Can funeral costs be taken from a deceased persons estate?

onejontwo

I'm after some advice about the will and probate after the passing away of my mother-in -law. The first thing I would like advice on is that I've heard that the funeral costs can be taken from the deceased persons estate. As she only had a few thousand in an ISA account and not enough to cover the funeral costs, could the remainder be taken from her estate which is basically her house approx value £130,000. There are two siblings involved (my wife and her brother) but neither are exactly cash rich to pay off funeral costs, solicitors fees etc. Which brings me to my next question, What would be a reasonable cost for the solicitor as It seems to be pretty straight forward as her husband died several years ago and everything seems to be left equally between the two siblings.

dzug1

They can be taken from the estate, yes - ie payment deferred until the house is sold


Pass on fees - several thousand minimum I would have thought though. I wouldn't expect to pay upfront.


DIY isn't that difficult

dzug1

I perhaps should add on it depends on the undertakers being prepared to wait. Their contract is (normally) with whoever arranged the funeral and sometimes they get impatient, particularly if they have doubts about getting paid at all.

Savvy_Sue

Were solicitors appointed in the will? If not, then DIY is probably the way to go ...

onejontwo

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

Were solicitors appointed in the will? If not, then DIY is probably the way to go ...

Yes solicitors were appointed but after our last experience with her husband ie. not very helpful and charging a fortune, we decided to swap to another solicitor (even though they hold the original will and are executors of the said will) if this is at all possible. But having read your reply I'm considering the diy option but I must admit some of the technical jargon seems a bit baffling.

BobQ

onejontwo wrote: »

Yes solicitors were appointed but after our last experience with her husband ie. not very helpful and charging a fortune, we decided to swap to another solicitor (even though they hold the original will and are executors of the said will) if this is at all possible. But having read your reply I'm considering the diy option but I must admit some of the technical jargon seems a bit baffling.

Are you saying that the executors named in the will appointed a solicitor to do the legal work, or that the solicitors were appointed by the will to be executors? If the latter you cannot switch solicitors without the solicitors named as the executors agreeing to stand down from the role. If the former you can DIY and take the costs of any solicitors you decide to employ to help you from the estate.

DIY is really not very difficult. The HMRC has a very helpful helpline that will help you fill the IHT and Probate forms and it sounds like you just have a house, a small account and some personal items to list. Once you have Probate you can sell the house and settle the debts. Have you checked for life insurance. Some older people have paid up policies that can be worth small sums which may help the cash flow.

Savvy_Sue

If she appointed solicitors in the will to act as executors, you're going to need to ask them to renounce if you don't want them to do this. You might be able to persuade them to do this if it's a small estate, with not a lot in it for them, but you're going to have to research this a bit.

The Which Guide to Wills is good, might help you make sense of the jargon.

onejontwo

BobQ wrote: »

Are you saying that the executors named in the will appointed a solicitor to do the legal work, or that the solicitors were appointed by the will to be executors?

The solicitors employed to do the original will are the named executors of the will

onejontwo

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

If she appointed solicitors in the will to act as executors, you're going to need to ask them to renounce if you don't want them to do this. You might be able to persuade them to do this if it's a small estate, with not a lot in it for them, but you're going to have to research this a bit.

The Which Guide to Wills is good, might help you make sense of the jargon.

We have phoned them and although a bit reluctant they more or less agreed to it. Also since then we have found out that the original solicitors are still trading but have gone into administration. (We found this out by approaching a local solicitor a few days ago to confirm whether we could go down this route).