Probate question and 93yo DF being sole executor of my DMs will

[Trampauline]

My DM died last December. My DF is the sole executor. There shouldn't be any inheritance tax to pay. DF has not done anything about applying for probate, despite offers of help from myself and my two sisters. Problem might be that he needs to find a new solicitor as the person who did wills and probate at the solicitors they were using has retired. He is maybe unconfident about who to go to.
I have offered to do the work in applying for probate, but does my DF need to formally make me executor also? And does he need a solicitor for this?

@Trampauline there is no reason you can’t do the admin e.g form filling and your DF sign the forms. As long as you explain to your DF what you have done and he understands it is fine.

You may find you and your siblings are reserve executors or executors if DF had died first.

I suspect a lot of children help their parents in this way. You could set up an email for this purpose e.g. estate of (name) if you want to submit on line. This way all email correspondence is kept separate.

You do not need a solicitor.

I would suggest you let your sisters know what you are doing and show them the forms etc. My view is it is better to be open with siblings unless they cannot be trusted with money.

Sorry for your loss.

Thanks @Foreversearch my sister is going up to stay with ĎF tomorrow for a few days (we are all spread around the country unfortunately). She is going to read DMs will again. She remembers us three siblings were mentioned at the bottom. If we are reserve executors do we have any legal powers though as DF has his faculties?
That's really helpful, your advice about the form filling.

@Trampauline IANAL but my understanding is depending on the exact wording in the will your DF can either renounce or serve notice of power reserved. Then one, or more, of you and your sisters could then either act as executors or administrators.

The bulk of the work is gathering all the info and filling in the forms. Which has a good checklist and MSE has a helpful forum.

Not sure if it's helpful but when my mum died, my elderly father was executor, but couldn't act as there was no way he'd be able to handle it, as he admitted. If I recall when we applied for probate he signed a form appointing me as the administrator of the estate to act on his behalf.
I believe it meant we needed to apply via post rather than online.
We received Letters of Administration rather than Grant of probate, but they do exactly the same thing and I had no issues using them to resolve the estate.

Thanks @Stumblingsideways sounds like it was quite straightforward then. Where did you get the form to sign appointing you as administrator (is that attorney?). Was it online or did you have to go through a solicitor?

@Trampauline the forms are all on the gov.uk website https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/probate-forms

Depending on the size of the estate and what sort of things it consists of he may not need to get probate.

I was executor for my father last year and did not need probate as everything went to my mother, the house was jointly owned by her and for shares etc. there was a small estates process that didn't require probate.

You need to make a list of everything in the estate, its value and who needs to be contacted. Then check the guidance on the government website and contact the organisations involved, banks etc.

You need to be an executor to actually sign anything or to get information from organisations but you can help with the admin if you're not an executor.

You don't need a solicitor unless you want to use one.

@Trampauline
I suggest very strongly that your DFs will
names you/dsis as executors. Aged executors are not a good idea.