Only NS&I require Probate?

SianandDavid

My father died at Christmas leaving a will. My mother is the sole beneficiary and executor. His pension, joint savings accounts etc have all transferred to her on provision of a copy of the death certificate and the will. There is no house or other property and the total estate is under £100k. However, my father had £30k of savings bonds with NS&I and they are insisting that the will must be probabted in order for these to be transferred to my mother. I have spoken to them on the phone but they refuse to budge. My mother is 90 and in frail health.


Has anyone succeeded in persuading NS&I that probate is not necessary?
If we decide not to probate then what happens to the premium bonds?


Even if we arrange for my mother to resign probabte and then do it ourselves this will cost us at least £200 which we very much resent.


Thanks for your help!

_gav_

I doubt you'll get NS&I to change their process, they are after all protecting your father's investment. Probate shouldn't cost you that much, if his financial affairs are straightforward then you can very easily do it yourself. I did it for my mother's and fathers's estate, there is a wealth of information available on this site with some really helpful people.

Search for probate and away you go :-). Good luck.

Here's a link to the relevant forum http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=217

xylophone

My father died at Christmas leaving a will. My mother is the sole beneficiary and executor. His pension, joint savings accounts etc have all transferred to her on provision of a copy of the death certificate and the will.

Joint savings accounts, a jointly owned property etc would pass automatically to the survivor regardless of any will, and a widow's pension likewise.

However, a sole account is a different matter. Where savings are under a certain amount, banks and building societies may only require to see the will and death certificate - however, over that amount can be a different matter.

This seems to be the case with your late father's estate.

http://www.nsandi.com/files/published_files/asset/pdf/death-claims-brochure.pdf

"You’ll need to send:
• A registrar’s copy of the death
certificate (photocopies are
not!accepted).
• The Will (original or a
photocopy certified by
a!solicitor).
If the savings are £5,000 or
over you may need to send:
• Grant of Probate
(England and Wales) or
• Confirmation of Executor
Nominate (Scotland)
We will let you know if this
is the!case.These documents
are issued by the court so that
the Executor of the Will can
administer a person’s estate"

SianandDavid

Thanks Gav and xylophone. I have spoken to NS&I, although their website says savings over £5k may need probate, they say that in practice their policy is that anything over £15k must have probate. I have asked them to update their guidance.