Can you carry out probate yourself?

You dont bother about probate if you are poor , as the next of kin of my mother I was of coarse , liable for the funeral expenses .

I handled the probate after my mother died and found it quite straightforward even though it took up a lot of time. There was the expected rows with a couple of financial companies and British Gas but nothing worth calling in a lawyer to deal with.

Am I right in thinking that their charges are based on the value of the estate rather than the amount of work involved?

I handled the affairs of my mother-in-law on behalf of her children after she died. To finally get everything sorted out took not far short of a year and whilst not complicated (but a lot of work and time) it did require rigorous record keeping and organisation. Two reasons – one was to keep the transfer of assets properly controlled but the other, of which I was acutely aware, was to keep the family fully informed of progress and make the whole process transparent.

One of the initial difficulties was to deal with inheritance tax; no progress could be made until HMRC received their slice and as no assets could be liquidated this meant arranging a temporary substantial loan. I’d wish this were made easier – maybe a first charge on the estate once liquidation started to avoid the fairly significant, and unnecessary, costs involved.

Providing there are no abnormal circumstances it is quite a straightforward process using online application forms. Make sure you read everything thoroughly though as missing any entitlements can lead you to pay more tax than you need to.

I’ve done this three times for my parents and brother in law and although it takes a little time as long as you are organised (and preferably they were) it is not difficult. The book What to do when someone dies is useful too.

I have just finalised my mother’s estate, and your views on the lack of support from the banks ring true. I could write a book on my challenges with Lloyds……

One key learning I would strongly recommend to others who act as executors (glad I did), is that before you inform or allow the bank to close any accounts, that you make sure you download all the statements and history electronically. As soon as Lloyds closed the account it archives everything, all on line banking, and does not allow you any further electronic access. Found that out the hard way – they never tell you! They were willing to print out on a forest of paper seven years of account history and statements, but not electronically which makes searching for past transactions (gifts, charity etc.) much much harder. This was also despite me having a Power of Attorney!

Hope that this helps someone else?

We didn’t act as executor for my late Aunt’s estate but the solicitor appointed in her will, had to contend with considerable difficulties caused mainly by the financial institutions but not exclusively
These were
1. The Royal Mail will not accept instructions from an executor until probate is granted, for redirection of mail. So frequent visits to the property had to be made by him for 6 months . Fortunately, it wasn’t far, but another chore.
2. Some financial institutions were very slow in confirming the valuation. Since 2007, when banks had their guarantee for deposits limited to £75,000, my aunt had money in 20 different financial institutions. One took 5 months, causing lots of letters to be sent.
3. Once the valuations were received, the solicitor proceeded to issue instructions to various banks to pay money direct to HMRC using IHT 423. However, several banks said they didn’t belong to that scheme and wanted instructions on their own form. More procrastination and letters.
4. The final solicitor cost was £8,000 which might sound a lot but I think, as an ex bank manager, now retired, I would have struggled with and been very stressful.
The sale of the house was not easy either, with buyers backing out etc, but eventually being sold.
5. The final twist related to share certificates which, during the process of probate, had been taken over. My aunt, had gone through a spate of mistrusting her broker, and requested shares be transferred into her name and the actual certificate sent to her. It took months to get that finally settled.
6. Finally, as beneficiaries, we discovered that income on the realised estate had to have tax accounted for, as tax still has to be collected after probate. My share was £1,000.

Two years ago I dealt with the probate after my mother’s death. I had to deal with a number of financial institutions where she held savings and investments, but nonetheless received the grant of probate in less than three months after her death. It’s really not difficult, but as others have mentioned you have to be organised and keep careful records as you go along. The Probate Service helpline was also very good for the one or two queries that I had.

Dealing with my father’s estate was easy until one member of the bereavement team at Halifax really messed it up. All was well until they told me everything was in hand and I just neded to wait. So wait we did. For a long time. I eventually rang them and they were actually waiting for me to go into a branch to complete the details. This may sound trivial but was hugely upsetting at a difficult time for us and could easily have been avoided

This has been mentioned above, but just thought I’d re-state it as in my case Probate and IHT were non existent.

My parent died late last year. Other than the family home, they left very little. Savings were minimal and, though it was already in trust for myself and my brothers, the house had been signed over less than 7 years before death, so it still had to be included in the estate. We already had power of attorney and therefore had access to all the available accounts.

Having put all the details together into a spreadsheet, I calculated that the money owed for IHT was zero. I called the Probate Helpline to ask what I should fill in in this case. They said that, as the total value of the estate including the house, savings and PETs (Potentially Exempt Transfers) came to less than £325k, and because I already had full access to all assets, in fact I would not have to apply for Probate at all. They also said that I wouldn’t have to fill in any IHT forms (not even the shorter IHT205 form) as there was nothing to declare.

I thought that the Probate Helpline had been mistaken, but having double checked on the IHT Helpline, they also confirmed that I did not have to fill in any IHT forms due to the lack of Probate and the value of the estate.