Legal expenses insurance cover for probate disputes

Aescapulus

Does anyone know which date is relevant for legal expenses insurance cover for a probate dispute?

I have home insurance and have legal expenses insurance cover as part of the home insurance.

I am an executor on the will of my late father. Someone who was not provided for in the will has put a claim against the will.

The insurance company have said that the date relevant to cover was the date of death of my father. If the insurance policy period covered that date then I would have cover.

We’ve had home insurance with legal expenses for years but the legal expenses policy that did cover my father’s death does not cover a probate dispute.

My argument is if I buy a car, then usually I will expect to drive it without incident and only if I’m involved in a motor vehicle incident will this precipitate a claim.

Similarly when someone dies we usually expect the grant of probate application and distribution of the estate to go without incident. Here the person making a claim on the estate is analogous to the motor vehicle accident, that is the precipitating event of my claim for legal expenses. In which case we would be covered by the policy as we were first notified of a potential dispute sometime after the death of my father.

I’m interested in anyone’s experience of this, or any advice

DullGreyGuy

Did your father live in your home? 

Have you read your policy terms?

Most consumer insurance in the UK is written on a "losses occuring during" basis. So to have cover the insured incident must happen during the valid period of the insurance. There can always be an argument on the "causal chain" so if the incident is the date of your father's death or the date that the claim was made. 

I've not seen a LE policy that covers probate, most are property, consumer, employment and injury that isn't RTA related. 

Aescapulus

Thank you.
No, Dad did not live in our home it is our own home insurance which has 'legal expenses cover'

The policy does not seem to define the relevant time period as far as I can tell. However, the issue has evolved.

The insurance company are now not focussing  on the relevant period but are saying that my legal expenses are only covered if as a beneficiary I was contesting the will, which seems like semantics, since as a beneficiary I am being dragged into a contest over the will.