Probate help

[Lauren Solomon]

Hi all,

I’ve come across this website whilst searching for probate help.

Hopefully someone might be able to help me out.

My father suddenly passed away in july and didn’t have a will.

My mum was named as beneficiary on everything to be left such as life insurance, pensions etc.

One of the private pension companies require probate, so we are on In the process of completing the forms.

It’s the assets section where we are stuck.

From what I can gather, given that my mum was a beneficiery on all policies that were required to pay out following death, am I right in thinking that the only things to go on that section are my dads ‘share’ of the house and his car?
All bank accounts etc were joint.

Many thanks

 

[Hagar]

Yes, it is his worth in assets at the time of his death or a share thereof. I would think that the bank accounts would be valued at 50% if joint. Not sure if the car would / should be included unless valuable, but the value of the house and 'significant' contents ie art, his watches and jewellry etc. Policies paid to the wife on his death would be her assets as would the residual pensions paid to the spouse and be part of her estate.

Inheritance tax is payable on the second death of married partners.

This is how I understand it anyway.

 

[wonko]

I've been executor twice and both times I got the assistance of a solicitor to complete/submit the inheritance tax and probate applications and give guidance to me in doing the bulk of the executor role. It seems you're not that familiar with the process so I'd strongly suggest you consider this or pay for a solicitor to handle the whole thing. It might not cost as much as you think.

If the private pension company is the only reason you need to go through probate then it would be worth making absolutely sure that it's really required. I thought (but could well be wrong) that in the event of death a pension pot was given (at the discretion of the trustees) to the nominated beneficiary, and that this fell outside of the estate for probate purposes. This isn't something I had to deal with but I can't immediately see why they need probate to be granted if the pension pot was going to the named beneficiary directly and not be part of the assets gathered and distributed by the executor/administrator. Again, a solicitor should be able to advise and help with this.

The government website is a good place to start reading (https://www.gov.uk/wills-probate-inheritance) and I think they have a helpline that can give guidance on the process and forms. If you are going to be the administrator then make you understand what you're taking on - it's not particularly hard but it can be fairly daunting finding out what you've got to do for the first time and it takes a lot of time to do it properly.

For the probate application you should produce detailed accounts as at date of death of all assets (bank balances and uncredited accrued interest, shares, valuation of house and contents, cars, etc.), and liabilities (outstanding debts and bills etc.). There are many other things to consider, e.g. gifts in the last 7 years, official gazette notice, executor bank accounts, ... Inheritance tax can also be payable if it is a large estate.

Hope this helps.

 

[The_Abyss]

If the private pension company is the only reason you need to go through probate then it would be worth making absolutely sure that it's really required. I thought (but could well be wrong) that in the event of death a pension pot was given (at the discretion of the trustees) to the nominated beneficiary, and that this fell outside of the estate for probate purposes. This isn't something I had to deal with but I can't immediately see why they need probate to be granted if the pension pot was going to the named beneficiary directly and not be part of the assets gathered and distributed by the executor/administrator.

This is right, to see if you can bypass probate, but the pension company may not be able to accommodate it if there's no nominated beneficiary. If no beneficiary has been nominated then the trustees will probably want to follow the direction of probate, to ensure that there are no other potential beneficiaries who emerge (ex-wives, mistresses, other children etc).

It shouldn't need a solicitor to sort this though - just quizzing the pension company should be ok. Sorry for your loss OP. If the pension company is a SIPP provider then feel free to drop me a message via trust.

 

[Lauren Solomon]

Hi everyone,

Thank you so much for your input!

We’ve managed to fill in the probate form with all the required information.

Having had one quote, plus a couple say ‘we can’t say how much until we do it’ we decided to give it a go ourselves. I just wanted to be 100% sure about what is/isn’t an asset, so thank you for confirming it.

I’ve dealt with the majority of the policies, however the pensions are the only ones my mum dealt with. One didn’t require probate so I will certainly be getting in touch to double check the need for probate.

Thank you again for sharing your knowledge on the matter!