Probate, wills etc

Yes, my sister and I handled my father's estate as the two executors. Four beneficiaries including ourselves, no issues really as was a straight forward will and we were dealing with four level headed reasonable adults.
Make sure you get plenty of death certificates as some companies/banks won't accept duplicates.

Why not do all the legwork yourself - draw the accounts down, sell the house, pull the finances together and get the solicitor just to sign it off at the end.  That’s what I wish I’d have done last year!

I did all the running around to get our legal bill down, closing down accounts, house valuations in your case.  If there's any iht due I d probably get a pro to do it.  Shop around for legal services, in an affluent area you ll pay more.

Probably do it yourself. If you do appoint a solicitor avoid New Law in Cardiff (PM me if you want the juicy details)

If it's as simple as you say then DIY it... As long as you're sure there's not going to be any arguments.

But also consider the value of the estate... If it's worth over I dunno, 300 or 500k, then 4 or 5 grand in solicitors fees looks attractive to pass the buck of liability.

Also it takes bit of stress away from the executors if they were close relatives as they don't have the emotional bandwidth to become unwilling accountants.

There's no simple answer really.

I did my fathers (*scotland), various accounts, isas etc, didn’t find much online help was my main problem, which I cunningly got round by phoning different areas and getting away with 1 stupid question……

When my mum died last year I did all the legwork myself (closing accounts, house valuation, a few shares and insurance policies to track down) but got a probate specialist to fill in the forms for me. I just signed them and sent them off. While I’m happy to do my own tax self assessment, when faced with multiple forms for a fairly complex estate I just didn’t want the hassle, or risk, of making an error.

It cost maybe £2500. Much less than various solicitors were quoting.

It’s worth phoning around for quotes. I found a firm that did the application (not the donkey work of tracking down accounts and pensions et cetera) for a flat fee rather than a percentage. It was about £2,500, same as above.

I could’ve done it myself, but it whole thing can be a ball ache, depending on the estate and whether they had a will, and the solicitor helped me navigate it and give advice here and there (at a time my head was frankly shot after being my dad’s carer before he died).

It was also handy to have solicitors letters when the probate registry took nearly EIGHT BLOODY MONTHS! to grant probate and my dad’s mortgage company was giving me grief about paying it off.

I did my father probate myself,   but it was simple as my mother was the sole beneficiary, and the house was in joint names.

In some respects it is easier to do it yourself that   interact with a solicitor, and have to chanse them.

It  needs care to deterrmine the correct forms and the IHT froms that need to be filled in depend on the size of the estate.   But all the information is on gov.uk

The banks and utilities have special breavement teams who are geared up to assist and explain what needs to be done and tend to have mush more customer focused staff than a normal call centre.

Use a spreadsheet to keep track of everything.

Sounds like you have the complications of  a house to dispose of which will probbaly be the most complicated part and you will probably want professional advice about that, but you will prpably want probaate first before you move on to that part.

Cheers all,

Yeah, I think that the house is the hardest} part and interesting what you say timf, that you might need probate before selling the house.

Both parties ought to be agreeable which obviously helps and so far our belief is that there will be no iht as we believe that you can use his wife's allowance as well.
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Yeah, I think that the house is the hardest} part and interesting what you say timf, that you might need probate before selling the house.

What i meant was that any sale can not be completed before Probate is granted,   If the house is to be marketed before probat is granted then estate agent needs to be aware of the situation,  and any experienced agent will ask, and have experience as to when best to start marketing.

If the estate is just bank accounts and a house, there is no evidence of tax planning e.g. Trusts etc, and you expect no IHT to be payable then it’s easy to do it yourself.

You need probate to sell the house, but you may need a valuation to get probate.

If you do decide to use an agent, shop around and go fixed price rather than as a % of the estate.

start here for probate https://www.gov.uk/applying-for-probate/apply-for-probate

good luck.

I filled this in with my mother so i could be sole executator,

Thanks for that.

What I mean though is, I don't particularly want to exclude them, I just don't need them to do anything at this point. I don't really see why I can't just operate autonomously and ignore them.

yes – i cpuld have used paper and a biro – but i work in IT so spreadsheet is my standard tool for tracking simple stuff and adding things up, plus easy to paste info from spreradsheet in to online forms.

Same, but I guess I asked the wrong question. Rather, what sort of information should I be recording, choice of medium aside? You have a row for each organisation followed by any reference numbers?

Wife did her mum's. Probate took about 8 months to sign off, slightly complicated by SIL losing the original will, but they had a copy. Straight forward will split three ways.

I did the probate and the wills for both my Mum and Dad - both were relatively simple. Most time consuming bit was identifying the various shares, savings accounts and other investments they held.

I did the probate for my father's estate. It wasn't difficult at all and if you need to ring the probate office they are really helpful and kind at (what is for most people) a really difficult time.

If his estate had been sufficient to interest the tax man then I might have thought about a solicitor

My brother handled all the paperwork when my father died a couple of years ago - it was a fairly simple estate (bank accounts, premium bonds and a managed investment fund, we chose not to sell the house) but still took him a lot of effort with form filling, providing evidence of various things, dealing with closing down various accounts. He doesn't work so had the time available luckily but no chance I'd choose to do it myself (it did save several thousand pounds in fees though), I think it was over a year before he got grant of probate and could start paying out from the estate.

I'm currently doing my nans... Me and an uncle remain executors but I've got a solicitor doing the admin.

Fairly simple estate, house, 4 accounts and a premium bonds account.

4 beneficiaries getting a percentage of capital, house left soley to me which simplifies things a bit as there will be no rowing over sale price of the house.

Solicitor is has estimated thier fee will be £4 - 4.5k unless anything unforseen happens.

I don't think that's bad as I can't be dealing with the stress of it, and the total estate is probably 500k so needs my late grandads tax allowance putting on...

@cougar Some good info here

https://www.co-oplegalservices.co.uk/media-centre/articles-sept-dec-2018/what-are-estate-accounts/

Yeah, that's interesting. Thank you.

Cheers all,
We'll definitely look at getting quotes but reading above it all looks doable.

IHT calculation is something we still need to suss out.

IHT calculation is something we still need to suss out.

gov.uk does this for you.