AMA as a wills and probate solicitor

[Fi16]

AMA

Are they any checks to make sure an executor has carried out their duties correctly? Can other beneficiaries/ family members ask to see bank accounts for example?

There’s a situation in my friend’s family where an adult child is being given regular cash gifts from their parent, they have siblings who are not being given the same. The adult child is the executor of the will. I’m wondering if there might be a fallout over it if/ when the siblings find out, but if they can’t see bank accounts could the executor just keep quiet about it?

The will won’t be affected. He is your son so naming him as such won’t cause inheritance issues. :)

If someone died a little over a year ago and there is no sign of them in the probate register would any beneficiaries definitely have been notified by now or could that still happen once probate is granted?

Thank you lovely. You sound like you’ve got some tough stuff going on. Thinking of you too, and sending strength. If it’s any consolation, I feel a little proud that we are still standing and plodding on.
My dad was a bit of a hoarder, and emptying the house and outbuildings was hard. Took absolutely ages - so that’s something you could do to get ahead, plus getting contact details for all banks etc so that you are ready to go.
Ours was a small holding, so slightly more awkward as it had land etc. We actually got probate granted and then HMRC decided that they wanted to send an independent valuer out, which took another four months, and as probably had already been granted we were liable for council tax too. Then last year they doubled council taxes on second homes. It’s felt like constant bombardment. But hey. That’s life. And we are lucky to have this place at the end of the day.

My husband didn’t get a financial order when he divorced his ex-wife. No children. He didn’t know he needed to. She has since also re-married but unfortunately seems keen to make our lives difficult (hassles family members, stalks us on eBay and social media, contacted his employers with spurious nonsense.)

We have drawn up our Will with a solicitor. That solicitor drew up a letter of wishes for him, explaining why she is not included in the Will. Is there anything else we can do to protect ourselves financially from a future claim? Thank you so much.

If she has remarried she cannot bring a 1975 claim against his estate but I would take further advise from a family solicitor in case there is anything else she can do in her lifetime as I’m unsure on that point x

Thank you so much for the quick response. If she were to divorce her second husband, can that 1975 claim be reactivated?

No that wouldn’t be reactivated :) x

Hi anything which passes to a spouse is exempt from IHT so no need to worry about that. Any IHT would be payable on second death if the estate exceeded the allowances at that time :) x

As someone who has been an executor and is a trustee of two will trusts, I would strongly advise getting an accountant who specialises in IHT, my experience of very good solicitors, is they know naff all about tax, and simply hire in accountants to do the work for them.

By all means use a solicitor for the legal stuff but put the tax in the hands of a specialist accountant.

if you are not married and your estate exceeds your IHT allowances at the time of death then yes IHT would be payable. This is different to married couples where any transfer to a spouse on death is free form IHT. Even if you are joint owners of a property a proportion of that property would be taken into account for iht purposes on first death and then again on second death. Also whatever assets pass on first death may be taxed and then again taxed on second death. We therefore recommend all couples who are unmarried look at their will options seriously to mitigate IHT. Our standard product is a discretionary trust will which mitigates IHT issues very well so it may be worth approaching someone for advise on this x

Why is my solicitor not grovelling an excessive apology about taking 2 years after handover over of all documents to get to probate grant?

My DP’s cousin tried to steal money from DP’s mother’s estate (cousin was executor). It was very clear as he stated in group text messages that she had verbally left him the contents of her bank account (about £30K) so he would keep that (and some other funds). She hadn’t done this in the will.

When DP pointed this out to the solicitors dealing with probate they refused to take action. When we paid a solicitor £1000 to say the same thing, it was agreed that money should be in her estate to be shared. My question is, don’t solicitors have a duty to abide by the law, without waiting for another solicitor to threatening them with legal action?

This thread couldn't be more timely for me!
We have a solicitor written will that we want to make a small amendment too, purely just the guardianship of our children if both my DH and I were to pass. A name change really. Our original solicitor has retired and we have been told that we need to pay for 2 entire new wills, at huge cost, and the solicitors I have called won't do a codicil as they didn't write the will. Is a codicil something we can do? I know it needs to be signed and witnessed as a new document to be valid. I looked for templates online but I was confusing myself with all the options!

How do you advise to resolve conflict between clients who disagree on beneficiaries? Which thus far has resulted in the increasingly worrying situation of no will at all. This couple are married but have no kids.

My parents are married but separated over 30 years ago. Both elderly, no new partners and won’t be divorcing. Each has left the main family home which they own jointly to us the children, proceeds to be divided equally. My mother still lives in the house. Given they are both still married are their wills valid? Surely, if one goes first, the jointly owned house goes straight to the other so essentially we get nothing? House is worth at least £2mn

Is it right that my brother informed banks about my father's death and basically had that money paid into his bank account?

He paid things out of 'the estate' I didn't agree with and things that IMO should be paid from the estate have been left to me to pay. Can I do anything about that?

If they have not divorced and the wills are properly executed then they are valid. Joint property passes by survivorship so that is an issue if left like that. It sounds as though they could do with a review if their planning to ensure everyone is protected here x

That depends on how the house is registered, if it is as Joint Tenants, it passes directly to the surviving owner, if however it is held as Tenants in Common it passes according to the will.

The normal set up is for it to be held as tenants in common with both parties leaving their share in a will trust for the other with the children as remainderman beneficiaries - that way the surviving partner gets to stay in their home for life, and even if they need care, the deceased partners share is ring fenced for the children.

With a £2mn + estate there is going to be a significant IHT liability whatever you do, there is potentially £1mn of tax free and then 40% of everything else goes to HMRC.

That’s a tricky one. We obviously couldn’t draw up a will where there was a conflict for the clients so unless they did agree and we were sure that one hadn’t influenced the other we may need to to disengage and for them to take their own advice separately. However trust structures could largely resolve the issue by splitting assets down the middle client 1 leaving her estate to whoever they wanted and the same for client 2 with the ability for the trustees to look after the survivor from funds if required. For partners we recommended discretionary trust wills. Some clients really are opposed to trust wills but they can be very useful in resolving issues like this and protecting assets for chosen beneficiaries. If making mirror wills there’s nothing to stop the survivor changing the beneficiaries and this is standard advice we give on a daily basis so trust wills would help here . If inheritance tax is an issue then I would certainly recommend these trusts to stop double IHT from occurring which is a risk with unmarried couples x

In case you missed this one @Fi16

personally I wouldn’t try to do a codicil yourself just in case. It sounds frustrating though. Our company draws up wills and then for simple amends just charges codicil prices and just produces a new will to sign as it’s easier than preparing a codicil in practice. You could look at free will writing options as many charities offer them with the option to leave them a legacy (of any amount) in your will. I can see why you are frustrated with the situation but codicils can be tricky and need to be completed correctly so I wouldn’t risk it. X

this really depends. So probate is not always needed , have you searched for their will online ? If probate was not required then it suggests a simple estate which could have been dealt with quickly so I would have assumed beneficiaries would have been contacted but obviously cannot be 100% on that. If probate is needed but hasn’t been granted yet there maybe reasons for that delay and the beneficiaries may not be contacted until a bit later on x

I guess it depends on the reason for the delay but at 2 years it does seem excessive. Have you tried their complains procedure. Have they given any reason for the delay ? X

I would think the estate is large enough to require probate. Where do I search for a will?