No will-is it straight forward?

andrewm1981

Hi,

I sadly lost my father yesterday unexpectedly.

He was elderly and not in great health but I certainly thought he had many years left :-(

He hadn't made a will.

I am his only son, I have no brothers or sisters.
He and my mum legally divorced (although they were on good terms)

He has around £300k in assets (property and cash), and no outstanding bills / mortgage / debts.

I assume everything would go to me. I have a few questions though.

I have been told by different people to get a solicitor, but also not to, as they'd just take a cut and not achieve much. Are they necessary in this case?

How long does it take to sort everything out financially?

And finally he does have friends and family (3 siblings) and I want to give them something to remember- how does this work, do they come over and see something's that have a special meaning? I want to make sure that he will be remembered as he was a great man and an awesome dad :-)

Thanks in advance....

Andrew

madbadrob

Sorry for your loss.

In answer to your question to obtain admin using a solicitor will cost you around £650 whereas for around £100 you can do it yourself. The advantage of using a solicitor is that they can take the stress out of it for you however in this case I would say give it a go yourself. You can download the relevant forms from http://search2.hmrc.gov.uk/kb5/hmrc/forms/view.page?record=VKhb2F_R9Q4

And read this https://www.gov.uk/wills-probate-inheritance/applying-for-a-grant-of-representation

Rob

Mojisola

andrewm1981 wrote: »

I sadly lost my father yesterday unexpectedly.

He was elderly and not in great health but I certainly thought he had many years left :-(

He hadn't made a will.

I am his only son, I have no brothers or sisters.
He and my mum legally divorced (although they were on good terms)

He has around £300k in assets (property and cash), and no outstanding bills / mortgage / debts.

And finally he does have friends and family (3 siblings) and I want to give them something to remember- how does this work, do they come over and see something's that have a special meaning? I want to make sure that he will be remembered as he was a great man and an awesome dad :-)

Sad news - my Mum died suddenly and it is a shock even if the person is elderly.

From what you describe, dealing with the estate will be very straightforward - one beneficiary, no debts, no IHT, etc. Some people find sorting things out themselves therapeutic; others just want to hand everything over to a solicitor to deal with it.

Whatever you decide, very little has to be done in a hurry. Give yourself time to organise the funeral and sort through his house. Organisations need to be notified of the death but there's no rush otherwise.

Re letting others have things - again don't rush. I sorted out what my siblings and I wanted to keep first and then gave other people a choice from what was left. A grand man like your Dad will live in their memories with or without mementos.

Speaking as someone who researches my family history, when you find photos of people, get his siblings together and see if they can name everyone in them for you. It will give you all a good chance to talk about your Dad and other family members who have died and your descendants will be grateful to find photos will all the names on the back.

getmore4less

Sorry for your loss, it is never easy even when you know it is coming.

As above take your time to decide what you want to do.
(even if you give it to solicitors you will end up doing a lot of the work anyway)

High on the list, is to secure the property and funeral.

It can be a good idea to make a running inventory especially if stuff is moved for save keeping, digital camera/mobile can be useful for keeping records.

Loads to read, a good start is a google of "what to do when someone dies"

HMRC and .gov.uk has some good info as do places like ageuk.

Read multiple versions the wording is usually slightly different as it is interpreting the real back end legal stuff(that is usually quite straight forward once you get a hang of the lingo). Loads of lists of things to think about so won't add one here.

As rob says start with the forms PA1 and IHT205, have a good read of the notes that come with them.

Do a practice run through the forms(I printed them off) it gives you a load of questions you can research.

Above all take your time, once you get going you end up spending a lot of time waiting for others anyway.

No problem asking questions here, plenty have gone through the exercise so can talk you through.

When the death is registered get a few copies of the certificate(you often need to send one off and it can take time to be returned), they are cheap so get more than you think you need so you can deal with stuff in parallel and keep one back so you always have one in your files.

It is a difficult time so record keeping lists can help a lot.

For any accounts/assets most of the places have specialist departments that deal with this so check the web sites and start collecting the info, many have downloadable forms you can start collecting.


I found dealing with the estate contributed to the closure process.

andrewm1981

Hi guys, first of Thank you for your replies and kind words.

I'm waiting for the coroner to call me on Monday/Tuesday so I can then start to think about the next stage.

I'll download the forms as rob suggested and go from there. Lists are quite handy I'm finding, I found a good PDF at bereavementadvice.org which i think is what you've suggested.

In reality the estate is quite small physically - a small one bed flat makes up 95% of assets, then there's a bit of cash and afew personal possessions.

I'll check out all the websites you've suggested though :-)

It's been odd it happening on a Friday- seems like we have to wait until mon/tues to get the ball rolling!

BobQ

All good advice.

Bear in mind that your Dad's bank accounts will be frozen until you get the Grant (ie once you tell them he has died) The funeral expenses will need to be paid by yourself or you can ask his bank to settle the bill from his bank (ie direct to funeral director) if there are sufficient funds.

Sort the funeral first, do not worry about giving things away. You need to check what he has left first. For example, even if he did not have a Will you might find a letter from him saying he wants a particular thing to go to a specific person. If so it will not help if you have given the item to someone else. So do not do anything rash. Also you would not be the first one to find something unexpected in a deceased's papers (eg an account/insurance you were unaware of) including an old Will he had forgotten about.

Most small value accounts can be paid to you based on the Death Certificate, but they may not do this if they know you are applying for a Grant. Its up to the institution or the insurance firm.

Did Dad have any insurance. Some people still have old policies that have become free policies (ie you do not pay a premium now but they still have a value). Look for any certificates or payment books.

You will need a Grant (of Administration) in order to sell the flat. Its very straightforward. The HMRC do a very good helpline for Probate and IHT and they explain exactly what you need.

Because the value of the estate you will still need to fill in the Inheritance Tax Form to demonstrate that tax is not due and this is needed before you get the Grant which can take 6 weeks or so.

BobQ

OP,

One other matter, you said your Dad died unexpectedly but was in ill health. In those circumstances the coroner's office may just ring to say that a post mortum has been arranged. This can take a week or so, particularly in the winter months.

The Coroner usually decides this based on what was known of his health. If his GP had not seen your Dad for some weeks and/or cannot be certain of a definite cause of death (and that it was expected) then a PM may be needed.

You cannot register the death until the Coroner has issued the paperwork stating the cause of death.

bouncydog1

So sorry to hear your sad news. As others have said you don't need to rush into things. I helped OH deal with his late mums estate which was quite complex but by doing things slowly and researching things we have nearly got it all settled after a couple of years but we haven't had to pay legal fees other than absolute necessities.

There is an address you can write to where all old bank records can be searched to see if there are any old accounts. well worth doing because at least you know when the estate is wound up there is nothing left out there and you will have peace of mind.

getmore4less

andrewm1981 wrote: »

It's been odd it happening on a Friday- seems like we have to wait until mon/tues to get the ball rolling!

It helps you get time to reflect.