Bereavement advice services

Yorkshireman99

Sebben wrote: »

I'm still getting familiar with the forum, I think my answer to your question was misplaced. Yes he has a clear simple will, with executors, he was a widower, and only his (adult) children are beneficiaries.

First questions - is there a will, and a named executor?

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Feel free to ask. You may find it daunting but really it is not tooo bad. Take your time and take one step at a time.

Tuesday_Tenor

I assume you are one of the named executors?
Who are the other executors and what is their attitude to the role?

When looking at the PA and IHT forms:
The size of the IHT206 Guidance Notes makes them seem quite daunting. That is because they have to cover lots of rare and unusual things. If you go through the Guidance Notes crossing out all the sections that don't apply, you will probably cross out about 80%.
The remaining 20% will indicate the nature and size of the task you would be facing.

If the estate consists of a property, some savings and maybe some shares it should be fairly straightforward.
If the estate is below the IHT threshold you don't have to be mega-accurate with the figures you supply - HMRC won't care. If the estate is above, or approaching, the IHT threshold, then HMRC will require accurate figures, and notification if final figures ( e.g. after sale of property) are different from your original estimates.

However slowly you approach the task, as you travel your steep learning curve, you will still handle it quicker than a solicitor. For you it will be a focussed priority task, so if a bank or other institution doesn't respond, you will notice and chase it up. A solicitor working on many estates will only look at the file occasionally and so will be much slower at noticing such hiccups and problems.

There are lots of sources of help:
- the Which Guide to probate ( make sure you buy ( or borrow from library) the latest edition
- the PA and IHT guidance notes
- the probate office helpline
- this forum - don't hesitate to ask!

Two other points
- If you get a solicitor/other service to do it, it will probably still fall to the family to actually FIND all the account info in the first place. This is often a bigger task than actually putting the figures in the boxes!
- If you do it yourself, you can always request, and pay for, legal advice if you come across a specific knotty problem. This will be cheaper than asking a solicitor/other service to handle the whole thing.

Savvy_Sue

Tuesday_Tenor wrote: »

If you do it yourself, you can always request, and pay for, legal advice if you come across a specific knotty problem. This will be cheaper than asking a solicitor/other service to handle the whole thing.

This is what we did: consulted an accountant specialising in wills and trusts to make sure our understanding of Dad's will was correct and to get a Deed of Variation organised, and then consulted him again on Mum's death to make sure we got the value of Mum's nil rate band for IHT correct. Cost hundreds rather than the thousands we'd have paid to have the whole estate dealt with professionally, and gave us peace of mind.