Advice for DIY probate

joseyjo72

Hi, I wonder if anyone can help. My partner and I are doing probate for his mum's estate. We plan on doing it ourselves but have a couple of questions we'd like to ask a probate expert or solicitor so we can be sure we're doing it right. Mostly it is straightforward, but his Dad (who died 8 years before) had some shares in his own name which were never transferred to his Mum so we need to know whether we have to do anything different there - apply for probate for him too for example. We asked a local solicitor if they could give us some advice - we really only need about 30mins of someone's time - but they do minimum 90 minutes @ around £600+ which we really don't think we need. Is there anywhere we might get answers to a couple of questions?

Thanks

Alderbank

Probate is always needed to transfer shares or property.

Are you saying that Dad left shares to his wife in his will but the executor of his will never did anything about them? If so, it is up to his executor to deal with them.
...or are you saying Dad died intestate 8 years ago and no-one stepped up to administer his estate?

joseyjo72

His Dad died leaving everything to his wife (my partner's mum) and looking at his Dad's will, my partner and his sister are named executors. I don't think they realised this at the time as their Mum had the will and they assumed she had dealt with everything. So they can deal with it now, but we aren't clear how this will affect the probate application for his mum.

Hoenir

joseyjo72 said:

His Dad died leaving everything to his wife (my partner's mum) and looking at his Dad's will, my partner and his sister are named executors. I don't think they realised this at the time as their Mum had the will and they assumed she had dealt with everything. So they can deal with it now, but we aren't clear how this will affect the probate application for his mum.

As the named executors of the will was their responsbility to deal with the legal formalities. What else might they have not bothered dealing with? 

joseyjo72

@Hoenir I think the assumption was that their mum had dealt with anything that needed dealing with, as everything just passed to her. In the same way that when my own father passed away I just assumed my mother dealt with everything. What else might have needed dealing with (genuine question)? And I suppose more importantly, what do they need to do now? As I understand it, there is no time limit on applying for probate so I assume they can do so now.

Keep_pedalling

Alderbank said:

Probate is always needed to transfer shares or property.

Are you saying that Dad left shares to his wife in his will but the executor of his will never did anything about them? If so, it is up to his executor to deal with them.
...or are you saying Dad died intestate 8 years ago and no-one stepped up to administer his estate?

If we are talking about a low value of shares held it may be possible to get away without applying for probate for him. 

https://www.ts-p.co.uk/insights/when-do-you-need-probate/#:~:text=With%20estates%20which%20include%20shares,Small%20Estate%20services%27%20or%20similar.

if probate is required you will also need to do IHT return using IHT205 as the death occurred before 31Dec 2021.

joseyjo72

Thanks @Keep_pedalling the value isn't very high but I think at least one company (there are three with smallish amounts) has suggested probate will be needed. When doing the inheritance tax form for his Dad, I suppose we will need to estimate the value of any bank accounts at that point too - hopefully we can do that ok as there are statements going back years. The amounts involved will be under the inheritance tax threshold fortunately.

When we then do probate for his Mum, will we need to ask for the share value at the time she died? They have so far given us the value when he died.