probate help ,i'm lost

natches

Hi all I've a few questions about the probate process and the more I look online the more confused I get as it's my first time

my dad past in may he was in a care home fully funded by him and his house had been sold for the funding so just money and some investment stocks that will also be turned into cash ,his estate falls well below the IHT so no tax to pay but I'm stuck on how do I let HMRC know the value ? do I still have to do a form as things seemed to have changed since the start of this year

also he's got a pension and I contacted them to report his passing and they've asked for my details as there is some money to come from that but they haven't really told me anything just sent the simple form ,am I correct in thinking this isn't probate if it's a death benefit and is if it's owed income ,and as he was over 75 they will tax it at 45 % ? 

if they do tax his pensions (income tax ) does this mean i don't have to declare it on the probate forms ?

and lastly he died instate ,my brother died some yrs ago and left some children (all adult age now ) he had one child to one woman and another five to another woman ,the one with the five moved on with another man when my brother was still alive and it turns out this man she's with adopted all of his five children have they got any claim to the estate ?

thank for any advise anyone is willing to give in advance 

Mojisola

natches said:

and lastly he died instate ,my brother died some yrs ago and left some children (all adult age now ) he had one child to one woman and another five to another woman ,the one with the five moved on with another man when my brother was still alive and it turns out this man she's with adopted all of his five children have they got any claim to the estate ?

If it was an official adoption then those children are no longer considered the offspring of your brother.  What would have been your brother's share will go to the other child he fathered.

Choirgrl

Mojisola said:

natches said:

and lastly he died instate ,my brother died some yrs ago and left some children (all adult age now ) he had one child to one woman and another five to another woman ,the one with the five moved on with another man when my brother was still alive and it turns out this man she's with adopted all of his five children have they got any claim to the estate ?

If it was an official adoption then those children are no longer considered the offspring of your brother.  What would have been your brother's share will go to the other child he fathered.

I believe this will depend on whether the children were adopted before the OPs brother died or afterwards.

shiraz99

To value the estate, just follow the instructions on the Gov website for the online probate application. If there's no IHT involved then it will be an excepted estate and you won't have to inform HMRC separately.

Do you actually need probate in the first place, what sort of cash figures are we talking about?

natches

Hi 
the city council held his account ( i didn't go through the court of protection ) so they have asked for probate for the amount of xxxleft in his account ,they also invested in a stocks company that holds xxxx plus but that is falling from the date of death .
the children were adopted after he died but the mother had already had more children with the man that adopted them before he died and I think she always intended to have them adopted either way.

thank you all for the help so far

RAS

If the deceased had investment stocks, probate may well be needed. The OP needs to check with them, and with the pension provider as some seem to be sticklers even for small sums.

natches, the situation with the adopted children is difficult. If they were legally adopted before their father's death then they are no longer allowed to benefit from the estate.

But when I worked, I encountered a number of people who had been brought up believing they were adopted, some with some documentation in their step-father's surname, whose mother and step-father had made an informal agreement was lived as if. When we asked for evidence, they discovered that their birth father was still their legal parent. Pretty mind-bending.

Do you have any evidence amongst your brother's documentation indicating that he relinquished parental rights? 

Do you know anyone on the mother's side who might in contact with her or the children? 

natches

so thats another question thinking about it ,the stocks/share company have told me the figure on the DOD but its fallen since then which figure goes on the probate form ? i presume its the higher one from the DOD but as the estate is split do I just show my niece and maybe the other five or not the final accounts to prove to them its lower ?

natches

Hi RAS 
I talked to the mother myself when I saw that the probate forms asked for information about adoption ,she said that they were legally adopted by her new husband not just a name changed and one of the children changed his name back to his former name which is also the mothers family name not my brothers name so I asked her if she had put my brother down on the birth certificates as the father and she said she had

McKneff

The 2nd last paragraph says he died intestate. 
Did you mean father if so no probate is required or am I reading it wrong

Linton

natches said:

Hi all I've a few questions about the probate process and the more I look online the more confused I get as it's my first time

my dad past in may he was in a care home fully funded by him and his house had been sold for the funding so just money and some investment stocks that will also be turned into cash ,his estate falls well below the IHT so no tax to pay but I'm stuck on how do I let HMRC know the value ? do I still have to do a form as things seemed to have changed since the start of this year

also he's got a pension and I contacted them to report his passing and they've asked for my details as there is some money to come from that but they haven't really told me anything just sent the simple form ,am I correct in thinking this isn't probate if it's a death benefit and is if it's owed income ,and as he was over 75 they will tax it at 45 % ? 

if they do tax his pensions (income tax ) does this mean i don't have to declare it on the probate forms ?

and lastly he died instate ,my brother died some yrs ago and left some children (all adult age now ) he had one child to one woman and another five to another woman ,the one with the five moved on with another man when my brother was still alive and it turns out this man she's with adopted all of his five children have they got any claim to the estate ?

thank for any advise anyone is willing to give in advance 

If the pension company have someone to whom the pension payment should be given then it falls completely outside the estate both for tax and inheritance purposes and so probate is irrelevent.  The pension should not be mentioned on the probate forms.

How the pension is handled depends on what type of pension it was.  For example was it a drawdown pension pot or a employer DB pension with a death benefit or an annuity?  See https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/pensions-and-retirement/pension-problems/pensions-after-death

natches

the pension was from an employer and he always said that they would be some money coming to me so to use that for funeral,final bills, upkeep of his house as i should get it before all the probate and stuff would be sorted ,so I'm assuming that he had a death benefit or annuity but the pension people just asked me who I was to him,was he married who was dealing with the estate

next thing I know i got a form for my bank details and to send a copy of the death cert