Is probate needed?

Brie

Had a meeting with an IFA yesterday about sorting out some of my pensions.  Towards the end of the conversation he asked about wills, POA etc.  While talking about that I mentioned that we had never applied for probate for either my FiL or MiL.  That started a lot of sucking of teeth and tutting with added "oh that's going to cause some issues".

Now I didn't think that probate was required.  And the gov uk site (below) seems to agree with me.  So let me explain the situation and see if you knowledgeable types agree.

So FiL died several years back.  He owned jointly with MiL their flat and had a few bank accounts also joint with her.  My understanding was that as their names were equally on all these things it all went to her on his death, which is in accordance with his will.

And then MiL died a couple of years back.  By that time she had sold the flat and had limited funds in a couple of accounts joint with my OH.  So when she died the money in the accounts became his, again in accordance with her will.

So no property and no savings to be mopped up or any assets to be disposed of.  No siblings for OH so no complications. 

I'm minded to just leave things as they are other than to ensure at some point that the accounts now in just my OH's name are made joint with mine at some point.  Have I missed anything??

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Check if probate is needed

Contact the financial organisations the person who died used (for example, their bank and mortgage company) to find out if you’ll need probate to get access to their assets. Every organisation has its own rules.

You may not need probate if the person who died:

• only had savings
• owned shares or money with others - this automatically passes to the surviving owners unless they’ve agreed otherwise
• owned land or property as ‘joint tenants’ with others - this automatically passes to the surviving owners

DavidT67

Wouldn't put much weight on a financial advisor giving a legal opinion, doubtful they are qualified in estates and probate.

Willeri

Sorry, OH is what? Probate not always needed as depends what property, cash someone has and how it’s owned etc, An IFA can’t advise without knowing that and being qualified and knowledgeable to do that anyway. 

Savvy_Sue

Willeri said:

Sorry, OH is what?  

Other Half

tls123

Why mention it to a financial advisor also if you are looking to do a will and power of attorney they aren’t qualified to advise on those unless I’m missing the point of the thread. You should have stuck to pension advice which is much more suited to their job. 

Brie

tls123 said:

Why mention it to a financial advisor also if you are looking to do a will and power of attorney they aren’t qualified to advise on those unless I’m missing the point of the thread. You should have stuck to pension advice which is much more suited to their job. 

I think it was part of their firms due diligence.   So asked a lot of questions about me, income, expenses attitude to risk and towards the end asked about whether there were wills and POAs in place with the line that they should be to ensure smooth management of pension funds should anything happen.  Basically if I end up with dementia but have no POA there is no one to talk to the IFA about how to manage my funds.  Likewise if there's no will what will happen to the pension which lead on to a chat about worst case scenarios and probate was mentioned.  

I do realise the chap is an IFA and I'm talking to him about pensions and nothing else.  I don't expect him to advise on anything other than that but I was not surprised by him talking about things a bit lateral.  I wouldn't expect him to pull out a card and say "call my friend Bob and he'll sort your wills etc" because he's an IFA. 

The point of the thread was - have I missed something that means probate was required when I had believed it wasn't.  The fact that it was brought up by an IFA I was talking to is really just a bit of backstory.