PROBATE

Applying for the Grant, Collecting and Distributing the Assets

Probate is the legal right granted to a person (or more than one person) to deal with someone else’s property, money and possessions after they die. This is also sometimes referred to as dealing with someone’s estate. We can apply for the grant of probate for you if you are the executor of an estate where there is a Will or if there is no Will and you are entitled to apply as Administrator of the estate and we can fully administer the estate for you.

It can be a particularly difficult time following someone’s death. However, our legal experts are on hand to represent you in obtaining the grant of probate. Our experts can also collect and distribute assets that form part of someone’s estate on your behalf.

Our team, between them have over 25 years of collective experience in delivering high quality work in all matters relating to estate administration. Regardless of who works on your matter, they are supervised by Aileen Francis, a Solicitor and full member of STEP having passed the STEP Diploma and so entitled to use the letters TEP (Trust and Estate Practitioner) www.step.org and she is also Senior Partner in the firm and Head of Probate and Estate administration.

The people dealing with your matter would be one or more of our qualified lawyers specialising in this area of law, these are Aileen Francis a solicitor and partner in the firm, Melissa Sear, a Chartered Legal Executive and partner in the firm, Debbie Bellini a solicitor and Jessica Brown a Chartered legal Executive. Details of their qualifications and experience may be seen on our about page.

We can advise you if an estate will be subject to tax. There is also information on the UK Government guide to inheritance tax.

We also recommend using trusted sources such as gov.uk or Legal Choices.

There is also a trusted Government website: GOV.UK – Dealing with the estate of someone who has died – Overview

What work would you be doing for me?

  1. Meeting with you to take details of the assets held by the deceased (e.g leasehold and/or freehold property, bank accounts, stocks and shares, life policies, premium bonds and details of the liabilities the deceased had at the date of death. e.g loans, mortgages, credit card debts and also this would include details of any lifetime gifts made by the deceased 7 years prior to their death as well as the liability of funeral account costs. This meeting may take between ¾ hour to 1 ½ hours. We explain the provisions of the Will or the provisions of the intestacy rules, ie legal rules that apply if there is no valid Will. Also, we would advise on payment of the funeral costs and if required arrange this to be paid out of the monies in the estate.
  2. We would advise you at the initial meeting about the type of application you will need to make to the Probate Court. We will also do this in correspondence and/or e mail. Sometimes we may need to wait until we have further information and to be able to advise on this and we will tell you at the meeting what further information we need. We obtain and advise you on the information that we need to complete forms for you to sign to apply for the grant of probate (and also the forms that need to be submitted to the Inheritance Tax office if applicable) To do this we write to the beneficiaries, banks, pension companies, life companies, utility companies, share registrars, the department for work and other pension providers and we require valuations for property, household and personal goods and shares held by the deceased. We enquire about lifetime gifts made by the deceased in the seven years prior to death enquire about any loans credit card debts owed by the deceased. Once we have all the information and replies to our enquiries we calculate the value of the estate for Inheritance Tax purposes. We prepare the documents you need to sign to apply for the grant and the documents that need to be submitted to the Inheritance Tax office (if applicable). This includes the calculation of Inheritance Tax and making arrangements to pay the Inheritance Tax due at that stage and preparation of the Legal Statement for you to sign which is sent to the Probate Court. We prepare the Legal Statement for you to sign.
  3. These steps 2. and 3. are likely to take 4 to 8 weeks in an estate that is not taxable to Inheritance Tax. However, in an estate taxable to Inheritance Tax it may take up to one year particularly if it is a complex estate, to obtain all the correct information and values. We then make the application to the Probate Court. If the estate is taxable to Inheritance Tax, prior to our submitting the application to the Probate Court, we have to send the appropriate forms signed by you to the Inheritance Tax office and once we receive their response we may then apply for the grant of probate to the Probate Court. This means there is an estimated 3 week gap when we wait to hear from the Inheritance Tax office before we can apply for the grant in an estate taxable to Inheritance Tax. Whereas in an estate not taxable to Inheritance Tax we may apply for the grant once we have all the information ie usually within 4-8 weeks.
  4. We monitor the applications, chasing where required at the Inheritance Tax office and the Probate Court and handle enquires that may be received back from the Inheritance Tax office and/or the Probate Court. This is usually over a timescale of 16 -20 weeks.
  5. We supply the grant of probate to you once it has been issued by the probate court. There is a timescale of 1-2 weeks for it to be received by us from the probate court and sent to you once the grant has been issued.

Further information on how long does it take and what do we do?

As indicated earlier It usually takes 4 to 8 weeks for us to obtain the information needed to submit the application for the grant of probate, unless it is an estate taxable to Inheritance Tax. If applicable during this time we will also deal with the income tax and capital gains tax affairs of the deceased up to the date of death. This is to calculate if there is any income tax or capital gains tax due to be paid by the estate at the date of death. If so, we will help you make arrangements to pay this. Alternatively, if there is any repayment of income tax due to the estate to be included in the value of the estate and we will arrange for this to be repaid to the estate.

How long does it take in estates taxable to Inheritance Tax?

As we mentioned earlier in estates taxable to Inheritance Tax the time needed for us to obtain all the information to be included to submit the application for the grant of probate and the forms to be submitted to the Inheritance Tax office may be a lot longer and may take up to one year. This time scale depends on the complexity of the case and the Inheritance Tax office allows a maximum of one year so that the fullest enquiries may be made about the values in the estate and the most accurate information on the amount of Inheritance Tax due to be paid is calculated and the Inheritance Tax paid.

If Inheritance Tax is payable a return has to be submitted to the Inheritance Tax office with details of the assets and liabilities of the estate. We advise on and complete these forms, once we have the information and have done this, the forms are signed by the executors/administrators. We then submit the forms to the Inheritance Tax office. This has to be done and the Inheritance Tax paid within one year of the date of death (though some Inheritance tax e.g on residential property may be paid by instalments, but the inland revenue charge interest on the outstanding instalments until it is paid in full ). Interest is charged 6 months from the date of death.

To avoid interest being charged by the Inheritance Tax office on tax that may not be paid by instalments or if there is sufficient cash in the bank accounts of the deceased to pay the Inheritance Tax in full we can provide you with an estimate of the Inheritance Tax due. This is provided we have sufficient information, and we can help you arrange to pay this Inheritance Tax within 6 months of the date of death to save interest being charged. If ultimately it is calculated there has been an overpayment of Inheritance Tax then the Inheritance Tax office will repay it to the estate with interest and we advise you on this.

It is important for you to note that in an estate taxable to Inheritance Tax forms with information about the values in the estate have to be submitted to the Inheritance Tax office and the Inheritance Tax due paid before the application for the grant of probate may be submitted to the probate registry.

The full administration of an estate taxable to Inheritance Tax (including time needed to receive a grant of probate) may take up to 2 years. However, this depends on a range of factors including how complex the circumstances are. However, the majority of estates full administration is completed within a year, with estates not taxable to Inheritance Tax usually completed within 6 months to 9 months.

What work would you do on my behalf once the grant of probate has been received?

The services we would help you with will depend on the circumstances of the estate but they would include:

  • Writing to banks or other holders of financial assets to release funds to you this may take an estimate of 4-8 weeks for the asset holders to release funds once we have contacted them
  • We would advise that the executors place Trustee Act Notices in The London Gazette and local newspaper to advertise for creditors prior to the distribution of the estate to the beneficiaries by the executors. These notices, protect the executors against claims by creditors that they did not know about if the executors distribute the estate after the end of the notice period. The executors should wait for the notices to expire which is after two months from the notices being placed.
  • We would arrange to sell or transfer investments that form part of the estate this may take an estimate of 2-12 weeks depending on the type of investment or shares and whether any indemnities need to be obtained eg if the deceased had lost share certificates and /or policy documents.
  • We would advise the executors on capital gains tax on sale of assets e.g sale of shares and/or sale of property and arrange with you for this to be paid. We also deal with the payment of income tax for the period of administration (if applicable ) and we would prepare the capital gains tax return and income tax returns. This would take 2-6 weeks cannot be done until the sale of assets and/or closure of accounts has taken place as the amount of interest, dividends or capital gains would not be known until then. We may not hear from the relevant tax offices for many months depending on their timescale to respond to us but we would regularly contact the tax offices to try and expedite matters for you.
  • We would advise you if it was necessary to register the estate as a complex estate with the Inland Revenue and whether any Trust arising in the estate would need to be registered with the Trust Registration Service and would deal with this for you and the timescale for this is 1-2 weeks.
  • We would contact beneficiaries of the estate and would prepare estate accounts for approval by you the executor/administrator of the estate once we have all assets realised and liabilities paid and accounted for in the estate and then we would take forward the distribution of the estate’s assets to the beneficiaries this may take an estimate of 4-6 weeks.

PLEASE NOTE :_ The costs and charges for dealing with obtaining the grant of probate and administering the estate do not include a contested ie disputed will or estate or an estate with foreign assets. It does not include any conveyancing costs in connection with the sale or transfer of any of the deceased’s properties and does not include costs in respect of tracing missing beneficiaries or obtaining insurance cover in respect of missing beneficiaries or a missing Will. It also does not include the costs of any Deed of Variation of the estate.