[Closed] Any probate experts around?

you need to get a good few copies of the death cert, this helped me

[url= http://www.justice.gov.uk/guidance/courts-and-tribunals/courts/probate/ ]linky[/url]

good luck it can be a right pain in the arse and stressful, when my dad died i had to sort it all out for mum god love her, his bonds and savings were the worst, just lots of letters and phone calls.

she still gets letters with dads name on 4 years later which is so upsetting for her.

good luck and sorry for your loss.

Hope non of the income is into or fronm the building society, that used to be called abbey national now called a different name as they will not let you have the money.

Sorry to hear of your loss, best wishes .

Oh and ive been there so know the problems.

thanks monkey boy, that's great. From that it seems we might need to apply for probate due to my mum having her own bank a/c so we'll need a 'grant' to get the account contents transferred. Thankfully that's probably the only complication we have.

Hmmm, thanks project, the money is indeed in a Santander a/c who took over Abbey!

Ask the bank - not all require probate certificates.

And with a bit of patience you can do all the forms yourself and don't involve an expensive solicitor.

Sorry for your loss - in the middle of it myself after mum died in June (dad died 2.5 yrs ago) so we are still sifting through stuff - it isn't a quick process.

Santander do require probate - my mum had one of her accounts with them. They won't even tell the executor how much is in there until we have the paperwork. National Savings sent a cheque in weeks.

Ohh and is the will joint? Ie, no executor needed? If there us an executor, it is technically illegal for anyone else to do anything like close accounts (again, as we found out oops).

Sorry to hear of your loss.. just been through this after my dad died. Trying to help my mum get sorted.

I found out that Probate solicitors can charge in two ways, either a per hour fee, or a percentage of the estate... which you can imagine can be significant once everything is added up.

In mums case, the family bank suggested an advisor to help sort the finance and the local solicitor is doing the probate under agreed terms.

Like Mastiles FL said, its not a quick process.

Just keep asking questions so you are fully aware and informed of whats happening. There appaers to be a system called Tell me once, which the registrar of deaths can set up to inform all the agencies and utilities of the change in circumstances. It is to stop letters with family members who have died, getting sent to you.

Copies of death cert at registration are also good and cheaper than retrospective. I think we went for 6 all together.

Hope this helps.

plop_pants - Member
Hmmm, thanks project, the money is indeed in a Santander a/c who took over Abbey!

Posted 24 minutes ago # Report-Post

Basicly, abbey, wanted a probate certificate for my dead, after first asking for a death certificate, then they decided that wasnt enough, and wanted more proof, a will made by a solicitor wasnt enough proof as well, numerous long discusions with call centre staff,and their so called specialist probate dept and finally numerous formal complaints resulted in us as a family getting my fathers money paid out, and an extra payment as compensation, yet no apology, for all the stress.

And that was just the start.

As above: who is Executor? Assuming it's you.....
Get copies of death certificate and inform who ever is making the payments to change the recipient.
Any life insurance? They were happy to act on receipt of a Death Certificate.
You'll need a Grant of Confirmation to get the funds released from Bank Accounts. This can take months!!

The death certificate recommendation is a good one - some places refuse to accept photocopies so much easier to get copies done straight away.

I haven't seen the will but there will probably be no named executor on it. So I guess my dad will be executor by default. All I need to do is help him fill in the forms I think. Hopefully as the house was in joint names (and paid for) and my dad has his own pension and bank a/c all I need is a probate grant to sort out my mum's bank a/c and the bond she held with the same bank.

The solicitor would have advised he put down one of his children as executor on the will - it's unusual to not have one specified.

I assume executors don't come into the equation IF it is a joint will as the OPs dad automatically takes responsibility. It would only be if they have separate wills that one might be needed.

When my dad died it didn't come into play as mum just sorted it all out.

you may not need probate at all,- sorted my mum's last year and was relatively complex and needed probate and was a long paperwork grind and another for a non relative who died intestate and i just acted as "informal administrator" - most organisations are well geared up to deal with deaths and are helpful and most government departments have detailed how to web sites and helplines

the people that can reduce distressing letters to relatives are
[url]www.thebereavementregister.co.uk[/url]
useful plain language advice
[url]www.bereavementadvice.org[/url]

as said above need around 8-10 official copies death cert if not too late - organisations return promptly but speeds things up

and don't let your dad "clear out" any papers - a helpful(?) sister of mine cleared out a load of my mum's financial stuff "it was old" I'd already copied recent stuff but ended up nearly stuffed

I went through all this a couple of years ago when my mum died. IIRC you will need probate if savings amount to more than £5k. It's not so much hassle to get it anyway.

I'd second not getting a solicitor involved as well. My mum's was a bit of a nightmare (her will was found to be ineffective, as it referred to a trust that didn't exist ❓ 😯 ), but i got there in the end and must have saved a fortune.

Thankfully for my dad it all looks pretty straight forward so I'm going to do it all for him. Just need to fill out an inheritence tax form IHT205 and the probabate form PA1. Probably save him enough to buy a little car for himself if my estimate for the solicitors fees are accurate!