Arranging someones financial affairs post death

Murphy_The_Cat

My Father In Law died recently, without leaving a Will.

He was a widower and my Mrs and her brother will be the sole benificiaries.

Assetwise, there isn't a property, there aren't any shares/bonds/cars, jewellry etc and there will be enough money in his bank account to cover his funeral and maybe/possibly a few hundred £ left over.

Debtwise, there doesn't appear to be anything, other than some State Pension to pay back.

So far, all relevant financial institutions have been notified of his passing and "Tell Us Once" has been used as well.

At what stage will Mrs Cat have to deal HMRC regarding the (miniscule) value of his Estate and how should she do this ?

JGB1955

Unless any of the financial institutions has requested it, there is probably no need to apply for letters of administration - see Applying for probate - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) and How to Get a Letter of Administration (co-oplegalservices.co.uk)

Murphy_The_Cat

JGB1955 said:

Unless any of the financial institutions has requested it, there is probably no need to apply for letters of administration - see Applying for probate - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) and How to Get a Letter of Administration (co-oplegalservices.co.uk)

Thank you JGB.

Is it a straightforward job to notify HMRC about his assets at the time of his death ?

JGB1955

Yes, it's simple and can be done online - have a look at Valuing the estate of someone who's died: Report the estate’s value to HMRC - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Keep_pedalling

Murphy_The_Cat said:

JGB1955 said:

Unless any of the financial institutions has requested it, there is probably no need to apply for letters of administration - see Applying for probate - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) and How to Get a Letter of Administration (co-oplegalservices.co.uk)

Thank you JGB.

Is it a straightforward job to notify HMRC about his assets at the time of his death ?

As you are not going to apply for probate you do not actually have to notify them

Murphy_The_Cat

Keep_pedalling said:

Murphy_The_Cat said:

JGB1955 said:

Unless any of the financial institutions has requested it, there is probably no need to apply for letters of administration - see Applying for probate - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) and How to Get a Letter of Administration (co-oplegalservices.co.uk)

Thank you JGB.

Is it a straightforward job to notify HMRC about his assets at the time of his death ?

As you are not going to apply for probate you do not actually have to notify them

Really ?  I thought that HMRC needed to know someones "closing balance" - so using "Tell Us Once" is enough and if they want to know anything else they will ask Mrs Cat

Savvy_Sue

Murphy_The_Cat said:

Keep_pedalling said:

As you are not going to apply for probate you do not actually have to notify them

Really ?  I thought that HMRC needed to know someones "closing balance" - so using "Tell Us Once" is enough and if they want to know anything else they will ask Mrs Cat

Nope. What HMRC care about is whether the estate of the deceased owes them any inheritance tax. DWP care about whether any benefits have been overpaid. 

Sometimes there's a value in obtaining probate or - in the case of someone who hasn't left a will - 'letters of administration'. It means future generations will be able to find his worth at the time of death if they're doing family history. If there was a property it would need to be done before that could be sold. In this case, if you can extract the money without probate, go for it!

Keep_pedalling

I Savvy_Sue said:

Murphy_The_Cat said:

Keep_pedalling said:

As you are not going to apply for probate you do not actually have to notify them

Really ?  I thought that HMRC needed to know someones "closing balance" - so using "Tell Us Once" is enough and if they want to know anything else they will ask Mrs Cat

Nope. What HMRC care about is whether the estate of the deceased owes them any inheritance tax. DWP care about whether any benefits have been overpaid. 

Sometimes there's a value in obtaining probate or - in the case of someone who hasn't left a will - 'letters of administration'. It means future generations will be able to find his worth at the time of death if they're doing family history. If there was a property it would need to be done before that could be sold. In this case, if you can extract the money without probate, go for it!

It is also a wise thing to do where the first partner dies and leaves some of their estate to people other than their spouse. This makes it easier for the e executors to wind up the survivors estate when they eventually die. 

Murphy_The_Cat

Savvy_Sue said:

Murphy_The_Cat said:

Keep_pedalling said:

As you are not going to apply for probate you do not actually have to notify them

Really ?  I thought that HMRC needed to know someones "closing balance" - so using "Tell Us Once" is enough and if they want to know anything else they will ask Mrs Cat

Nope. What HMRC care about is whether the estate of the deceased owes them any inheritance tax. DWP care about whether any benefits have been overpaid. 

Sometimes there's a value in obtaining probate or - in the case of someone who hasn't left a will - 'letters of administration'. It means future generations will be able to find his worth at the time of death if they're doing family history. If there was a property it would need to be done before that could be sold. In this case, if you can extract the money without probate, go for it!

Cheers Sue

The less administration and paperwork the better and I'm simply not interested in the slightest about future generations doing family history / geneology (although they are welcome to eccess the reams of suff that my FiL had already done)

Murphy_The_Cat

Keep_pedalling said:

I Savvy_Sue said:

Murphy_The_Cat said:

Keep_pedalling said:

As you are not going to apply for probate you do not actually have to notify them

Really ?  I thought that HMRC needed to know someones "closing balance" - so using "Tell Us Once" is enough and if they want to know anything else they will ask Mrs Cat

Nope. What HMRC care about is whether the estate of the deceased owes them any inheritance tax. DWP care about whether any benefits have been overpaid. 

Sometimes there's a value in obtaining probate or - in the case of someone who hasn't left a will - 'letters of administration'. It means future generations will be able to find his worth at the time of death if they're doing family history. If there was a property it would need to be done before that could be sold. In this case, if you can extract the money without probate, go for it!

It is also a wise thing to do where the first partner dies and leaves some of their estate to people other than their spouse. This makes it easier for the e executors to wind up the survivors estate when they eventually die. 

Fortunately that doesn't apply to Mrs Cat, but I can see how it would be very helpful to others.