Probate Guide

Justiceforme

Hi, sadly my husband passed away a month ago. He did leave a will, which is not complex. I have to apply for probate and need a in-depth upto date guide on how to do this. I did contact a solicitor for advise and was quoted £4000.00 plus a percentage of full value of the assets. If anyone knows of a good guide, please provide information. Thanks in advance. 

kev1744

hi
so sorry for your loss.
i have also had to apply for probate after losing my dad recently. before you do anything i would confirm that you do in fact need it.
if you do need it then to be honest i found it easy to do myself online via government site https://www.gov.uk/applying-for-probate
it talks you through the stages and its not as daunting as you may think.
this site is also a great place to search for answers and advice.
whatever you decide to do, take your time and remember to look after yourself.

Choirgrl

I’m very sorry for your loss.

I know several people who have found the AgeUK GUIDE useful https://www.ageuk.org.uk/globalassets/age-uk/documents/factsheets/fs14_dealing_with_an_estate_fcs.pdf
A change from the beginning of the year means that you no longer need to complete form IHT205 if there is no Inheritance Tax to pay.

As kev1744 says, take your time and look after yourself.

McKneff

If your hubby died intestate probate is not required. 
You need to apply for letters of administration 

shiraz99

McKneff said:

If your hubby died intestate probate is not required. 
You need to apply for letters of administration 

The OP said "He did leave a will, which is not complex".

p00hsticks

McKneff said:

If your hubby died intestate probate is not required. 
You need to apply for letters of administration 

OP says that he left a will.

shiraz99

Justiceforme said:

Hi, sadly my husband passed away a month ago. He did leave a will, which is not complex. I have to apply for probate and need a in-depth upto date guide on how to do this. I did contact a solicitor for advise and was quoted £4000.00 plus a percentage of full value of the assets. If anyone knows of a good guide, please provide information. Thanks in advance. 

Are you definitely sure you need probate?

Justiceforme

Yes, as each bank and BS specifies their own individual rules and amounts money for probate. It would make it so much easier if they all had the same rules relating to probate, some are 5 thousand pounds others fifty thousand pounds. Doubt many people check this before they pass away. Most people think that when they have left a will, its all straightforward and the estate goes to who ever they left it to.

Rusty190

My condolences to you @Justiceforme.

My husband also died fairly recently so I've just been through/am still going through the mountain of paperwork required after bereavement.

You are so right - I said the same thing, why can't all financial institutions have the same cut off point for when probate will be required then we bereaved folk would know where we stand from the outset?

As @kev1744 said, the online UK Gov website goes through it all step by step and it is fairly straightforward.

If you have the figures and asset values to hand before you start then pick a day when your feeling up to it and work through it.
I found it easier to do than to read about to be honest.

Good luck with it all.

Keep_pedalling

Justiceforme said:

Yes, as each bank and BS specifies their own individual rules and amounts money for probate. It would make it so much easier if they all had the same rules relating to probate, some are 5 thousand pounds others fifty thousand pounds. Doubt many people check this before they pass away. Most people think that when they have left a will, its all straightforward and the estate goes to who ever they left it to.

Someone could avoid probate by always keeping the amount of money in their accounts below the limits applied but that would not be a good thing as you would always have to keep your savings in cash and avoid things like S&Ss ISA. 90% of our savings are held in S&Ss ISAs so we have no way of avoiding probate on the first death even though it will be an exempt estate.

Things got much easier this year as IHT form 205 was scrapped and unless your husband left more than £325k to people other than you, you will only need to do the online probate application and no IHT forms. 

p00hsticks

Justiceforme said:

Most people think that when they have left a will, its all straightforward and the estate goes to who ever they left it to.

Unfortunately, whilst I'm sure that many wills are straightforward and the vast majority of executors are honest, it's become very clear to me after having now spent a while frequenting this part of the forum, that in this country there is actually very little in place to ensure that an executor distributes someones estate in the way that they willed, and little practical legal recourse if they don't.

Banks and other institutions can, and do, sometimes simply ask the person claiming the money to sign some sort of indemnity document declaring that they're the ones entitled to the money.

But insisting on a grant of probate before they release the money, while not guaranteeing that it will actually end up with the intended recipient, will at least ensure that the person claiming the money is the one that the deceased wanted to administer their estate and now has the legal authority to do so, as well as confirming that the correct amount of inheritance tax has been paid on the estate etc....

If there's a will, the probate process also ensures that this is visible to whoever wants to see it (for a small price) and so makes the deceaseds final wishes transparent to all.

I know the probate process has changed since I had to go through it for my brother a couple of years ago, but I believe that was to simplify it further. I found it to be quite straight forward once you;d assembled all the information (e.g. savings account balances, share values, valuation of car etc  etc)

My condolences on your loss.