Advice needed on carrying out the wishes of a will.

[Tolkienista]

My mother died on June 30th, she'd been on "end of life" care since February, so we had a lot of time to get her affairs in order.
Her will is straightforward, dividing her money between her four children (including myself.)
Her house sale completed in March...... £223k
All her accounts (except her ISA) were joint accounts with me.
The proceeds of the house sale is in a savings account in my name, all done at the bank her house sale went into.
The reason it's in my.name only is because my mother wasn't present when account was opened, but it's directly traced back to the sale of her house.
So the total value of house sale + savings =£270k to be divided between the four of us.

My question. Can we proceed with dividing her assets between the four of us with the help of the bank without involving a solicitor?
The executor of her will is now in her 80s house bound and in no way capable of performing her role.

There are no outstanding debts to be paid and probate isn't needed either, all confirmed by the bank.
All above was checked out well in advance over preceding months to her death.

The reason we wouldn't need grant of probate in the case of her ISA in her name.....is that the balance is below £50K

My husband is executing his mother’s will and the only bit he’s involving a solicitor on is the house sale.

Thank you for your post and thankfully the house sale is all behind us.
The bank have been extremely helpful, I've had two long meetings with them and they advised me that as the account is in my name only since my mother's death, it should be straightforward.

Had the house sale already been authorised by your mother before she died? Was the property just in her name?

I am wondering if you need to apply as her daughter for Letters of Administration with a Will attached as the Executor is too elderly to act. Have a read on the Government website on when probate etc is needed.
Given that the funds are now all in your name and they have been left to your siblings in the will, you need some way of proving to them that they are getting the correct amount maybe?
You can definitely do it all yourself but you may need to complete some kind of Probate/Administration form.

Are you looking to get the value of accounts in your joint names or are you going to share them? They may go to you first and you would have to gift their share to the others, if you want to.

https://www.gov.uk/applying-for-probate
The Bank were just advising you about the status of the bank account maybe not the whole situation.

Sounds like there is no inheritance tax to pay as it is under the individual nil rate band (plus residence nim rate band) that’s assuming that your mum didn’t make any significant gifts in the last seven years. Maybe to protect yourself from unknown creditors you might want to post s27 notices and obviously make sure that HMRC (income tax) and DWP (state pension/ attendance allowance) and not due any money/ overpayment back.

Ah wait. You are not the coexecutor. You should probably ask the executor to also sign a PA15 form (get it online) to confirm that they do not wish to act. At the moment legally speaking you have no authority to be dealing with any of this or be holding money on behalf of your mothers estate

The previous couple of posts have very important information that you should follow

Your bank is telling you about the account, not the legality of dispersal

The sale of the house went through us as LPA
She had nothing to do with it as she didn't have mental capacity.
Yes will definitely look into it on the government website, thanks for your advice.

Yes, that's the way I understand it.
I will share it from my account literally four ways.

But if the money from the house and the other money is still hers, surely you'd need probate for £270k?

Yes I think you're right.
I'm honestly not in the right head space at the moment to deal with this after being the main player in the sale of her house and arranging her funeral too.
I've got pressure coming from one sibling who wants it all activated as of now.

I guess we will have to involve a solicitor.
I just wanted it all to happen quickly, but advice on here seems to contradict my hopes.

Yes I think you are right.
I'm mentally not ready for this at the moment, having led on the house sale and funeral.
It's just too much to be honest.

No a solicitor will make it take ages. Just follow the advice on the Government website and fill in the forms. It is fairly straightforward, you just need the authority to disperse the funds which Letters of Administration will give you.

This is what I didn't want to hear, just mentally not in the right head space for this, but I guess it's going to be more complicated than I thought.

Just an update on why I'm holding money.
When my mother was alive we had a joint bank account, I paid all her bills.
The sale of her house went into the joint bank account when she was still alive.
After her death all the joint bank accounts (apart from her ISA ) are now in my name .

Ah, thank you for that piece of advice.
One of my siblings is keen to get his share of the money , but once again it's all left to me to sort it out, so I'm going to try and get help on this .
But thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

I'm now wondering if I might be mistaken. If you have the money in your own account then maybe probate isn't required. I thought it was but I think I may be mistaken. Is this the sort of question the citizens advice bureau could help with maybe? Or hopefully someone more knowledgeable will come along.

I think it's a very unusual situation because normally you wouldn't have money from an LPA paid directly into one of the LPA holders' bank accounts. It would be held in a separate LPA specific bank account, or the person's bank account that the LPA holder could access.

Or pay a solicitor to confirm which forms you need to fill in. It is an unusual situation in that the property had already been sold and all the funds were already in your name as her attorney. You need to know the balances at date of death on all her accounts for the forms. Presumably the property money was already cash at this point?

My Mum had to do probate when my Dad died even though the property just passed to her as joint tenant/owner. It was a similar amount to the OP. Savings were a mixture of sole and joint.

I wouldn't think you'd need a solicitor. Apply for probate online. It's very straightforward. If you have any problems contact the CAB

As she is not named executor she needs to apply for Letters of Administration with Will attached I think.

Ah OK. My mistake. You're right.

But again, can be done online.

I was amazed at how straightforward the application process is