Letter of wishes and probate application documents.

SaaSee

I understand the 'Letter Of Wishes' (LOW) which accompanies a will is not a legally binding document. I've spent hours and hours  googling sites to find out if the  probate application process requires me to enclose  my late father's  'Letter Of Wishes'  with his  will and If so will it be returned? The thought of queueing again  for an hour to speak to a probate helpline  agent fills me dread. I thought I'd  try my luck here. 
Thank you. 

cymruchris

I can't answer in reference the probate office - but the local solicitor that filed my dad's will also held the letter of wishes in a separate sealed envelope. I'm not sure you'd be able to do the same with the probate office - but hopefully someone else can confirm whether you can or not - and if you can't, it might be an option to store both together at a local solicitors. (Obviously with a fee payable).

SaaSee

I collected the will  from the solicitor to send to HMCT,  discovering the  additional LOW  was a suprise. I'm just not sure if I should hold on to it or post it. 

msb1234

take a copy of it and send the original with the will. If they don’t need it, they’ll return it.

TcpnT

LOW is totally irrelevant to probate application. Probate office have no interest in it. Definitely do not need to send it.

Savvy_Sue

I'm fairly sure no-one at HMRC, nor at the Probate Office, cares about a LofW. 

All they care about is what the will says, and whether any IHT is due. 

You just need to decide whether or not you are following the Wishes in the Letter, and if you are, how you intend to do this. If it would adversely affect any beneficiaries, then you may need to go down the formal route of a Deed of Variation. 

So I might write a LofW saying "I'd like my jewellery to go to my grandchildren", and leave the rest to DH in my will. My jewellery isn't worth a fortune, DH can happily hand it over and he's not lost much. It's unlikely to be worth doing a Deed, because he'd be quite likely to give something to any grandchildren anyway. 

But if my jewellery IS worth a fortune, and the will leaves 'everything' to my children, then a Deed might be advisable, because the children are going to 'miss out' on part of their inheritance which I've wished to my grandchildren. 

Or my executors might say "no, the LofW has no legal standing, the children can have everything and pass things on as they see fit." Of course if the will says everything is to be sold and the proceeds shared equally then they can only pass on the value, if that's what the executors agree to do. 

cymruchris

Apologies - I misread the OP - I thought you were querying whether it needed to be sent for storage rather than applying for probate after someone had passed - as it's the latter, I can agree with the above - it's only the will that needs to go, the letter of wishes usually contains some of the reasonings as to why the will was written the way it was. 

SaaSee

I'm new to this excellent platform, thanQ for speedy replies, sooo much  better than looong waits on HMCTS helpline listening to scratchy music.   So far the consensus is to hold on to the Low 😊👍🏾

SevenOfNine

No, you definitely don't.

Savvy_Sue has explained it fully, pretty much as our solicitor did when our wills were done, & it was mentioned we consider writing them (ourselves) at some point, & we have. I've changed bits of mine a few times.

Mojisola

SevenOfNine said:

No, you definitely don't.

Savvy_Sue has explained it fully, pretty much as our solicitor did when our wills were done, & it was mentioned we consider writing them (ourselves) at some point, & we have. I've changed bits of mine a few times.

My parents were advised to write an explanatory letter rather than include their reasons for an unequal distribution of their estate because the will eventually becomes public and the letter is private.  If the executor needs to show it to anyone, they can, but otherwise it stays private.

As part of family history research, I've come across wills where the testator went to great lengths to tell family members exactly why they weren't being given as much inheritance as their siblings - interesting finds from a distance but must have been very embarrassing for the targeted individuals.