Separate bank account for probate plus Q on TIC

Toucan13

Hello I would really appreciate some help - I'm learning fast but have a couple of questions.

I'm one of two executors for my recently deceased father.  My mother is the only beneficiary of the Will.  I will do the bulk of the legwork as far as the paperwork is concerned.  No IHT payable as total assets are below £325k (and they are married) but within the estate there is a property worth £280k owned as tenants in common with my mum - I think I need to still apply for probate because of this?  Does the will then create a trust which will need to be registered?

Finally, when I am notifying various companies where my father had individual accounts they are asking for bank details to eventually pay the proceeds - do I need to create a new bank account?  Or if I designate a separate account with my own bank is that OK if both my mum and the other executor are happy?

Many thanks for any guidance

Keep_pedalling

If the will simply leaves everything to your mother then there will be no trust your mother will own the whole hose outright. Unless there are other assets that can’t be released without probate then you won’t need it. 

OldSmithy

Sorry to hear about your loss. I was in the same position back in March and I’m no expert but I did the executor role myself with my mum and sister leaving things to me which also required a probate application. 

The probate application was only required because one of my dads ISA accounts had a balance above the limit for which the account needed probate to release these funds. 

The property was no issue and as keep_pedalling has said (and helped me understand at the time) it didn’t need a trust creating. Mum has a lifetime right to live in the property. 

I looked at opening a special executors bank account but struggled so much to find a bank to actually help me with this I decided to just open an additional current account with my current bank to keep all transactions separate. I kept family informed throughout as to what I was doing and kept good records of all monies I received and the small number of payments I had to make for probate etc. Hence, I could produce a final statement and transfer everything then to mums accounts. 

This worked perfectly fine and all paid into this account. I had everything concluded a good few weeks back now. 

Hopefully that helps a little as I found responses via this forum really helped me at the time and gave me confidence to sort things myself rather than paying a solicitor. My dad did keep very good records of everything that helped the process though I must say. 

Toucan13

Thanks for such quick replies - really appreciate it.   I think it might be slightly more complicated than I initially suggested as the wording in the will has apparently created a trust on death which half the value of the property only has moved into so it seems I might need to register the trust after all and do something with land registry too.

Sorry to hear of your loss OldSmithy - glad you managed to process everything quickly and smoothly.  It does seem to be a complicated circle - those organisations that don't need probate need bank details and I can't open a bank account as an executor without probate.....I'll have a chat with my co-executor and see how comfortable they are in my using a separate account in my name

SiliconChip

Toucan13 said:

I'll have a chat with my co-executor and see how comfortable they are in my using a separate account in my name

In a relatively similar situation to yours (although without the Trust complication) I simply used an existing current account that I had which had a low starting balance and no regular transactions, and just had all funds transferred into there before paying out to the beneficiaries (in two tranches, an interim payment using liquid funds and a final payment once the house was sold). The only slightly tricky aspect was that my co-executor and I had to sign a letter for the solicitor dealing with the house sale so that she could transfer the balance into an account in my name only.

OldSmithy

It will clearly depend upon the Will but my limited knowledge understanding is that the trust was effectively created upon my dads death as they were TIC too (maybe it depends upon who the property is left to or how it is left). It didn’t need anything specific creating or registering with the land registry. Ironically that’s my next task as they owned the home for so long I don’t believe it has ever been registered (no record available online) so I have the deeds and that process to wade through when I have time, just to tidy everything up!

Keep_pedalling

Toucan13 said:

Thanks for such quick replies - really appreciate it.   I think it might be slightly more complicated than I initially suggested as the wording in the will has apparently created a trust on death which half the value of the property only has moved into so it seems I might need to register the trust after all and do something with land registry too.

Sorry to hear of your loss OldSmithy - glad you managed to process everything quickly and smoothly.  It does seem to be a complicated circle - those organisations that don't need probate need bank details and I can't open a bank account as an executor without probate.....I'll have a chat with my co-executor and see how comfortable they are in my using a separate account in my name

Sounds like an immediate post-death interest trust, which in itself does not require obtaining probate. The trust is automatically created by the will but it does have to registered with HMRC within two years of his death, unless your mother dies before you get round to registering it or it is wound up for some other reason before the 2 years are up.

https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/trust-registration-service-manual/trsm23020

Toucan13

Thanks Keep_pedalling, that's a really useful link (in the bookmark folder now!)

I think I got the idea I needed probate from one of the HMRC websites which seemed to infer if joint tenants it was OK if other assets were within organisations' limits but if tenants in common it would be needed