Would you try to do this yourself?

ChuckleHappy

My estranged father passed away last month and I am trying to decide whether to administer the estate myself or get someone in to do it. What would you do and can you see anything I should be particularly worried about?

• No will
• Four beneficiaries - myself, my brother and my deceased half sister's children who I do not know yet (and do not know their father) and who are minors
• Estate was not in a good state, we've some paperwork but there's going to be work involved in searching for lost assets to check we have everything

Known Assets
- Cash, approx £35k
- Pension, not yet sure if a beneficiary is named, approx £60k
- Car, approx £4k
- No property

Possible Assets
- Armed forces pension from the 70s
- Shares
No idea if either of these still exists

Estate debts are approx £5k

I have a quote for full administration from Co-op and they want £5k. Asking around for others. 

Flugelhorn

I am sorry to hear about your loss - even if estranged it can be difficult times

It is do-able and even if you employed someone else to do it, they would still expect you to provide and chase round for lots of the info 

The estate will split in 3 with you and your sibling getting 1/3 each and the children 1/6 each

Likely that the assets in the bank will be handed over without probate (depends which bank)

Need to discuss with the pension provider - there may be wishes on record but they will assess the situation and anyway this is outside the estate 

Armed forces pension likely to lapse on death unless spouse still alive

Not sure how you hunt for shares but will be a case of going through paperwork

lisyloo

I would do it myself.
You seem to have a good handle on it.
Keep records of everything.
Keep some money back for a while (6-12 months) in case anything arises e.g. reclaim from DWP, debts, headstone etc.

If you employ a solicitor you'll need to give them all the info anyway.
You might not need probate depending on the limits the banks will give without probate (some are up to £50K), but probate is quite doable DIY - in fact I'd say a solicitor will slow things down and be an obstacle to getting things done.

Just make sure you record everything you spend.

RAS

You may not need probate, unless you find an insurance policy that needs it or the pension provider requires it.

Is you brother prepared to help? Say one of you work with the known documents and the other do the hunting? Although there is a very good guide to finding lost assets on MSE.

There's no legal requirement but I'd suggest trying to contact the father of the grandchildren soonish, in the interests of transparency. Let them know that the rough value and each child will get a 1/6, held in trust. You could ask the parent to set up JISAs now in preparation?

Marcon

Flugelhorn said:

1. Need to discuss with the pension provider - there may be wishes on record but they will assess the situation and anyway this is outside the estate 

2. Armed forces pension likely to lapse on death unless spouse still alive

3. Not sure how you hunt for shares but will be a case of going through paperwork

1. Unless the provider decides to pay it to the estate, in which case it forms part of the estate, but not part of the estate for IHT purposes (although it doesn't sound as if IHT is going to be an issue here)

2. Don't think there is a spouse or they'd be the sole beneficiary under the rules of intestacy, given the size of the estate. In the absence of any 'eligible children' the pension will lapse - OP, you need to contact the pension administrators to let them know of your father's death

3. Any sign of dividend income showing in his bank account(s)? See https://unclaimedassets.co.uk/unclaimed-shares-and-dividends/#:~:text=There%20are%20three%20main%20registrars,have%20occurred%20over%20the%20years. Also worth trying gretel.co.uk

Alphatauri

I think you can do this without a solicitor. The biggest amount of work is gathering all the paperwork and tracking down shares etc. which you would have to do anyway.

With shares there are a number of options:
- as a pp said check bank accounts for dividends
- if he had an email address check back through his emails ( I assume you have access to his phone/pc/tablet?) as you usually get email communications if you are signed up for them 
- go through all the paperwork you can find as it is likely there is paperwork e.g. AGM notifications etc. 
- slightly longer process - use Royal Mail divert for 15 month. All his post will comes to you and over the year you should get dividend confirmation, AGM votes etc. 

pjs493

Firstly, I'm sorry for your loss.

Regarding the Armed Forces Pension, I'm assuming from what you are said in your post that neither you or your siblings are minors and dependent on your father at the time of his death, in which case there will be no beneficiary if your father died while receiving the pension. As someone mentioned above, I'm also assuming your father wasn't married when they died. If he was, his widow may have been due a widow's pension under AFPS75. Call Veterans UK to discuss the military pension and inform them of your father's death.

Other points have been touched on above. From what you say, it seems like you could manage things yourself, but only you know that answer. There's no rush and you can wait until you have quotes from solicitors before you make a decision.

Savvy_Sue

You say there's no property: is clearing the rental property well in hand? I know a social landlord would want it done very quickly, and with a private landlord you'd be paying rent until it was done. 

ChuckleHappy

Thank you so much everyone. This is very helpful and making me a bit more confident about DIYing it.

Some stuff I should have added, but don't know how to edit the original post...

• No spouse or civil partner

• He'd not started claiming the military pension

• The rental property (private landlord) has been cleared out so we're good on that score

• Re the shares, no visible dividends in bank, just some old paperwork from the 80s

• I have reached out to the father of my sister's kids. I'm hoping to get to know them and be able to work as a team on this

• Awaiting pension folks to let us know if they'll require probate or not

I think I was worried because I read something that said if the estate has beneficiaries that are minors you should get legal advice. Also I was concerned about the legalities of setting up a trust for them. But if a JISA will do maybe I was worrying unnecessarily

Alphatauri

There is no reason why you can’t do all the admin and then if you are unsure pay a solicitor to do a review - this should cost  less