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I appreciate this is a pretty niche question but I know there are many people on here with hugely varying careers, so here goes.
Not overly complicated in my mind but my mum needs some advice.
My nan died last week, she lived with my mum and has no rights over the house. She had written a will which left certain valuable items to certain people. That is straight forward in my mind. She also had circa 30k in the bank, 6k was assigned to various great grand children, and the rest minus the funeral costs is to go to my mum and her sister 50/50. My mum is a counter signatory on nans bank account so therefore can she just write cheques to the stated amounts within the will to the correct people?
TIA
Is the bank account a proper joint one or is it just in your nan's name, with your mum having power of attorney rights to administer it for her?
If it is the former, in theory the account will revert to your mum's name, and she will be free to distribute the funds, with the proviso that 50% of the balance forms part of any inheritance tax liability (not an issue in this case).
If not, you will probably have to go through probate before the bank will release the funds, as POA stops when someone dies. She should not be writing cheques now if it is a Power of Attorney situation.
Don't distribute any of the assets until Probate's been granted. The Gov website is pretty good.
https://www.gov.uk/wills-probate-inheritance
There's a bit more to it. You need to go through probate. My step mum did it and had to set up a special bank account .all the cheques came from "the executor of the will of..." or something like that. Best to find an online guide or a book. Easy enough but you have to follow the right steps.
...although the site I've just linked to says you don't need a Grant if the legacy doesn't include "land, property or shares".
IANAL in case that wasn't abundantly clear.
What we dont want to do is involve solicitors and the exorbitant fees for say distributing the money to the relevant people. My nan paid a fair chunk to set up her will so it's all there in black and white and my mum is the most honest person on gods earth and will distribute it evenly down to the last penny. Is she therefore even allowed to wrote a cheque to pay for the funeral?
If your Nan's assets were only about 40k in the bank it's unlikely you'll need a grant of probate. But you will need to complete the inheritance tax forms for HMRC.
You need to trot down to the bank with the death certificate. If its a real joint account they will alter it so that it is a sole account in your mothers name and she can keep on using it as normal. In this case, I don't know if the money in there would technically still form part of your nan's estate, perhaps a lawyer could advise.
Power of attorney ceases at death. If the account was a power of attorney account it will be frozen until the executor gets it released. (I don't know how this happens without probate).
I've just dealt with my Dad's estate and he had both types of bank account.
Yes to pay for the funeral I think you are ok, just keep receipts etc.
CA is again, good on the subject.
You won't need to involve lawyers. For simple situations things are set up to be relatively easy. If in doubt you can phone HMRC. They have a probate team and from experience are helpful and sympathetic, trying to make things simple and explain it to you.
You can execute the will yourself. You just need to fill in a few forms which aren't that hard and shouldn't require professional help. Once you start you just skip loads of sections as not applicable to small amounts of money below the Inheretance tax threshold.
https://bereavementadvice.org/topics/the-funeral/paying-for-a-funeral
Not in anyway qualified but have muddled through this with my mum...
Sols aren't that expensive for getting probate and sorting out the tax side of things. We paid approx 1k iirc.
Sorry for your loss as well mate.
Latest updates, solicitors are thieving shysters, won't even talk to mum unless she stumps up 150 quid.
My nan would literally be turning in her virtual grave if she knew after all she spent setting up her will that now they're not bothered what happens. The end result being my dad is just going down to get the "official" copy.
Thankfully though the bank have been much more helpful, they will pay the funeral bill and then do all the switching over that is required with the account so that my mum and aunty can then access the remaining cash.
Thanks for the replies earlier.