Probate - Joint Accounts, Who owns what ?

pierrelejohn

hope someone can help answer the following questions

My father recently passed away, and he had a will and left it all to my mum, and he made Lloyds bank executors of the estate.
they are also dealing with all the administration probate etc.

95% of the money was held in joint accounts, the house is also in joint names.

therefore the only money that was in my fathers name was a few peps and a few stocks and shares amounting to approx £80,000

Lloyds are charging 3.5% so will cost about £4000 and they reckon it will take about 6 - 12 months to finish.

My question - the money from joint accounts, the house, savings etc that are 50% in my mums name, is this now hers or is this part of dads estate and need to be sorted out, or is it just HIS money that he held privatly that goes to probabte.

Sorry I'm abit confused, can some one explain ?

Thanks
Peter

ccygirl

Firstly I am very sorry for your loss.

For Probate Lloyds will detail how much of the joint account's belonged to your dad and this is considered as part of his estate for Inheritance tax purposes but you will not need Probate to access the money as it will pass directly to your mother being the joint account holder.

If the house was held as joint tennants then it will pass directly to your mum, however if it is held as Tennants in common it becomes part of the estate and will depend on the will.

I recently undertook Probate for My late Mum and am by no means an expert! It took me about 6 months so I would expect Lloyds to be a bit quicker than that. Any chance you can get them to let you do it? You could save a lot of money.

pierrelejohn

Hi
My dad actually stated that he wanted Lloyds private banking to deal with the estate, I foolishly imagined that because they were executors, their fees were automatically covered !!

The last 2 weeks have been a learning curve, my dad always banked with lloyds and he did private banking with them.

However when we were told of their fees I nearly choked, now that my mum will be having a fair sum of money, I am going to insist that she gets Lloyds to sort out all the stocks and shares and convert it to cash so that her estate will be easier to manage.
And Lloyds won't profit out of it !!

CRANKY40

Sorry for your loss. The best people to ask if you have any queries are the probate service. http://www.justice.gov.uk/guidance/courts-and-tribunals/courts/probate/helpline.htm

My next door neighbour is a financial advisor and she told me to do probate on my husband's estate myself. It wasn't that difficult in case anyone was wondering, and it cost me the grand sum of £96.

jackyann

Can only answer from personal experience:
You will have to declare for probate half of what is in the joint accounts on the day of death, however, your mum can continue to use them.
My sympathies.