Legal issues will’s help

My father passed away before Xmas. Most of his money was in joint names with my mum so that was easy to sort out however he had a cash Isa that was only in his name. It’s in the hands of solicitors but is taking ages to release the money. I’m an executor of the will and had gave solicitor all the info and signed a few forms. 5 months on and still waiting. Solicitor saying these things take time. Can anyone advise me on this? We are in Scotland

Are you the sole beneficiary, or is it more complex than that?

In terms of releasing the ISA into the estate accounts, it’s very straight forward, no different to any other bank account really.

One thing to note though, is any solicitor will wait a minimum of 6 months from grant of probate to distribution, it’s best practice in case there are any legal challenges to the will, it also gives them ample time to call in money, and pay outstanding debts from the estate, HMRC declarations, and prepare a final statement of account..

Once the 6 month period has passed from grant of probate there’s no reason for the solicitor to delay distribution though, unless there are complications.

Your solicitor should have probably told you about the ‘6 month rule’ though, to be fair.

In fact, forget the above, has probate been granted yet?

If he died just before XMAS and the solicitor immediatly applied for probate, it may well not yet be granted. Probate can take 3 or 4 months easily from application date to grant date.

Presumably if you have a solicitor dealing with it, they will be dealing with the probate application…but you can check for free here to see if it’s granted

https://www.gov.uk/search-will-probate

But also, I wouldn’t rely on that being up to date in real time, either.

Solicitor saying these things take time

Amen to that. We’ve been through the process a couple of times in the past 10 years and it just takes a while.

Yeah, if a solicitor is dealing with it, you can’t realistically expect distrubution sooner than 6 months AFTER probate has been granted.

Over two years for me.  Iirc its not actually called probate in Scotland?

Ahh I missed the Scotland bit…my bad… I’m not sure how different it is.

Even so, 2 years sounds exessive unless it’s a complex estate, tax issues, or if there are arguments between beneficiaries?

I am also in Scotland, When my dad died the estate was wound up inside 6 months. That included contacting pension providers in the USA and Canada and selling a house.  Having said that it was possibly a simple job. My dad was very organised. There was a list in his home office of all bank accounts, pensions, insurances etc.  I contacted them all myself shortly after the funeral and notified them of the death and had file all the info and various initial replies which I handed over to our lawyer.

He remarked  “that makes a change from the bin bag full of paper we are sometimes handed”.

I have a relative who is a solicitor dealing with wills and estates, I’ll ask her what a typical time for winding up an estate is. I would expect that no cash would be handed out until the whole estate is finalised. So 5 months doesn’t seem excessive if there are a few letters going back and forth between the lawyer and any other parties involved. Perhaps an update on progress would help. You are paying them after all.

There was a list in his home office of all bank accounts, pensions, insurances etc. I contacted them all myself shortly after the funeral and notified them of the death and had file all the info and various initial replies which I handed over to our lawyer.

That alone would have saved you and/or your solicitor a bunch of work/time.

5 months isn’t a long time. I’m not saying it can’t be done quicker but I wouldn’t be expecting it. My father took longer (also in Scotland, also joint stuff went straight to spouse with no issues, but sole stuff took a while to be finished).

The will was very straight forward with all money in joint accounts with his wife apart from the ISA.  I have sorted everything else out pensions etc so this is the last bit and keen to get it tied up.  I’m dealing with a paralegal who isn’t offering much help. Thanks for all comments looks like it’s a waiting game

He remarked  “that makes a change from the bin bag full of paper we are sometimes handed”.

That was me that was – actually 5 carrier bags full.  Partly my faukt the delays as well.  Partly the lawyer and partly dealing with 5 different pension providers

My dads sister left a house she inherited from her father. But she hadn’t registered the house with the land registry. So that needed a signature from executor of her fathers will. That was her brother but he fell off a chair in hospital and recieved a serious brain injury the day she died. Then covid hit. That took some unpicking………

Probate (or equivalent) took forever in Scotland for my mum’s estate a couple of years ago.

To be honest this is the first time Iv had to deal with anything like this.
thought the ISA money would be the easy bit

I’m a beneficiary of a Cousin who passed 2 years ago in Scotland. Still waiting for everything to be sorted. Latest news was solicitors were waiting for final confirmation from hmrc there was nothing due to them. To be honest I’ve given up chasing.

Mrs C is a beneficiary from her aunt’s estate, two years and counting, also a non communicative executor means we’re totally in the dark ( although steps are being taken to get an update).

Probate can take 3 or 4 months easily from application date to grant date.

In England at least, it’s not just a case of “can,” it has to.  There’s a delay inherent in the process to allow other potentially interested parties time to object.

In our very recent (England) experience do it yourself unless I guess the estate is very complicated.

Without doubt it is daunting and by God there are a lot of forms, even for a relatively simple estate.

In our case we waited the 16 weeks from application, phoned them up. You are not allowed to phone any earlier. There was one issue which was sorted that day. We got the letters granting probate that same week.

We just now need to sell the house.

Perhaps we’ve just been lucky.