Probate.

[Noidea2114]

What happens in probate.
DAunt has suddenly passed away on Friday (58) No children.
She has lots of different accounts. We have found her will. We don't have POA.
In we I mean myself and my male cousin. Looking at her savings accounts we have noticed that a lot of money went out in the last few months.
In total about £30k. I'm worried that we will have to pay inheritance tax even though we haven't been given the money.
We both are the only beneficiarys. Her whole estate will add up to about £275k.
We don't know what solicitor to appoint or can we do it ourselves.

In my case, I told the banks, showed them the will & my ID, they closed the accounts except to pay for the funeral, and gave me the money (less than 50k)

you would have had to meet the cost of defending the claim yourself and, if you lost, you would have been personally liable to meet the claim. You would not have had any legal right to reclaim the money from the beneficiaries

I was the beneficiary of the second and had PoA for the beneficiary of the first. And, like 96.9% of estates, there was no IHT liability.

I was quoted £4k plus 2% of the estate by the solicitors who drew up the will. It took me a total of about 12 hours for each one. Total saving of around £24k. Absolute insanity.

If your aunt died suddenly at home is there going to be a post-mortem?

I would notify the bank ASAP as that will stop any movement on her account in case it is fraudulent.
You will need to at done point provide a death certificate .

Are you the executor?

And did she have anyone going to her house frequently who might have been able to access her account . Or did she move it elsewhere?
Once probate has been granted you should be able to get hold of bank statements.

@Palavah

If your aunt died suddenly at home is there going to be a post-mortem?

I wondered about this.

As her DH died recently could the payments be to beneficiaries of his Estate, ie she accessed the easiest cash?

Yes we are executors and beneficiaries.
There was a post mortem, anyorisum on the brain.
We never thought about the will of her DH that could explain the money.
Her DH was her second husband of 18months so we didn't know him very well.
As it has been bank holiday weekend we will go to the bank tomorrow.
Afterwards we will look through the paperwork we have.
If we can find a copy of his will it would be helpful.
Thank you all for the information.

According to the ISA book it was withdrawn over the counter in 4 lots.£40k
Money from her current account was via the ATM. £30k since the end of December.
This started 2 weeks after her DH died

Are you saying £70K has gone?

Someone took out £30K in cash? That's incredibly suspicious. Has she had any work done on the house?

If you fill in this form then you can see whether her husband's will is online. You can order a digital copy very cheaply.

@HollowTalk

If you fill in this form then you can see whether her husband's will is online. You can order a digital copy very cheaply.

before using the form, search on

probatesearch.service.gov.uk/#wills

if there is not an online record, you can use the form, using the "standing search" option which notify you if it is granted in the next three months

We waited almost 8 months for probate to be granted recently. It’s taking much longer due to covid

not wishing to derail thread
I'd love to know where it's possible for someone to die on a Friday and have a postmortem and cause of death by (bank holiday) Monday! At least 10 day wait in most areas . . .

If they had a computer/ipad/tech - see if you can access - with passwords - there may be lots of info to help you on there.

(our friend died in front of his computer - the NOK switched it off, and so far as we know, no one was able to switch it back on to access all the relevant documents...)

@PigletJohn, that's the same link that I put up!

almost?

but before posting off a form, you can check online if it has already been granted.

@SynchroSwimmer

If they had a computer/ipad/tech - see if you can access - with passwords - there may be lots of info to help you on there.

(our friend died in front of his computer - the NOK switched it off, and so far as we know, no one was able to switch it back on to access all the relevant documents...)

I dealt with someone who had helpfully written their passwords on scraps of paper and put them in a drawer

but without dates, or identifying the company involved

and had changed the computer start-up password.

Open up an executors account to hold her money and move it across from her original accounts so that ger estate cannot be accessed by whoever has been drawing funds out. Banks tend to freeze accounts until probate is granted.

You don't need an executor's account. It can just be any new account just opened for that purpose.

Blossomtoes unfortunately it’s you who is trying to teach the egg sucking.
I expect your 2 (wow 2 whole ones!) estates you have dealt with pale into insignificance besides the experience of an actual lawyer such as prh47bridge. You are being pretty rude to someone giving excellent, free and qualified advice

@Noidea2114 once you've appointed a funeral director their fee can be paid directly from the deceased persons account. The bank pays funeral costs directly to the funeral director so you won't need to find the money to cover this.

Be careful with the withdrawn money. My father would do exactly this. Withdraw 10's of thousands of pounds and put it rolled into socks in his drawer. I found out once when he was particularly miserable one day because he had mistakenly thrown out an old pair of socks....

Look in odd places. My father did this to avoid inheritance tax as I believe he intended to gift cash as it was untraceable. She may have put it in very odd places!

@Hoppinggreen

Blossomtoes unfortunately it’s you who is trying to teach the egg sucking. I expect your 2 (wow 2 whole ones!) estates you have dealt with pale into insignificance besides the experience of an actual lawyer such as prh47bridge. You are being pretty rude to someone giving excellent, free and qualified advice

It’s not being rude to point out that for the majority of estates the probate process isn’t rocket science and you can save a lot of money by not using solicitors. The egg sucking post I responded to was patronising in the extreme.

@Noidea2114 - did you get any answers? And have you decided to sort Probate yourselves?

@Motherlandismylife

Well I have just received Grant of administration letters as my relative died intestate. He passed away in October and by the time we collated all the info needed for the forms to be submitted to HMRC it was January so it's taken about 4.5 months and that was without a will. We got a fixed price from the solicitor to handle this as was more complicated with no will. They kept tot hat fixed price and it was worth it. I will now for the general work administer the estate which includes closing a LTD business as its not rocket science, just admin and working through methodically.

My dad died intestate. It was very simple, just 2 forms if I remember rightly. I submitted them and received a text the following day saying Grant of Probate had been awarded, and received the actual documents 3 days later. No solicitor needed.