Wil advice please?

wannaberich41

Hi,
My father has recently passed away and left a will. When someone passes what is the process please as as to what to do with the will. My mum has got the will.
Do you visit a solicitor?
What would my mum expect them to do?
Do they sort out the financial pensions and life insurances?
What paperwork will she need to take with her?
Do both executors need to go?
Will it be just the one visit?
I'm assuming she will have to re write her own will?
What charges will she be expected to pay?
If you don't go back to the original solicitor and use another one instead is that likely to cost you more?

Any other helpful advise would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks

TonyMMM

There is no need to rush to do anything. The death needs to be registered and the funeral arrangements made - the estate can wait.

Whether probate is required at all depends on what the estate consists of ..... if property was owned was it in joint names (or as tenants in common) etc.

Any joint bank accounts automatically pass to the survivor and do not form part of the estate. Pensions often do not form part of the estate either.

Accounts in your father's sole name may require probate to access, but many banks will waive that in some circumstances.

Who is named as executor in the will ?

In most cases probate is a simple process involving filling in a few forms - a solicitor will certainly do it for you, but their charges can be high, they take their time, and they may also charge a % of the estate value (typically 1-2%).

If you give an idea of what the estate consists of and where you are in the process so far many people on here can help you.

Yorkshireman99

wannaberich41 wrote: »

Hi,
My father has recently passed away and left a will. When someone passes what is the process please as as to what to do with the will. My mum has got the will.
Do you visit a solicitor?
What would my mum expect them to do?
Do they sort out the financial pensions and life insurances?
What paperwork will she need to take with her?
Do both executors need to go?
Will it be just the one visit?
I'm assuming she will have to re write her own will?
What charges will she be expected to pay?
If you don't go back to the original solicitor and use another one instead is that likely to cost you more?

Any other helpful advise would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks

You really should be able to do it yourselves. A solicitor is likely to charge a couple of thousand for doing it. Pleanty of jelp here if you need it. You should read the "stickies" on here to start with. Has you mother got the original signed and witnessed wii? A copy will not do.

~Beanie~

My parents had mirror wills, when my dad passed away no solicitor was involved at all. Everything (the house, the joint acct etc) went into my Mum's name with no involvement from a Solicitor.

Me and my brother wrote to the couple of Insurance Companies, enclosed a copy of the death certificate and they paid out to my mum.

Savvy_Sue

wannaberich41 wrote: »

I'm assuming she will have to re write her own will?
What charges will she be expected to pay?
If you don't go back to the original solicitor and use another one instead is that likely to cost you more?

Just to focus on this bit: it entirely depends on what your mum's will says whether she needs to re-write it. A good solicitor will have done a bit of future-proofing - DH and I recently did ours, and we leave everything to each other, and the survivor leaves everything to our sons. We decided not to go into 'what if they all die before us' territory.

So give it time, but if your mum feels she wants to update her will, then it's worth getting a quote from the solicitor she used before, and from a couple of others. A good solicitor will look at her current will but write a new one from scratch, IMO, after getting her to consider what her new wishes are.