Wills & Probate
© InHouse Wills
Probate
Probate: (from the Latin probatus) v.t. to obtain official approval of an instrument purporting to be the last will and testament.
(in everyday terms: probate means dealing with all the financial, tax and legal matters of implementing a Will or the rules of intestacy)
Probate
Strictly speaking the term ‘probate’ refers to one small part of the process of sorting out the affairs of someone who has passed away. However, in everyday language we often use it to cover the full ‘estate administration’ - that is, all the complex legal, inheritance tax and financial responsibilities that are involved from beginning to end.
The responsibility for handling probate normally falls to the executor, usually named in the Will. It is the process of proving the validity of the Will (or confirming that they died intestate). This gives you a Grant of Representation confirming the authority of the Executor(s) to take control of the assets and carry out the Will.
Pre-paid Probate
You may have been offered a service to pay for Probate in advance - a so-called “Pre-bate” service - or to ‘guarantee’ that the fee will be no more than a fixed percentage.
Our advice is clear - NEVER pay in advance for Probate or for so-called discounted fees. There are many reasons to avoid this, including
- your estate might not need probate at all, or
- the process may be relatively cheap and simple for your family to handle themselves.
If you are still tempted, contact us to talk it through in more detail.
For some simple estates you may be able to avoid obtaining probate. If savings with any one organisation are relatively small (typically under £15,000) and there is no property to be transferred and there are no shares to be sold then you may be in luck. However, it only needs the holder of one asset to insist on seeing a Grant and suddenly the whole estate becomes involved in the probate process. This can involve some complex forms covering legal and financial issues including making submissions to HM Revenue & Customs.
You have to ensure that any Inheritance Tax that is due is paid - that is before you can be issued with the Grant of Probate. Then, once you have the Grant, you are responsible for gathering in the assets (e.g. closing accounts, selling shares, etc) paying all the debts and distributing the legacies according to the directions of the Will. This may include selling property or arranging for it to be transferred into the name of the beneficiary. If the Will contains trusts then normally the executor has to implement the trusts and act as trustee to look after the assets long term. However, if all the major assets have already been put into a lifetime Home Protection Trust then the costs and delays of probate could be reduced or even entirely avoided.
If you simply need some basic advice then we can help. Equally, if you would like someone to take on the responsibility on your behalf then we can organise that for you, no matter where you live in the country. Contact us to see how we can help your particular situation.
Applying for Probate and completing Inheritance Tax forms - help is available.