Interim Payment after probate

Rosa_Moline

My brother is executor of parent’s will..both have passed now. Mum passed in May this year.
It’s just us 2 as beneficiaries and mum and dad had an uncomplicated life, so there won’t be any unknown potential claimants to the inheritance.
Brother has worked with a solicitor on probate, and I believe the stage we are at now is that he is waiting for the final bit of paperwork to come back (the official grant)
Once this is received, my brother is hoping to make an interim payment from the cash assets to both of us as soon as the bank releases the cash, which I understand takes about 2 weeks. We will then receive the rest when the property is sold. There is no inheritance tax.
My question is, I’ve read that solicitors prefer to hold onto to the cash for at least 10 months in case of claimants. This absolutely won’t happen. Is this really necessary and could my brother make an interim payment to us both as I’ve described in the above scenario?
Sorry it’s so long! Thank you for any advice.

Keep_pedalling

No it’s not nessesary in this case although your brother should retain some cash for expenses associated with the property.

bobster2

It really depends on exactly how the solicitor has been involved - i.e. have they been given responsibility for collecting and distributing the funds?

An executor can pay a solicitor to just help with all the forms and dealings with HMRC - in which case the solictor never holds any of the funds, and it's entirely up to the executor when to make any interim distributions from the account where they (not the solicitor) gather the funds. 

Rosa_Moline

Thank you both for prompt replies!
In to your questions, I will suggest to my brother that he keeps a sum of money set aside for any incidentals (bills) that may crop up before property sold OR he just pays us equally (about 45k each in cash assets I believe) and we just pay for anything between ourselves as and when.
I know my brother paid the solicitors just over 2k. Does that sound like just work for doing the forms and nothing else?
Thank you.