Intestate Question

Tuesday_Tenor

OP, is there a property involved? We need to establish that first, before we confuse you with issues of ownership and inheritance, if it's not relevant.

Estates are occasionally dealt with 'late' for all sorts of reasons. If it's a small estate there shouldn't be any real issues about the tardiness. If, however, it's a large estate liable for inheritance tax, then that should have been (or started to have been) paid six months after date of death.

Inheritance tax is paid on estates over £325,000 unless unused tax allowance from deceased spouse's estate is available. (In which case grandma's estate might go up to £650,000 before inheritance tax is applicable).

greasy19

Thanks All, we're a 'regular' family as far as any anomalies in this particular example are concerned. I checked the rules of intestacy and see no reason my claim would not be valid.
To my knowledge, my Father had no clauses in his will with regard to what would happen to any inheritance to myself via intestacy.

greasy19

Tuesday_Tenor wrote: »

OP, is there a property involved? We need to establish that first, before we confuse you with issues of ownership and inheritance, if it's not relevant.

Estates are occasionally dealt with 'late' for all sorts of reasons. If it's a small estate there shouldn't be any real issues about the tardiness. If, however, it's a large estate liable for inheritance tax, then that should have been (or started to have been) paid six months after date of death.

Inheritance tax is paid on estates over £325,000 unless unused tax allowance from deceased spouse's estate is available. (In which case grandma's estate might go up to £650,000 before inheritance tax is applicable).

Nope, its an extremely modest pot with no property involved - thanks

Tuesday_Tenor

greasy19 wrote: »

my Aunt - who is the power of attorney and who intends to start probate.

The Power of Attorney ceased when your grandmother died.
If aunt did not inform banks etc. of grandmothers death and continued to use PoA to access funds then there is a problem.
All accounts should have been closed on death of grandmother. Banks could still have released funds for funeral, paying funeral directors directly, if presented with their invoice.

Is probate/LoA actually necessary?
Would be required if there is
- property
- shares
- sufficient funds in accounts that individual institutions require probate. But the thresholds can be as high as £20k or £30k, with institutions releasing sums smaller than this upon the signing of an indemnity that the person receiving is the correct person to do so.

Tuesday_Tenor

Years ago it used to be the case that any estate over £5k required probate. This is not no longer true. If all assets are in cash, you need to check the thresholds for the individual institutions.

If Aunt is using info that she 'knows' from the past, such as the '£5000 needs probate' then perhaps you can help by going through the current requirements with her ( e.g. From the gov.uk site)

Brighty

Tuesday_Tenor wrote: »

If Aunt is using info that she 'knows' from the past, such as the '£5000 needs probate' then perhaps you can help by going through the current requirements with her ( e.g. From the gov.uk site)

Any while you're there, run through the intestacy calculator with her, to 'remind' her that half of it is yours, just in case she believes different
https://www.gov.uk/inherits-someone-dies-without-will

Brighty

Yorkshireman99

According to the Probate Registry the lower limit is now £15,000 in total not just cash.

Tuesday_Tenor

Yorkshireman99 wrote: »

According to the Probate Registry the lower limit is now £15,000 in total not just cash.

Could you provide the link to that information please.

Nowhere on the gov.uk website, including the PA2 and PA5 Guidance Notes from the Probate Office is a threshold mentioned at all. (Neither £5000 nor £15,000).
https://www.gov.uk/wills-probate-inheritance/overview
The instruction for small estates is to check with the individual institutions whether probate is required.

There are some very clever law firms who have set up websites concerning probate which look EXTREMELY official. But they are not the Probate Office. I have found reference to both £5000 and £15000 thresholds on such sites. But the disclaimer ('accuracy not guarantted ....') at the bottom made me suspicious, and sure enough if you look hard enough you find they are actually a 'law firm' NOT the Probate Office.

brewerdave

I was originally led to believe that probate wasn't required for estates below £150k where no property/shares were involved UNLESS an individual institution required it to release monies - in my case, at least three of the banks/institutions did require a grant of probate - just shows how much misinformation is out there on the interweb!!

Yorkshireman99

Tuesday_Tenor wrote: »

Could you provide the link to that information please.

Nowhere on the gov.uk website, including the PA2 and PA5 Guidance Notes from the Probate Office is a threshold mentioned at all. (Neither £5000 nor £15,000).
https://www.gov.uk/wills-probate-inheritance/overview
The instruction for small estates is to check with the individual institutions whether probate is required.

There are some very clever law firms who have set up websites concerning probate which look EXTREMELY official. But they are not the Probate Office. I have found reference to both £5000 and £15000 thresholds on such sites. But the disclaimer ('accuracy not guarantted ....') at the bottom made me suspicious, and sure enough if you look hard enough you find they are actually a 'law firm' NOT the Probate Office.

I am well aware of all the rogue sites masquerading as official ones. I also aware, unlike some people, that Googling does not give a definitive answer. I therefore asked my solicitor when I saw her today on another matter. I also asked the Exeter Probate Office as well. The former said they would not give advice but there was not lower limit set by them. My solicitor stated that whilst there is no defined limit these days anybody administering an estate without probate has no legal authority whatsoever to do so. Hence a solicitor would not do it. However her advice would be to any client that she would regard £15,000-£20,000 as a sensible lower limit and in any case would strongly suggest that the client to the work themselves in such a case. She further stated that the fact that there is no fee for an estate value less than £5,000 has probably lead to the belief that this is the minimum level at which probate is required. This sounds sensible advice to me. Her final comment was if in any doubt apply and make sure the statutory notices are published.