ProSearch have sent me a letter and saying my dead father has 37 Shell shares

IanManc

eddyinfreehold wrote: »

I was joint Executor of his Estate and we WERE granted Probate. Even without Probate you remain the legal Executor of the Estate should have his Will signed and witnessed by a legal professional in the margin to prove this.

The above is wrong.

A "legal professional" writing on a Will has no legal effect whatsoever in terms of giving authority, or enhancing the authority, of Executors named in a will.

In fact you should never write on or mark a Will once it has been executed, and no "legal professional" would do that, because it is regarded as tampering with the Will and it causes problems when applying for a Grant of Probate.

When solicitors are trained they are taught to never write on or mark a Will, or even staple, pin or paper clip anything to Will as any mark left would indicate to the Probate Registry that it had been interfered with or altered after execution or that there had been something present which had been removed, such as a Codicil.

Uxb

I vaguely recall that when I swore the probate oath as executor in front of an independent solicitors (ie not the ones that were acting for me) I had to sign the will somewhere along the top or in the margin on each sheet.
This was in advance of the documents being sent to to the probate office by my own solicitor.

If you have probate then you will have the probate document which is a single sheet of paper.
Note that the sheet should have embossed on to it by indentation the stamp of the probate office issuing it to show that it is an original document and not a photocopy.

IanManc

Uxb wrote: »

I vaguely recall that when I swore the probate oath as executor in front of an independent solicitors (ie not the ones that were acting for me) I had to sign the will somewhere along the top or in the margin on each sheet.
This was in advance of the documents being sent to to the probate office by my own solicitor.

If you have probate then you will have the probate document which is a single sheet of paper.
Note that the sheet should have embossed on to it by indentation the stamp of the probate office issuing it to show that it is an original document and not a photocopy.

When you apply for probate then you sign each page of the documents as well as the last page to prove that no pages have been slipped in. The procedure for applying for Probate isn't what I was referring to: I was making the point that a "legal professional" writing on a Will doesn't give anyone any authority, and that Wills should be left unmarked and undamaged so that the High Court Probate Registry isn't caused to be suspicious of its validity.

When you're applying then you can request multiple copies of the Grant, all of which will bear the official embossed seal, so you can deal with lots of institutions at once without having to wait for the grant to be returned by one before you can deal with another. All the sealed documents are "original". It makes things a lot easier to have plenty of them. Only the first one produced - the buff coloured one in England and Wales - has a copy of the Will "exhibited to it", i.e. stapled to it, and all the others, which are white, don't.

eddyinfreehold

IanManc ... I have written (what you quoted above) very badly. What I meant to say was the executors sign the will when you do the oath bit with your solicitor and an independent solicitor. In our case the 3 siblings as joint executors signed the margin. The independent solicitor countersigned and dated our signatures. Our solicitor sent everything to the Probate Office. Two weeks later we had the sealed grant of probate back without comment. Bit off topic here sorry.

IanManc

eddyinfreehold wrote: »

IanManc ... I have written (what you quoted above) very badly. What I meant to say was the executors sign the will when you do the oath bit with your solicitor and an independent solicitor. In our case the 3 siblings as joint executors signed the margin. The independent solicitor countersigned and dated our signatures. Our solicitor sent everything to the Probate Office. Two weeks later we had the sealed grant of probate back without comment. Bit off topic here sorry.

The reason for that is to show the Probate Registry that the Will you're making the Oath about is the one that's sent in - it makes sure that no one swaps it for a fake one after you've sworn the oath. Putting it simply: you have to prove that everything is legitimate every step of the way.

I understand what you meant now. :beer:

Vortigern

ladaowner55 wrote: »

Equiniti Shareview were super helpful and said there was more shares for me to claim, a Total of £5ks worth.

Equiniti/Shareview is just one of 3 UK share registrars. £5k worth of shares is a pleasant surprise but given that ladaowner's father was a share investor he may also have held shares with the other two registrars. He should check for further shares with Capita and Computershare. There could be more shares to find.

The link below gives details of the three registrars and the Unclaimed Assets Register.

Tracking Down Lost Shares