Executor's expenses

[legaleaglenot]

I'm acting as the executor for my late grandad's will.

I've decided to do all the work on filling in the forms for probate, etc, on my own as Grandad's solicitor was going to charge a fortune. Solicitor is still available to advise me but I am just paying by the hour.

I thought I could put legal expenses, cost of valuations, cost of insuring the house until it's sold etc, against IHT. Solicitor says I can't claim for any of this, only for funeral expenses.

Does anyone have experience of this?

CarmelBeach - absolutely, as the forms are clear and HMRC are helpful. It just takes time and patience to pull together all the required information and complete all the necessary boxes.

We paid a solicitors firm to deal with my mum’s estate. It was worth every penny firstly very little stress and secondly they sorted out the inheritance tax and actually reduced the bill from HMRC. It sounds like they charge a lot - we paid £16k in the end, but they dealt with the tax and reduced our inheritance tax bill substantially in the end - we saved by using them. We might have been able to do that ourselves but I doubt it. They also did the conveyancing for the house sale too.

Another question. I know that charitable bequests in the will are exempt from IHT. What about charitable gifts in the donor's lifetime? Grandad made quite a few charitable donations in the years before his death -- do these also get deducted from the value of the estate for IHT purposes?! I've heard yes from one person (a financial person) but the IHT forms seem to suggest that these gifts reduce the amount of nil rate band. Seems strange but I could believe anything at this point...

@Ionacat

We paid a solicitors firm to deal with my mum’s estate. It was worth every penny firstly very little stress and secondly they sorted out the inheritance tax and actually reduced the bill from HMRC. It sounds like they charge a lot - we paid £16k in the end, but they dealt with the tax and reduced our inheritance tax bill substantially in the end - we saved by using them. We might have been able to do that ourselves but I doubt it. They also did the conveyancing for the house sale too.

That's interesting

IHT seems very fixed to me. How did they do that?

OP i'm sorry I don't know about that but hopefully this will bump the thread for someone who does.

Could I ask. If there are three beneficiaries and only one is the executor can that person claim expenses. They will be doing all the running around, attending meetings etc. The other two live abroad.

@Moonstone1234 as far as I understand it (see my username), no you can't.

The wills I've seen for family members have included a specific bequest to the executors presumably to take account of the extra work involved in getting probate.

You could propose to the other beneficiaries that you do a "deed of variation" of the will to take this in to account. Or you could look in to the costs of getting it done professionally. This can be quite steep so the other beneficiaries might change their minds (on giving you an extra payment) if you propose that as an option.

@Moonstone1234 - not expenses, like you can't charge per hour, but you could claim your travel back for the meetings you mentioned, if they're to do with the Estate. Anything that you spend wrapping up the Estate, you can claim back.

I can’t remember exactly but it was to do with charitable bequests and how some of the bequests were recognised in the eyes of HMRC. I don’t think anything with tax is black and white!