Can anyone help me with the legalites of distributing funds from a will?

[MaureenMLove]

Always a tricky thing to discuss, without sounding money grabbing!

Annyway, my nan died at the begining of April and thhe solicitors dealing with, what she called a straghtt forward case said it would take about 6 - 8 months to finalse.

There are only 3 people named in the will, me my brother and my mum. I understand that there is a certain amount of time for people to contest a will, but that hasn't happened. The solicitor has told me yesterday, that she hhas sent the file too probate and that in a couple of weeks she should be able to start collecting monies and then sendiing out chheques withiin the next 1 - 2 monthhs.

Does this time frame sound right or should I be chasing her and tellng her to speed it up a bit? Afterall, we are paying her and I assume that my nans money is currently earning interest for someone else in her various accounts.

Drat! I missed an 'i' out of the title. Oh well, good excuse to bump I suppose!

Well we're still waiting for my dear dad's will to be sorted, solicitor first contacted in June last year, probate went through in October. There were shares to be sold though, but it does seem to be dragging on.

I personally can't understand people with very simple estates using solicitors or banks as their executors.
In my experience they can drag things out (and earn fees whilst doing so)

My mother did my nan's estate and I think it was all done and dusted in about 6 months. She left a very simple will, £100 to each of her grandchildren and half each to my mum and her db.

But it does depend a lot on the bank/ building societies who hold the accounts.

Also it can take longer when you have houses involved.

Anyone contesting a will has 6 months to do so IIRC, so most solicitors will wait until this time period has passed. HTH

We were told that because there was property involved we would need a solicitor.

Thanks for your help guys. No property involved and the contesting bit was 3 months according to the solicitor. I'll keep her to her word of 2 months I think. Seems that'll be reasonably quickly compared to some of you!

That time frame is about right but will depend how long the probate registry take to grant probate. And don't worry about any interest accumulating - that will all go into the estate so the time it takes won't have a detrimental effect on that.

Oh dear.
I've just today sent off the forms to the probate registry myself.
I am one of the executors of my mum's will and was advised not to bother with solicitors as there is only her house which is to be shared between my brother and I.
Have I been advised wrongly?

Depends how much work you want to do skinnygirl. We had to sell my mum's house, none of us live locally (although that's prob not necessary anyway) and it seemed easier to use a solicitor. No will either. I'm sure we could have done it ourselves but we all work so just don't have that extra time to deal with it. And I found it all very emotionally draining. I think using a solictor removed some of that element.