When my father died I had a pile of DCs printed and still have all bar one; everyone took copies there and then (or posted them promptly back having copied them) so it was all a bit redundant. Thankfully they're cheap enough tho.
FYI, probate on simple estates is trivially easy to do, so don't get suckered into paying Grabbit & Leggit to deal with it.
Condolences and good wishes to you.
stuart noble brought next idea :
I have been advised to let the utilities run until the dust settles, paid for by DD from her account. Should the account run low, I can top it up.
To give the solicitor her due, she did say I could save a lot of her fees, by my sorting it all out and laying it on a plate for her to finalise. She also said she was the cheapest solicitor in the firm.
Scott M brought next idea :
Thanks, I'm beginning to pull out of the despair now - it was just one week ago, to the minute and anticipated by everyone for the past few years so says everyone, but me. Living so close, you just don't see the gradual deterioration.
Trivial is the word, I just need to find and work out the IT something or other form(s).
Are you sure there are no income tax issues? There would be if it were left to the maid and Harry wasn't her spouse so I fail to see a difference. I think Harry should look for a solicitor offering the first half hour for free and check.
Calm down and think how bad it would be if she hadn't done a will. You need a will if you aren't married and you may need one if you are.
dennis@home pretended :
The hitting of the roof was decades ago, when I heard she had allowed them to be nominate themselves as joint executors. I am perfectly calm now ;o)
On 07/07/2
I dont think you need a letter of renunciation anymore, with my father's estate 2 years ago ISTR that the application for probate just allowed myself ( one of 2 executors) to apply and state that I had told the other one .. Definitely a different situation form a few years earlier and my mother's estate. But As has been suggested post in uk.legal.moderated.
She explicitly listed them as executors. Unless they formally renounce that executorship, they have a legal duty to act as executors, as she requested.
It is entirely her right to do so, of course.
INCOME tax...? We're not talking about income here...
Inheritance tax only comes into play if the estate is over £325k. Below that, it's zero.
Adrian submitted this idea :
Of course, but I doubt she understood the implications in terms of cost after she had gone.
I forget how many of the originals certain financial institutions managed to "lose" when we were sorting the in-laws out... We thought we'd gone OTT with copies - we nearly ran out.
Adrian explained on 07/07/2015 :
I thought the value might be considered by IR as unearned income or something. So hopefully I should have nothing to pay in those terms?
No, an inheritance isn't taxed at all - apart from as IHT. Obviously, any income you earn from anything you invest is, though.
In article , Tim Lamb writes
Total rip-off IMO. The work is the same regardless of the value of the estate. Banks are even worse.
That might well have been the case here, had I not badgered her repeatedly to sort her numerous bank accounts out, into one she could access on the PC.
She was paying various bills, out of the different accounts using them like money boxes labelled electricity, gas and so on - none earning any interest at all. That sort of worked while ever she was able to physically make her way around them all. Unfortunately, in the past year she became confined to a mobility scooter and it became a nightmare for her to move money around like that. The row went on for months, but she finally gave in and concentrated the accounts into one in January and began earning a decent rate of interest.
How she kept track of the mess of accounts, beats me, but she did, those and the large stashes of cash she kept in the house.
No. Its called inheritance. Unless she gave you some money before she died
unlikely in my experience
Jonathan
The normal thing on a death is for the bank to stop all DDs. However, you d on't need to settle up with the utility comapnies until probte is granted a nd they know this and have special people to sort this out. I have done thi s a few times and most recently for my late son
Jonatah
You ned one either way, otherwise the state will determine how your assets are distributed. Wills are invalidated on marriehe.
Jonathan
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