America as they say.

God have mercy on his soul.

I'm guessing that your uncle had 5 brothers/sisters and your father has already passed away.

Estate split between 5

Effectively your father's 20% gets passed to you.

Btw "estate" is simply the total assets. It could be 50k, 500k, 5m.

You have no way if knowing what it's worth without making contact. And you will be connecting with the solicitor and only the solicitor. There is no need to have connect with any of the family whatsoever.

if one of the siblings dies their share of the estate goes to their descendants.

Nope. If no will, no spouse and no children then it is split equally between siblings. If a sibling has already died, their share goes to their children.

What a nice thing to say. I second that.

@tringo you have nothing to fear by contacting the solicitor. They can deal with your inheritance independently.

Someone will have been appointed as administrator of the estate. The letter you have received may tell you who that is. If the deceased had other surviving siblings, it's most likely one (or more) of these.

If we assume - to keep things simple - that the estate consists just of a house, the administrators have the power to (a) transfer ownership of the house to those entitled (which would mean you get a 20% share of the house) or (b) sell the house and distribute the net proceeds of sale to those entitled (which would mean you get cash equal to 20% of the net proceeds of sale). It's up to the administrators to decide which of these two things to do, but they should make the choice in the best interests of the beneficiaries. That would ordinarily mean that they would consult the beneficiaries before making their decision. But in the case outlined it's a no-brainer; you don't want a 20% stake in a house, the other 80% of which is owned by people you don't talk to, and pretty certainly they don't want that either. So the administrators might feel able to take the decision to sell the house without consulting you.

Suppose the estate consists of (a) a house worth €400k plus (b) €200k in cash. Total value is €600k; you're entitled to €120k. The administrators get to decide which assets to distribute to which beneficiaries, so they could decide, e.g., to give you €120k cash, and to give each of the other four beneficiaries a 25% stake in the house, worth €100k, plus €20k in cash.

In short, you're entitled to a 20% share of the entire estate, but not to a 20% share of each asset in the estate. The administrators get to decide which assets go to which beneficiaries, and they get to decide which assets get transferred to beneficiaries and which get sold, and the sale proceeds transferred. They should make these decisions in the best interests of the beneficiaries, attaching equal weight to the interests of each beneficiary and not preferring the interests of one beneficiary over another. Consultation with beneficiaries to find out what they would like/what would suit their circumstances is common, but not mandatory.

If there is going to be consultation, it's possible that the administrators will prefer to do this directly, rather than through the solicitor (to save money — solicitors charge by the hour). You can decline to deal directly with the administrators, but if you do you forego your opportunity to be consulted — you can't force them to pay a solicitor to engage with you.

Just be aware of any tax implications if you are inheriting , I think it's about €30,000 before tax is payable.