[Help] Probate - Some Advice Please

[Seaview Seagull]

I can see why many are advising a solicitor in your case. If you goo that way make sure you get a cost quote upfront. You also need someone who is up with French law because French inheritance rules are not as straightforward as in UK. Good luck.

 

[clapham_gull]

Wondering if anyone could help with some advice - done a Google but it's all a bit of a mess in my mind reading it all.

Dad died a few weeks ago. We've now had the funeral. I'm now dealing with his estate because, although, my Mum is executor of his will she isn't capable of carrying out any of the actions - physically or mentally. She is the sole benedictory of all his estate. I've started contacting banks and have some of the balances for his accounts such as ISAs, current accounts and saving accounts. Each time I've been asked if I wish to do it through Probate. To be fair they've all been very friendly and are supplying me the balances but I still don't know the answer to the question - maybe because I'm not thinking straight currently. Dad has multiple properties in B&H including his home and a property in France - all of which he co-owns with Mum. He also has multiple bank accounts for savings, ISAs and current accounts that amount to nearly £100k. So my questions are :

1. What is Probate in layman's terms ?
2. Do I need to apply for Probate ?
3. Any recommendations on a company that could manage the Probate ( if required ) ?

I've got death certs and my next port of call are his pension providers - I have used the 'Tell Once' service for anything governmental.

Thank you for any pointers.

Had to deal with a few times, same advice. Get a good solicitor from a recommendation.

Some advice:

1) Be patient, depending on the complexity it can take a few months.

2) Get an indication early of what they are going to charge. Solicitors have bills to pay as well (and probate can involve a bit of work), but you don't want a shock at the end.

3) If there is anything your Mum needs to do (or change) it's easier that comes from a solicitor than yourself when you are both still grieving.

4) Don't be afraid to stop them at any point if there is something you don't understand. Like all areas of the law, some simple concepts are wrapped up in a single word (like "Probate") in a language lawyers only understand.

 

[LamieRobertson]

Can’t help you…..leaving all my Dads stuff to my sister (funeral today..drained) and thankfully it’s all straight forward

Sorry for your loss and hope you get some good advice

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Nothing practical to add, just my condolences and very best wishes

 

[dazzer6666]

Sorry for your loss……..it’s tough enough dealing with it as it is without the tiresome and time-consuming admin that follows.

I dealt with the estates of both my sister and my dad and had to get probate in both cases (very likely you’ll need to). It’s a pretty simple online process that shouldn’t need a solicitor, and even if you do have one or two questions you can still have a consultation without having to pay someone several hundred pounds an hour to fill in what is a fairly simple form on a user-friendly website (using info you’ll be giving them anyway). The probate service is also remarkably efficient.

 

[amexer]

As I said before on the form you download, there is a helpline number. Probate I dealt with was not straight forward and everytime I rang the the no they were very helpful and talked me through it. As long as you have accurate details of sole assets in front of you when filling up form. They will even advise you on French property

 

[warmleyseagull]

Unless you know/have experience of solicitor I would avoid as far as possible. They will charge a lot for doing not much and very little that you can do yourself. As others have said, most of this can be done online; I have done DIY probate three times in last 5 years and have needed no legal advice, even on some tricky matters such as splitting title on property. And it has the great advantage of meaning you can do this with the help of your Mum, and keep her informed all the time on progress. I can very easily see 3-5% of the liquid estate going south otherwise.

Tricky bit is French property; I would do some research into how to sell (assuming your mum wishes to) and, very likely, recruit a French solicitor to assist on this.

Key thing is to get the Lasting Power of Attorney so you can deal with your Mum's half. Ball ache of a process but necessary.

 

[Deleted member 22389]

Wondering if anyone could help with some advice - done a Google but it's all a bit of a mess in my mind reading it all.

Dad died a few weeks ago. We've now had the funeral. I'm now dealing with his estate because, although, my Mum is executor of his will she isn't capable of carrying out any of the actions - physically or mentally. She is the sole benedictory of all his estate. I've started contacting banks and have some of the balances for his accounts such as ISAs, current accounts and saving accounts. Each time I've been asked if I wish to do it through Probate. To be fair they've all been very friendly and are supplying me the balances but I still don't know the answer to the question - maybe because I'm not thinking straight currently. Dad has multiple properties in B&H including his home and a property in France - all of which he co-owns with Mum. He also has multiple bank accounts for savings, ISAs and current accounts that amount to nearly £100k. So my questions are :

1. What is Probate in layman's terms ?
2. Do I need to apply for Probate ?
3. Any recommendations on a company that could manage the Probate ( if required ) ?

I've got death certs and my next port of call are his pension providers - I have used the 'Tell Once' service for anything governmental.

Thank you for any pointers.

Yes you will first need to apply for Probate, then after this you will need to get a Power of Attorney which gives you permission to deal with your mothers affairs. This will have to be done at a solicitors, with her being present.

Please don't quote me on this, I'm not a professional, but I think this is what my dad had to do in the end with my grandmother, when my grandfather passed away and my grandmother was incapable of dealing with bills and other tasks.

I'm going to have to get a Lasting Power of Attorney for my brother as he has a learning disability, and it's a complete nightmare trying to get anything sorted out for him.

As others have said, get in touch with a local solicitor.

 

[sydney]

Can’t help you…..leaving all my Dads stuff to my sister (funeral today..drained) and thankfully it’s all straight forward

Sorry for your loss and hope you get some good advice

all the best fella...

 

[andy89l]

Sorry for your loss.
If you don't want to pay a professional then https://settld.care/ is a free service which can make closing a lot of accounts much easier.
If you're looking for someone to do it all then you can get a quote from https://farewill.com/apply-for-probate which should be much cheaper than a solicitor.

Sent from my SM-A715F using Tapatalk

 

[Boroseagull]

Very sorry for your loss - whem my mum died in 2006 I did the probate by downloading the forms and following the excellent guidelines supplied.

I hope your father had 2 wills, one UK and one French. If that is the case see if the French one is written to be distributed according the UK probate law. This option became available under EU law back in 2014, and we, in Spain, had our Spanish wills rewritten for this. It simply means you can distribute your 'wealth' according to your wishes and not have to follow state succession laws of the country the assets are located.

Wishing you all the best at this difficult time..

 

[dazzer6666]

Yes you will first need to apply for Probate, then after this you will need to get a Power of Attorney which gives you permission to deal with your mothers affairs. This will have to be done at a solicitors, with her being present.

Please don't quote me on this, I'm not a professional, but I think this is what my dad had to do in the end with my grandmother, when my grandfather passed away and my grandmother was incapable of dealing with bills and other tasks.

I'm going to have to get a Lasting Power of Attorney for my brother as he has a learning disability, and it's a complete nightmare trying to get anything sorted out for him.

As others have said, get in touch with a local solicitor.

Did the same for my parents - usual to have two docs, one for health/care etc and one for financial stuff.
The solicitor (use a local) will (or should) happily visit home to get the attornies signed if needed
The solicitor will deal with the necessary registration at the Court of Protection

 

[Deleted member 22389]

Did the same for my parents - usual to have two docs, one for health/care etc and one for financial stuff.
The solicitor (use a local) will (or should) happily visit home to get the attornies signed if needed
The solicitor will deal with the necessary registration at the Court of Protection

Hopefully we have both given WS some good advice here. It's a awful thing all this. When my father passed away, I remember getting Grant of Probate. That's was stressful enough without all the extra.

 

[Deleted member 2719]

Sorry to hear of your fathers passing.

I had to deal with my sister's estate, albeit it was not overly complicated but with all that is now on your shoulders, I would definitely get a Solicitor on the job. I would put all your focus and energy on your mum if you can.

Good luck.

 

[Nitram]

As I said before on the form you download, there is a helpline number. Probate I dealt with was not straight forward and everytime I rang the the no they were very helpful and talked me through it. As long as you have accurate details of sole assets in front of you when filling up form. They will even advise you on French property

That’s good to know about overseas assets. For some reason when I was doing my Dads estate they thought he had USA assets, which he didn’t. Took a bit of time convincing he didn’t but all well in the end.
The power of attorney for the OP’s mum mentioned by others is very important in short and long term.

 

[East Staffs Gull]

Very sorry for your loss - whem my mum died in 2006 I did the probate by downloading the forms and following the excellent guidelines supplied.

I hope your father had 2 wills, one UK and one French. If that is the case see if the French one is written to be distributed according the UK probate law. This option became available under EU law back in 2014, and we, in Spain, had our Spanish wills rewritten for this. It simply means you can distribute your 'wealth' according to your wishes and not have to follow state succession laws of the country the assets are located.

Wishing you all the best at this difficult time..

Indeed. If you are of England & Wales 'domicile'’, you can make a will in England with an English lawyer and state that you want it to deal with all your property, wherever that property is located in the world. Alternatively, you can limit your English will to deal with your English assets only and then make wills in the other countries to deal with the assets in those other countries.