Access to money during probate

Foraminiferum

It seems likely that obtaining probate following death will take some time (perhaps 12 to 18 months?) during which time school fees still have to be paid.

I realise that during this period bank accounts, etc, are frozen which means that bills like electricity and water are 'held over'.

Does anyone have any bright (and legal!) ideas which would enable these school fees to be paid without interruption at death?

marcia_

Foraminiferum said:

It seems likely that obtaining probate following death will take some time (perhaps 12 to 18 months?) during which time school fees still have to be paid.

I realise that during this period bank accounts, etc, are frozen which means that bills like electricity and water are 'held over'.

Does anyone have any bright (and legal!) ideas which would enable these school fees to be paid without interruption at death?

 If this relates to a married couple having joint accounts will mean you still have access to the funds 

Billxx

Depending on the amount, some institutions (banks, building societies etc) will release funds on submitting a death certificate and a copy of the will prior to probate being granted.

Keep_pedalling

If we are talking about school fees previously being paid by a deceased grand parent where there is no liquid assets that can be released then the parents are going to have to fund them themselves until they receive their inheritance.

The order that money comes from any estate has to be distributed in strict order

1. Secured dept
2. Funeral costs
3. Unsecured debt
4. Pecuniary beneficiaries (those entitled to receive a specific sum of money from an estate)
5. Residual Beneficiaries. 

Assuming that the ongoing school fees are the responsibility of the last of those the executor should not be prioritising that payment over any of the others. 

RAS

Foraminiferum said:

It seems likely that obtaining probate following death will take some time (perhaps 12 to 18 months?) during which time school fees still have to be paid.

I realise that during this period bank accounts, etc, are frozen which means that bills like electricity and water are 'held over'.

Does anyone have any bright (and legal!) ideas which would enable these school fees to be paid without interruption at death?

Who are the executors?

How many personal and joint accounts did the deceased use? Some providers will release money on presentation of the death certificate, I'd expect them to ask about a will and want to see that to confirm the executor's status.

Most will release the money providing the value is less than their maximum limit, which can be £5-50k, depending on the bank. They may aggregate all the accounts held by the deceased.

Did the deceased have any death insurance, generally paid outside the estate and any pension lump sums, usually paid to the nominee outside the estate? These should not need probate.

p00hsticks

Foraminiferum said:

It seems likely that obtaining probate following death will take some time (perhaps 12 to 18 months?) 

What is the reasoning for this thinking ? Unless the estate is very complicated or the executors are solicitors that are known to take their time, probate can be done far more quickly than this, especially if there is no IHT to pay. 

DavidT67

Indeed, for the last two estates I've been executor of grant of probate was received in under twelve weeks from date of death.

Foraminiferum

Thanks to everyone for their comments!  It is very refreshing obtaining a variety of views.  

I will try to answer the matters and provide further explanation where needed.
marcia_ No - the mother is a single parent, so no joint accounts.

Billxx For the potential 18-month period, the school fees would be of the order of £30k.  This amount is unlikely to be in a current account, but it could well be in a building society savings account.  This would need to be checked.

Keep_pedalling  "If we are talking about school fees previously being paid by a deceased grand parent where there is no liquid assets that can be released then the parents are going to have to fund them themselves until they receive their inheritance"

This is precisely what is trying to be avoided, since the sole parent cannot fund the fees herself.

RAS  The executor is a friend of the grand-parent in question.  No life/death assurance applies, unfortunately.
p00hsticks  It seems necessary to provide for a "worst case" situation.  Probate is likely to take quite some time because of complicated tax affairs, including IHT, and because the house which would be sold on death need significant repairs before it could practically be saleable.
DavidT67 I think you have done a good job in getting probate within 12 weeks!

Keep_pedalling

It is rarely advisable to delay a house sale to carry out repairs before selling, very often you don’t get back what you spent on it and you have the continuing costs associated with an empty house. 

You also need to add paying IHT to the top of the list I provided earlier which is going to make it even more difficult. Is there only one beneficiary? 

Emmia

I think the parent probably needs to look at moving the kids to a state school if they cannot afford the fees of a private school.

As and when the inheritance comes through, is that going to be enough to fund the kids at a private school for the rest of their education?

user1977

I would at least ask the school if they can bear with the executors while they ingather the estate. Is it actually the deceased who is being billed by the school?