Probate DIY

[ivykaty44]

Just wanted to say, did probate ourselves, used the Which guide as better tbh than Martin Lewis site

The helpline is very good at assisting and guiding you through the process and I’d suggest telephoning them and checking which forms to fill in before you start, as a quick run through they told us the two forms to fill in online

Remember to get original will from solicitors to send of

Use your email address as they will contact you by email if anything missing or further info needed

If anyone has further advice on probate please chip in as it maybe useful to others and will save a considerable amount of money.

Thank you.
I'm just about to start the process as I'm executor for a family member.

Have the original will.
Only assets are her property and a small amount of savings in one bank account.
Liable for inheritance tax though.
Is the Which guide free or do you have to subscribe?

www.which.co.uk/money/wills-and-probate/probate

I found that as the spouse hadn’t gifted anyone anything and everything went to her spouse, the direct descendant could use both allowence so a total of £650 for both ( £325 each)

Thanks for the link.
The inheritance tax threshold is increased by £175k per person if the estate is going to their child so potentially up to £1 million for a married couple.
it's the inheritance tax forms I'm mostly concerned about.
To do them for you, solicitors charge around 1% of the value so quite a chunk. Wondering if anyone has done their own IHT firms for HMRC?

I've just done probate and IHT for both my parents, and as long as you keep track of everything it really wasn't hard.
Dad died first (March) and all the IHT and probate was online, so once I had all the figures on their savings accounts etc I got the IHT and probate done in one evening - everything was left to mum, so none of his IHT allowance was used at all (£375k personal allowance plus £175k property)
Mum died 32 days after him, leaving everything to her children. This time I had to do the IHT on actual forms as I was using the allowance transfer, but the checklist on the main form is great, and it was all very clear if you worked through systematically.
Dads probate came back in 30 days, mums in 14 (I had advised them that she had died when I put dads in, so some checks may have been done at the same time)

My top tips
As soon as someone dies and you'll be doing the arrangements, get a notebook or make an Excel doc with all the information you might possibly need - I didn't expect to need to know where my parents got married, and I had to give their dates of birth, NI numbers, my NI number etc etc so many times and having one place where I had everything together was great
Make a tracking sheet so you have a list of all the people you have talked to, which documents are with who, and next steps.
Google bereavement services for each company/bank you need to deal with - they've all been super helpful and made it easy to understand what is needed.
Get multiple copies (5) of the death certificate as some places are really, really slow at sending things back at the moment.
When applying for probate, additional copies are only £1.50 each, so again, get extras
Make a tracking list of all the possible sources of income, and possible estate debts, then note when you are given a figure, when you apply for things to be paid, and then when received
If there are other beneficiaries, everyone wants their money etc, but as executor your duty is to the estate, and remember that you need to be ready in case a debt pops up, so don't be rushed.
You can't seem to get executor accounts now, so I opened an online account to get everything paid into so at least it was separate. Cheques have been an issue in these times, so I had to pay into my current account using the app and then transfer to the estate account
The IHT forms can be filled in online, but not saved. If you have a PDF printer on your PC, then you can save your completed form, and this generally makes things easier as solicitors etc for the house sale also did this

I should be totally done with the estate, including selling the house (touch wood) in a months time, and there is no way I could have justified paying what a solicitors would have charged for the amount of work

@malovitt

Thanks for the link. The inheritance tax threshold is increased by £175k per person if the estate is going to their child so potentially up to £1 million for a married couple. it's the inheritance tax forms I'm mostly concerned about. To do them for you, solicitors charge around 1% of the value so quite a chunk. Wondering if anyone has done their own IHT firms for HMRC?

Yes, I've done it for family members. None of it is particularly complex, but you need a lot of time to do research (i.e. check the law, tax, etc) and a lot of time to go through the deceased's paperwork to find all the information required. Then contact banks, utility firms, estate agents, etc etc. The actual completion of the probate paperwork, tax return, etc is actually pretty quick and simple but you need blood sweat and tears to get to that stage as you need to know, literally everything, about the deceased, and if their spouse had died previously, you need all the details of the spouses' probate/will etc if there were joint assets transferred automatically or you're wanting to use the spouses' unused IHT nil rate band etc etc. I can certainly see why solicitors charge so much as the time spent is enormous on the "fact finding", notifications, etc.

Yes I did my dad's 4 years ago on paper and my mum's recently online - my dad's was straight forward once I understood the terms used

My mum's was so easy; spreadsheet - adding bits online as and when (my tax form I added to daily as I found out info)

Came back within 4 weeks - pretty impressed with the Tax/Probate systems

I’m starting this process, is the which guide worth buying? There is substantial IHT to pay on the estate and that’s the bit I’m most worried about. Solicitor wants 3% which seems very expensive £900k estate.

I completed the forms for my family member and it's all been accepted by HMRC. I phoned them 4 times with questions and they were extremely helpful. Didn't need the Which guide, the notes provided with the forms were sufficient.
We have arranged to pay the IHT over ten years so manageable. I certainly wouldn't be paying a solicitor £27k unless the estate is really complicated. If you do have to go down that road, get as much information together yourself as you can as solicitors will charge for every little thing. 3% seems high. Shop around.