Barcan Woodward
Will Making & Probate
A will
A document setting out what will happen to your property, possessions and money when you die.
Probate
Distributing the property, possessions and money of someone who has died.
- What happens if I don‘t make a Will?
- Our will making service
- Probate - what is it?
- Probate - practical tips
- What happens to the house and its contents?
- What happens to money in the bank or building society and stocks and shares etc?
- Our probate service
- Our probate and will department
What happens if I don‘t make a Will?
If you don‘t have a Will when you die your property (known as your estate) will be divided up according to the intestacy rules. These are legal rules. What happens depends on whether you are married and what family you have. Please refer to us for details as to how these rules affect your situation. When lawyers refer to someone‘s estate they mean everything that they own including their home, possessions, stocks and shares, cash and money in the bank or building society.
Our Will making service
We have been writing Wills for many years. In most cases a single Will costs about £60-£80 plus VAT.
Please phone today about making a Will.
North Bristol - Giles Woodward - 0117 9232141 or South Bristol - Betty Creed - 0117 963 5237
Alternatively if you would like to e-mail us using our e-mail response form please click here.
If you wish to send an attachment with your e-mail please click here and your local e-mail program will appear.
Probate - What is it?
This is the procedure appointing someone to look after the property and possessions of someone who has died. It is a legal process that involves the Probate Registry, a division of the courts in England and Wales.
If there is a Will this needs to be lodged at the Probate Registry. You also need to lodge an Inland Revenue form giving details of the deceased person‘s property and possessions in cases where the estate is worth more than £240,000. The Will identifies who has the right to deal with the deceased‘s estate. That person is known as an executor. If everything is in order the Probate Registry will issue a document called a Grant of Probate. This will give the executor the right to deal with the deceased‘s property and possessions. It can be shown to a bank or building society as evidence of the executor‘s right to obtain money from the deceased‘s account.
If there is no Will then the process is a little more complicated. The closest relative will usually apply for Letters of Administration. The application is made to the Probate Registry. If the application is approved the person applying will become the administrator rather than the executor of the deceased person‘s estate. They will be issued with a document by the Probate Registry, known as Letters of Administration which will prove their right to deal with the deceased‘s property. The administrator will usually be the person who has the right to benefit from the deceased‘s estate under the intestacy rules. As with the case for an application to appoint an executor, an application for Letters of Administration may also require the preparation of an Inland Revenue form giving full details of the deceased‘s property and possessions.
It is possible for the Executor named in the Will to make an application to the Probate Registry personally. However, most people involve a solicitor who has experience of this type of work and it is best to do so in most cases. The solicitor‘s charges are usually claimed from the estate.
In cases where there is no will it is always best to involve a solicitor as the procedure is more complicated unless the deceased left almost no possessions or their value is very small.
Probate - Practial tips
When a close relative or spouse has died the last thing most people want to be concerned with is making an application to the Probate Registry. Arranging the funeral and notifying friends and relatives will be the priority. However, it is usually a good idea to make an appointment with a solicitor so that the probate procedure can be started. This will be particularly important in cases where the spouse or partner who has died looked after the couple‘s finances and all the accounts are in their sole name. The surviving partner may be left with no immediate access to cash to live on. The surviving partner will not be able to have access to the bank accounts until the probate process is completed.
However, if there has been careful financial planning, an insurance policy, designed to pay out on a partner‘s death, may provide sufficient resources to pay for the surviving partner‘s immediate needs. The solicitor can identify these policies and apply to the insurance company for payment.
Solicitors will charge to administer an estate and can deal with all aspects of the work. It is sensible to discuss what work they will do and what work might be carried out by the executor or administrator, for example, clearing the deceased‘s property.
In all cases solicitors should deal with these matters sensitively and with understanding.
What happens to the house and its contents?
House
If the house was jointly owned by a couple, in most circumstances, the survivor will become the sole owner and the house will not form part of the deceased‘s estate. That will not happen if the couple drew up a trust deed dividing ownership or there have been difficulties with the relationship resulting in a Court order. In these situations ownership of the property may not pass to the surviving partner automatically and the share owned by the Deceased will probably form part of his or her estate. If the deceased was the sole owner and occupier of the property then it is usually sold. The proceeds of the sale are distributed according to the Will.
Problems can arise if the deceased was the sole owner but other people lived in the property. Commonly, the surviving partner lives there. This does not usually cause a problem if the Will says that the partner inherits the deceased‘s share. If that is not the case, there may be a conflict between the wish of the surviving partner to remain in the property and those who stand to benefit from the deceased‘s Will and their wish to dispose of the property. That situation should not arise if the Will was drawn up properly.
Contents
A Will should normally say what is to happen to the contents of the home if it is to be sold. The usual situation is that some of those benefiting under the Will may wish to inherit items of particular value. The remaining items are normally sold at auction or disposed of if they are of little or no value.
A Will should specify precisely what is to happen to particularly valuable items such as pieces of furniture, paintings or ornaments.
What happens to money in the bank, stocks and shares and insurance policies etc?
If a bank or building society account is in the name of two or more people and one of those die then the remaining account holders inherit the balance unless an agreement is made to the contrary. However, it is always worth checking that this is the case. The same applies to stocks and shares held in more than one name.
Accounts, stocks and shares held in the sole name of the deceased will be frozen. Once someone has been appointed to administer the deceased‘s estate, either as administrator or executor, they can apply to deal with the money in bank or building society accounts or stocks and shares. The stocks and shares are frequently sold and the proceeds transferred to the solicitors dealing with the estate. They will deposit the money on behalf of the administrator or the executor. Similarly, balances may be removed from the deceased‘s bank accounts and the accounts closed.
Those administering the estate will wish to look at all of the deceased‘s insurance and pension policies. In the case of insurance policies that pay out on the deceased‘s death an application will be made for payment of the sum concerned.
Pension policies will have to be checked closely. The right to pension payments may be transferred to the surviving spouse or partner or they may end on death.
In most cases, banks, building societies and other institutions will want proof of the right of the executor or administrator to deal with the deceased‘s affairs. This proof will be the Grant of Probate or Letters of Administration. This why it is important to apply to the Probate Registry to obtain these documents promptly.
Our Probate Service
If you want advice about dealing with the affairs of someone who has died please contact us.
Phone us
Giles Woodward in North Bristol - 0117 923 2141 or Andrew Dobie in South Bristol - 0117 963 5237
Email us
You can e-mail us for an estimate or with your questions using our e-mail enquiry form by clicking here.
If you wish to send us any attachments please click here which will bring up your computers e-mail screen.
We aim to respond within 1 working day of receiving your email.
Our probate and will department
Our department is split into two teams based at offices in North and South Bristol.
The partners in charge of the department are Giles Woodward and Andrew Dobie. Giles is based at our offices in North Bristol and Andrew in South Bristol. In addition, experienced support staff help Giles and Andrew at both offices.