Need to get a certified copy of my late aunts will - appreciate some help

VKE

Thank you in advance for ready my message I would really appreciate some helpful feedback. 

I'll apologise in advance for the long post but I don't want to not give info that might alter your response.....

So my aunt unexpectedly passed away in 2019 and I was the execuator along with Co-op legal services and was the sole beneficiary. Probate was granted Dec 2019 and her estate was dealt with in full by mid 2020.

When going through her paperwork ect I found some old paper Premium Bonds (1960's & 1970's) and put them into my safe and I completely forgot about them; she had modern electronic PB's and GB's which were correctly dealt with but as I mentioned above I forgot about the old paper PB's until I came across them 3 weeks ago ( I'm so annoyed with myself!).

This is what I've done to try and deal with the old PB's

• Called NS&I on 3 different occasions and been told different things but I have received 4 page form I need to complete but they have said I will need to send them:

         1: Certified Death Certifcate: Have
         2: Certified copy of Will: Don't have, as Co-Op were dealing legal side of things they said I didn't
             need certified copy 

• I did go on www.gov.uk/search-will-probate and paid the £1.50 fee and I got the Will and Probate documents but the Will doesn't say its Certified
• I called the solicitor I used for my Will to see if they could certify the Will I paid for via Gov.uk  and they said not without seeing the original Will - this I'm a little confused over seeing as the Will and Probate docs I've got from Gov.uk must be authentic otherwise Probate wouldn't have been granted and wouldn't be showing on Gov.uk
• I contacted NS&I again and said they had already dealt with my aunts electronic PB's and GB's and that they'd already been sent a Certified copy of the Will so can't retrieve her info and Will and the person "didn't know" which didn't/dosen't really help me
• Contacted Co-op legal services seeing as to asking that can send me a Certified copy Will and they emailed me yesterday to say as they no longer hold the original Will and they cannot certify one for me and that I will need to order a copy of the Wil from www.gov.uk/search-will-probate with the £1.50 fee which is what I have already done

If you've manged to work your may though my post and are still awake can anyone offer me any help with how I can move forward with resolving this issue.

badmemory

Are you sure that the old PBs didn't get refunded with the newer.  When I bought some new ones in about 2014 N S & I managed to tie them together with the ones I had from 1959.

Marcon

VKE said:

Thank you in advance for ready my message I would really appreciate some helpful feedback. 

I'll apologise in advance for the long post but I don't want to not give info that might alter your response.....

So my aunt unexpectedly passed away in 2019 and I was the execuator along with Co-op legal services and was the sole beneficiary. Probate was granted Dec 2019 and her estate was dealt with in full by mid 2020.

When going through her paperwork ect I found some old paper Premium Bonds (1960's & 1970's) and put them into my safe and I completely forgot about them; she had modern electronic PB's and GB's which were correctly dealt with but as I mentioned above I forgot about the old paper PB's until I came across them 3 weeks ago ( I'm so annoyed with myself!).

This is what I've done to try and deal with the old PB's

• Called NS&I on 3 different occasions and been told different things but I have received 4 page form I need to complete but they have said I will need to send them:

         1: Certified Death Certifcate: Have
         2: Certified copy of Will: Don't have, as Co-Op were dealing legal side of things they said I didn't
             need certified copy 

• I did go on www.gov.uk/search-will-probate and paid the £1.50 fee and I got the Will and Probate documents but the Will doesn't say its Certified
• I called the solicitor I used for my Will to see if they could certify the Will I paid for via Gov.uk  and they said not without seeing the original Will - this I'm a little confused over seeing as the Will and Probate docs I've got from Gov.uk must be authentic otherwise Probate wouldn't have been granted and wouldn't be showing on Gov.uk
• I contacted NS&I again and said they had already dealt with my aunts electronic PB's and GB's and that they'd already been sent a Certified copy of the Will so can't retrieve her info and Will and the person "didn't know" which didn't/dosen't really help me
• Contacted Co-op legal services seeing as to asking that can send me a Certified copy Will and they emailed me yesterday to say as they no longer hold the original Will and they cannot certify one for me and that I will need to order a copy of the Wil from www.gov.uk/search-will-probate with the £1.50 fee which is what I have already done

If you've manged to work your may though my post and are still awake can anyone offer me any help with how I can move forward with resolving this issue.

Solicitors can't certify something as a true copy of the original unless they actually have sight of the original at the time they certify. There's no 100% guarantee the correct and complete copy has been uploaded.

Have you asked NS&I if they are happy to rely on a copy they download and you pay the princely fee of £1.50?

BooJewels

If Probate has been granted, do you have a court sealed paper Grant of Probate?  Surely that would trump the certified copy of the Will?  If you're executor, that should be stated on the Grant of Probate and it also states that the Will itself has been proved.  If you don't have your own copy, can the Co-Op people supply you with one?

ETA:  To reiterate what @badmemory said - is it possible that these old certificates were already in the batch you have cashed in.  My aunt had a great wedge of fancy paper ones from 1959 and 1960, but when I checked the numbers, they were already included in the list on her NS&I statements - several pages of them.

GoogleMeNow

I used the NS&I Bereavement Form to claim the PBs that my late mother had.  However, her investment was very small and I received the cash into the Estate Accounts pretty quickly without showing the Will or Grant (which has not been granted yet).  I believe if the investment is over £5000 then they would need to see the Grant of Probate.  Also, it might be because of the long gap between your Aunt passing away and this claim now.

As above, the Grant of Probate should trump the Will.  I know that when my husband passed away, all I was asked for was the Grant, not the Will.

It is a little concerning to me though because although I did take a copy of mother's Will before I sent the original off to the Probate Office, it wouldn't be classed as a certified copy because it was not stamped by a solicitor.

TonyMMM

BooJewels said:

If Probate has been granted, do you have a court sealed paper Grant of Probate?  Surely that would trump the certified copy of the Will?  If you're executor, that should be stated on the Grant of Probate and it also states that the Will itself has been proved.  If you don't have your own copy, can the Co-Op people supply you with one?

 As above ...you need a copy of the grant of probate. The original will will have been kept by the probate office, so it is too late to get a certified copy of that.

polar_pig

I agree with others that if you don't already have a certified copy of the Will and the original has been sent to the probate office which they will have kept, then it is too late for that option. NS&I should accept an official copy of the  grant of probate. If you no longer have an official copy, this link shows how to get further copies:

https://www.fjsolicitors.co.uk/how-do-i-get-a-copy-of-a-grant-of-probate/

poppystar

There was almost certainly a list of the PBs obtained pre probate by the executor or person dealing with the estate. You could ask them for a copy of this and then check the numbers to see if these paper ones were included. That might save a lot of hassle.

molerat

As above or ask NS&I if PB No XXYY123456 had been cashed ?  Could be the simplest way of sorting it out ?

When things went electronic all my bonds from the 1970s were included in the list without me doing anything.

LocoVelo

Some people die without having made a Will and so I agree with the other posters that the Grant of Probate, naming you as executor should suffice. 

I’m sure we’ve all found inconsistencies from institution to institution when dealing with estate assets. When in doubt people tend to reach for the most impenetrable/difficult option to cover themselves. I’ve even experienced that with solicitors who should know better!

BooJewels

I wouldn't have thought that the Grant of Probate "should suffice" it's actually a more meaningful document than a certified copy of the Will - as it shows that your ID has been confirmed by a Government court and they're also satisfied that the Will meets legal requirements - it has been 'proved'.  The Grant of Probate is as good as it gets - it names and grants you the legal authority to access funds or undertake tasks, such as selling a property.

A certified copy of a Will has its uses though, if the application for Probate is in progress, or you're not otherwise needing to apply.  I used a certified copy of a will in both of those scenarios.

I would always recommend that anyone executing an estate gets a couple of certified copies before sending the original will off.  If the will is held at a solicitors, they'll usually provide a couple of certified copies if you ask when you arrange to collect the original.  I've done this with each of the estates I've executed and not been charged for any of them.