Winding Up Estate and Accounts

HappyScotsman

Finally moving to apply for a probate for my mother's estate. She was the last surviving parent. 

Will was pretty much leave some money to a couple of charities and grandkids (oldest is 14) and residual to myself and my sister. She and I are the only kids and both exec though she has no interest in being one and I've handled everything.

Not sure about the final accounts and who sees them though. And does anyone check that the estate accounts are accurate and the estate was administered correctly?

p00hsticks

The final accounts should be (offered to be) shown to the residual beneficiaries - so in your case just you and your sister.

No one checks that the estate accounts are accurate or that the estate was administered correctly, although I guess that if one of the beneficiaries thought that they were getting much less than they expected or that there were things missing from the accounts they could challenge it and if it came to it take some sort of legal action.

HappyScotsman

Thanks. Seems fair enough. I've kept her informed of everything so far so walking her through the final accounts won't be an issue.

BooJewels

What @p00hsticks said.  I've been executor 3 times recently and in one where I was the only executor and beneficiary, I didn't do any accounts, but do have a spreadsheet in with all the relevant transactions.  But where there was more than 1 residuary beneficiary I created formal accounts and we each had a printed copy in a binder.  A residuary beneficiary has a right to the information, as they need to be able to see how their final bequest amount was arrived at.  If someone is left £1,000, as long as they get £1,000 nothing needs explaining.

There is no one to check such matters, but I did instruct the beneficiaries to look through them carefully and ask about anything they didn't understand.  There doesn't seem to be any particular format they should take either - I found that was dictated by what was actually spent and received to the estate - one ended up more complicated than the other, largely because it took a lot longer due to Covid lockdowns etc. The other was done differently as there were 3 residuary beneficiaries and I distributed funds in several stages.