wills and probate

[jacko74]

Right... not the cheeriest of subjects but my dad has terminal cancer and probably has less than a year left.

We've all come to terms with it (no-one more than him, himself) he's also very highly organized and has all his affairs in order and has written his will out himself.

However its just come to light that we need a "grant of probate" to actually administer the will, he's now panicking about just what this is and how do we get it (stupid really cos it wont be his problem!)
So i'm after some clarity on just how to go about getting one just to put his mind at rest....

Do we need to use a solicitor (if so what would be a reasonable fee)
Is it easy to obtain one ourselves? (through our local register of births, deaths and marriages i assume?)

Thanks in advance

 

[persvenality cult]

Right... not the cheeriest of subjects but my dad has terminal cancer and probably has less than a year left.

We've all come to terms with it (no-one more than him, himself) he's also very highly organized and has all his affairs in order and has written his will out himself.

However its just come to light that we need a "grant of probate" to actually administer the will, he's now panicking about just what this is and how do we get it (stupid really cos it wont be his problem!)
So i'm after some clarity on just how to go about getting one just to put his mind at rest....

Do we need to use a solicitor (if so what would be a reasonable fee)
Is it easy to obtain one ourselves? (through our local register of births, deaths and marriages i assume?)

Thanks in advance

grant of probate is only granted after death. it is granted to the 'executor', who is responsible for administering the estate (distributing his assets as laid out in the will and tying up all the loose ends).

if the will is legal, then you will have no problem getting probate.

what I'd suggest you do is get a solicitor or expert to check that the will is correct. if it's not been witnessed and signed properly it can cause problems later on. they will probably put it on a national register so it can be easily found.<br /><br />-- Sun Aug 01, 2010 8:11 am --<br /><br />thinking about it, I'm not sure a solicitor is necessarily the cheapest way to do this, but it's the only way I know. phone around, I imagine some will have a set fee for this kind of thing. or you could phone CAB.

 

[denislawsbackheel]

Everything the above said.
I was executor for my dad and it isn't a difficult process. One word of advice my dad made all his kids executors. This was very inconvenient. 3 of us dotted about the countryside having to all sign any documents before things could move forward so we changed it so I was sole executor. Make sure only one person is nominated executor. They need to keep full accounts for 7 years of their actions in case of a challenge. The will of course will be a public document that anyone can see.

 

[jacko74]

Thanks for the replies.. he's currently got me and my sister as joint executors and we both live close by, but as you say it sounds like it might be simpler to just make one of us sole executor.

His will is witnessed by 2 of his previous neighbours who ive never met and i dont know if theyre still at their last address, will the solicitor want to definitely make contact with the witnesses to confirm their identity?
If so it might be easier to get it re-done using people that I know can be easily traced when the time comes?

 

[denislawsbackheel]

Thanks for the replies.. he's currently got me and my sister as joint executors and we both live close by, but as you say it sounds like it might be simpler to just make one of us sole executor.

His will is witnessed by 2 of his previous neighbours who ive never met and i dont know if theyre still at their last address, will the solicitor want to definitely make contact with the witnesses to confirm their identity?
If so it might be easier to get it re-done using people that I know can be easily traced when the time comes?

We had no need to contact my dad's witnesses.

 

[mackenzie]

Thanks for the replies.. he's currently got me and my sister as joint executors and we both live close by, but as you say it sounds like it might be simpler to just make one of us sole executor.

His will is witnessed by 2 of his previous neighbours who ive never met and i dont know if theyre still at their last address, will the solicitor want to definitely make contact with the witnesses to confirm their identity?
If so it might be easier to get it re-done using people that I know can be easily traced when the time comes?

We had no need to contact my dad's witnesses.

Neither did we for the will I sorted out.