How long should it take for monies from deceased estate

Bullterrierlover

My Dad sadly passed away 26th may 2025, consulted a solicitor (as you do) and probate was granted on 28th december 2025, however solicitor srill hasnt received monies from HSBC, his one and only bank account. Is this normal to take this long?

Keep_pedalling

Unfortunately your mistake was to use a solicitor rather than DIYing it, they always take far longer although once probate is granted the bank should release the funds pretty quickly. How much was in his account?

Ms_Chocaholic

What reason has the solicitor given for the delay.

Flugelhorn

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6669498/how-long-should-it-take-for-monies-from-deceased-estate

sounds like the solicitors are being slow - we had a death in the family September - probate November - money released by banks to solicitor just after Xmas and distributed January

Shylock_249

My two siblings and myself were beneficiaries from our Uncle who lived at the other end of the country from us. A solicitor was acting on my late husband's estate. It took ages, well over a year and a half to finalise eg sell the house etc.

When the solicitor eventually sent us our inheritance they enclosed a statement of income and expenditure. The one thing I found strange was that although there were many entries on the statement listed chronologically that for the last four months there were NO entries except their £1500.oo fee - £6000.00. I always got the impression that they had sat on it and the longer they did the more it benefited them.

I was amazed that the letter accompanying the statement could have been written by a 6 year old with umpteen spelling mistakes hardly any punctuation etc.

If my wife passes before me, I'll do it myself. Unfortunately if it's the other way around she will have to use a solicitor.