Probate help needed please

[FrenchandSaunders]

FIL died in Feb and having read about probate and thinking his was quite a straightforward estate we decided to apply ourselves rather than paying thousands for someone else to do it.

I’ve had an email back asking the following:

•gross value of estate for inheritance tax

•net value of estate for inheritance tax

•net qualifying value of estate

•gross value of estate for probate

•net value of estate for probate

•did deceased have a pre-deceased spouse

•are you claiming unused IHT allowance of deceased’s late spouse

His wife is still alive and living in their house Does the value of the estate include her half or all of it? Joint accounts, the whole lot or half. Accounts in his name presumably all of it.

From what I’ve read there’s no IHT to pay so I put 0 next to first two questions?

wondering if I should have paid someone now 😳

It's a while since I did probate for my mother, so can't remember the process exactly. As she and my Dad had mirror wills and we knew there'd be no inheritance tax, it made absolute sense to do it myself.
Here's a link to a .gov guide I found online.
https://www.gov.uk/valuing-estate-of-someone-who-died

Thank you!

Surprised you have been quoted "thousands".
Our solicitor dealt (separately) with both my M&D's estates (which included house, significant savings & investments etc) and both times the bill was in the high hundreds but not thousands
Meant there was one less thing for us to do.

Even with no IHT to pay you do need to value the estate. You should have completed form IHT205 before applying for probate, which will have had those numbers on. Have you done that yet?

I handled my aunt's estate when she died a few years ago, she was widowed and her will was very straight forward. And she was under the IHT threshold. I was also the executor, so it made no sense to use a solicitor, in my mind. Not so much from a financial point of view, but because I know from experience they can be very slow.

The link above is very helpful. I knew nothing about this before I did it, but found all the guidance I needed online.

Which forms did you feel in ? I filled in PA1P with a Will and IHT 205.

Is the house in joint names or tenants i common ? When I did my dads . I halved all joint bank accounts and half the house as the house was tenants uncommon . All assets in his name were the full amount, along with any refunds, debts to be paid, plus the funeral cost . There are places to put these on the IHT 205 which then can be used on the PAP1

Uncommon-in common

The online tax checker will walk you through this: for estates below £325k (the Inheritance Tax -free allowance), it's now very simple, and no, you no longer have to submit any forms to HMRC. The link above will take you there, third page iirc.

If the estate is above £325k, I personally would seek some simple advice, as it can be complicated. With some advice, you may still be able to apply for probate yourself.

It would be worth contacting the relevant bank for advice about the division of the joint account. IIRC joint accounts become the sole property of the remaining account holder on the first death, though it is some years since I had to deal with this situation.