I’ve just done exactly this on behalf of Mrs JASR (one of 2 executors), I was delegated the task of doing it, as I was more suited to do it - though I gave access to the online spreadsheet to both executors.
I used the spreadsheet to track:
‘costs’ - eg ongoing utility bills, funeral expenses.
A list of other outgoings that needed to be paid for still.
A list of financial assets and the current state of control/progress of them, and the value when paid out.
A breakdown of the values of the will beneficiaries with estimated values, and then paid out values and detail of payouts.
A breakdown of the values of charity beneficiaries with estimated values, and then paid out values and details of payouts.
A summary tab showing total costs, estate total valuation, less payouts, and balance remaining.
I also used the spreadsheet to keep track of other related items to the deceased- memberships, online non financial accounts etc, and whether they’d been cancelled or not.
I think the probate estate value vs final estate value will only be about 1% different (difference in accumulation of costs, investment fluctuations etc).
As echoed by some others, once probate is obtained and the Will is in the public domain, as long as you follow the wishes of the Will then you don’t need a solicitor (nor for the probate - you can do it online, once you’ve got valuations of the assets) The only solicitor required was for the house sale - as for any house sale.
You definitely need a new bank account just for the estate and disbursement of the assets, to ensure you have a good paper/electronic trail.
Some things took an age/lots of time - cancelling virgin media was an absolute ballache, and British Gas came close to being as bad.
Had to deal with some shares, and some of those were also a pain to get cashed in.
I’m just at the last payout stage now, hopefully all done by end of next week.
I used the spreadsheet to track:
‘costs’ - eg ongoing utility bills, funeral expenses.
A list of other outgoings that needed to be paid for still.
A list of financial assets and the current state of control/progress of them, and the value when paid out.
A breakdown of the values of the will beneficiaries with estimated values, and then paid out values and detail of payouts.
A breakdown of the values of charity beneficiaries with estimated values, and then paid out values and details of payouts.
A summary tab showing total costs, estate total valuation, less payouts, and balance remaining.
I also used the spreadsheet to keep track of other related items to the deceased- memberships, online non financial accounts etc, and whether they’d been cancelled or not.
I think the probate estate value vs final estate value will only be about 1% different (difference in accumulation of costs, investment fluctuations etc).
As echoed by some others, once probate is obtained and the Will is in the public domain, as long as you follow the wishes of the Will then you don’t need a solicitor (nor for the probate - you can do it online, once you’ve got valuations of the assets) The only solicitor required was for the house sale - as for any house sale.
You definitely need a new bank account just for the estate and disbursement of the assets, to ensure you have a good paper/electronic trail.
Some things took an age/lots of time - cancelling virgin media was an absolute ballache, and British Gas came close to being as bad.
Had to deal with some shares, and some of those were also a pain to get cashed in.
I’m just at the last payout stage now, hopefully all done by end of next week.