obtaining probate for deceased person????

kunash

Cook_County wrote: »

Organise the paperwork properly.

fortunately, my mum in the past year has gone through all her paperwork, and placed it in a suitcase, together with her own. I have now gone through this, and sorted all her investments into individual folders, made a note of joint names, references, and cross referened, and made notes of all her property addresses, shares and gifts.

I know that I have all the information i now need, to request valuations. I will of course have to make a phone call to the solicitors (joint execs) tomorrow, before I send these requests off. I will ask them if I can to do it. all that is required now is sending letters off, nothing else is needed. I am not sure if they will ask to see all this paperwork. i am quite happy to drive up there and hand it over, as long as they dont charge the estate too much looking through it.

Cook_County wrote: »

Suggest a local accountant to prepare the final income tax and inheritance tax returns if the one they will use is more expensive then the one you usually use.

This is a good idea, we have had the same accountant for many many years now. i will ask him tomorrow about the income tax returns ( normally this is done much later in the year ), i will also ask him about how involved the iht return is, and whether he could do it, ( after asking the solicitors of course )


oh and the family tree is a good idea

kunash

Edinburghlass wrote: »

I think you need to check out this "friend of a friend" and make sure they are in fact a qualified financial advisor and also make sure your mother hasn't signed any contract with them to handle her financial affairs.

personally i wouldnt have even invited him over, I am wary of salesmen, whatever form they come in. but my mum wants to invite him back to look over my valuations, once i have them all back.

Glad

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kunash

i take it that as far as the solicitors % fee is concerned for executorship of the will, they dont have to tell you their % fee, unlike for example a credit card company or bank that have to tell you their fees. i have read the letter regarding the Will that my aunty made, and no mention in it of fees.

like i said before, my mum and myself both have Wills with them, same as my aunt, and we were never told. are they required by law to tell us their fees?

jonnyw_2

kunash wrote: »

i take it that as far as the solicitors % fee is concerned for executorship of the will, they dont have to tell you their % fee, unlike for example a credit card company or bank that have to tell you their fees. i have read the letter regarding the Will that my aunty made, and no mention in it of fees.

like i said before, my mum and myself both have Wills with them, same as my aunt, and we were never told. are they required by law to tell us their fees?

You need the will itself. If it does not include a clause which says that any professional person who is an executor can charge, they they are not entitled to do so and will probably renounce their right to be executors because they wont want to work for nothing. But this situation is exteremly unlikely, almost inconceivable,

If the solicitors are joint executors then really you may well be wasting your time doing more than identifying the assets, obtaining the valuations and so on, because they will just repeat the work you have done because they will have to repeat it to discharge their duty to the estate and court. Possibly they may be named as executors if you and your mum cannot do the job. If it is worded this way then you can do it yourself.

A third point, most banks and a lot of insurance companies will release funds to pay the IHT. There is a specified procedure between them and the IHT office to do this in a way where the banks money goes direct to the IHT office.

Good luck

kunash

jonnyw wrote: »

You need the will itself. If it does not include a clause which says that any professional person who is an executor can charge, they they are not entitled to do so

ok that is interesting. i have just read teh Will, and there are lots of directions at the end, but no mention of a % fee. they will of course charge their hourly rate, and that is fair enough of course.

jonnyw wrote: »

If the solicitors are joint executors then really you may well be wasting your time doing more than identifying the assets, obtaining the valuations and so on, because they will just repeat the
work

I will ask them this point, i know solicitors liek to be very thorough, and they have to be, but i am confident i have all the details, so hoepfully they will accept them, and not write to the companies again.

kunash

they told me that even if i wrote to all the companies involved, they would still have to do the same, so the work would be duplicated.

they told me they do charge an hourly rate for small estates and % for larger estates, so in this case they would charge a % fee. they said they dont need to mention this at the time the will is drafted or mention it at all, as it should be common knowledge that solicitors charge a % fee.

but what they did say, is the fee is negotiable, and they will reduce it, i the estate is substantial. they will get back to me on that.

so i think we should be able to work together.

Sailor_Sam

Hi, know how you are feeling, my mum died last year, estate was below inheritance threshold, so the taxman was'nt invoved. The probate office was very helpful we phoned them a couple of times for advice, while doing all the paperwork. Mum had all sorts of small bank accounts, premium bonds, old 'penny' insurance policies etc. All the ones below i think £1500, did not need to see probate, just the death certificate and the will.
My mum named me, my sister, and the solicitor who drew up the will as executors. I went to see the solicitor, and said my mum did'nt mean for them to be involved, and only put them down because they had suggested it, when the will was drawn, I know that 'cos I was there, with her.
I forget how much, but they were charging a lot. I asked if they would give up the right to be an executor, i was expecting them to say ok but it will be perhaps £500 or so.
We were very lucky, solicitor says fine ! £25 for a letter.
Needless to say I did'nt see much of the rest of the family while doing the paperwork.
Very sad going through everything, sat here crying more than once, still step by step, got it all done.
The others would have been in the way anyway.

DebAmbury

Hi All Wondered if anyone can help. I have recently lost my Uncle who unbeknown to us changed his will leaving everything to his daughter who has only been around the last 18months, but we lost my Aunt back in 2004 and now the solicitor is holding her will and wont send it for probate. The copy was removed from the property on the day of my Uncles death so we don't have a copy either but we know she left specific instructions on what was to happen to her property on the passing away of my Uncle.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Thanks Debs

localhero

Hi DebAmbury,

I think you need to ask the solicitor what's going on.

Alternatively, if the executor(s) are not dealing with the estate as they should be, then an application can be made to replace them.