Who Is Entitled To Apply For Letters of Administration?
If a loved one has died intestate, you may have learned that you will need to apply for Letters of Administration to administer your loved ones estate. Letters of Administration are similar to Grants of Probate. Both are applications for permission to access the deceased’s finances and deal with the estate.
The difference is, the executors of the will would apply for Grants of Probate. But when someone dies intestate there is no will, so an Administrator would deal with the estate as opposed to an Executor and the law has specific rules on who is eligible to administer the will of the deceased.
Depending on the relatives left behind, the deceased’s estate will be dealt with by one of the following family members, in this exact order: Husband, wife or civil partner, but not common law partner, adult children including adopted children but not step-children, parents, brothers and sisters or their children, grandparents, aunts and uncles but not their spouses.
Once you have established which relative is entitled to apply for Letters of Administration, you will need to decide whether they are going to deal with the estate themselves at this terrible time of grief, or if they are going to use a specialist probate service to act on their behalf.
Although applying for the initial Letters of Administration is quite straightforward, you will need to gather a lot of information about the deceased’s finances, before you fill out the application. Because there is no will to guide you on this, it can be a complicated affair in itself. So if your loved one has left significant assets it may be better to appoint a specialist service to administer the estate on your behalf from the outset.
It is difficult to focus on financial matters when you are grieving, and if children under the age of 18 have been left behind, or the deceased owns shares, businesses, land or property, dealing with an intestate will can become extremely complicated. Plus it can drag on for years, so it makes sense to use a specialist probate service to speed things up, especially if relatives left behind were financially independent on the deceased.
Another good reason for using a specialist service to apply for Letters of Administration on your behalf is taxes. The law requires that taxes are paid after death, not once the estate has been dealt with but a specialist service will know ways to get around this.
It is important that the relative responsible for administering the estate is aware of all these issues before they apply for decide whether to administer the estate themselves.
What Factors Increase Probate Fees?
Probate fees can vary greatly depending on the state the deceased has left their finances in. If you are trying to plan ahead so that you don’t leave loved ones facing massive probate fees there are a few precautions you can take.
Make a Will
Your first step is to make a will. It may seem like a morbid thing to think about, especially if you are still quite young. But one of the biggest factors that increase probate fees is having no will at all, because whoever is dealing with probate will have to find all your assets, debts, money owing to you etc, which may take considerable time. They will also have to work out who is entitled to the proceeds of your estate, according the law.
If you die intestate, it is the law that decides who is entitled to what, not you. Do you really want to give the government total control over your finances after you’ve gone? Also, if you don’t make a will, it is not just huge probate fees you will need to worry about, but also higher inheritance taxes.
So do make a will but get it drawn up by an expert. You can buy DIY kits at a stationery shop but you put yourself at risk of making mistakes. For example, if you miss assets off your will, you will be deemed to have died partially intestate and your will could take years to sort out. And the longer it takes, the higher the probate fees will be. An expert doesn’t charge a huge amount to help you make your will and they will make sure that nothing is left out.
Take Expert Advice
Proper planning can reduce probate fees and inheritance taxes. So make sure you take expert advice on matters such as how to ensure that your partner, spouse or children do not end up paying inheritance tax on your personal property.
Make Sure Your Will States How to Contact Your Benefactors
If your surviving relatives do not live with you, it is important to state in your will how they can be contacted. If you don’t do this, it will take far longer for a probate service to track the down the benefactors and this will increase probate fees considerably. Complications like this are all the more reason to use an expert to help you write your will. They already know the things that may cause complications and they can ensure that you don’t make any serious mistakes.
Why do people give up on writing their family tree?
The popularity of genealogy and individuals writing their own family tree continues to rise. Learning about where we’ve come from and finding out more about our relatives is both interesting and can help to give us some kind of identity and feeling of belonging.
However, a high proportion of people who set off to research their family tree give up after only a weeks or months after realising that it can take considerable time, effort and money
.
If starting from grass roots level, a number of probate records, certificates and Wills often need to be sought and purchased. This of course becomes even more complicated if relatives lived abroad.
There has also been a rise in the number of “membership” organisations which aim to assist those doing their own research through an expensive monthly subscription. Again, this can be costly and will take considerable time.
If you’d like to find out more about your family tree but don’t want to commit yourself to a subscription and want to cut corners, IWC Ltd has its own genealogy service with a range of inexpensive packages to suit the level of research required. Find out more about our service here.
Woman fined after failing to declare inheritance
It’s all too easy to understand why we are seeing an increased number of individuals failing to declare their inheritance.
A lack of job security, unemployment and the rising cost of living means some people feel they are being forced to be untruthful and make the most of every penny they receive from the state.
In recent weeks, a case was reported in the press whereby a woman from Cumbria received over £19,000 as an inheritance in 2010, but failed to report it to the authorities, continuing to claim housing and Council Tax benefit.
The woman admitted to the deception and was forced to pay back the £2,500 she had wrongfully received, in addition to £155 in court costs and surcharges.
Remember that if you’re receiving state benefits, it is vital that should you receive any additional money such as an inheritance, you must declare it immediately.
Have a property in France?-French probate law
An individual wrote recently to say that they had a second home in France and ask, on the basis that they had no surviving relative other than their sister, whether or not they could legitimately leave it to their friends?
Of course, owning a property abroad will always complicate the probate process, due to probate laws varying in each individual country.
However, in this instance it was agreed that the best way forward would be to include the legacy of the French house within the English Will, given that the individual was resident in England.
The only problem with this is that a delay would inevitably occur as English probate must be completed before the property could be legally dealt with in France.
There is no probate law in France which states that the property must be left to a certain individual within a Will. However, it does mean that the beneficiaries (ie the friends) must pay 60 percent Inheritance Tax on the home. Specific wording within the Will can arrange for this to be paid out of the proceeds of the English estate.
Plans to protect charitable legacies
The Legal Services Board (LSB) has this week revealed proposals to develop regulations for the Will writing industry, on the back of findings which give examples of how poor advice has negatively affected many charitable legacies.
Around one third of the charities interviewed had been affected by a poorly drafted Will. Over ten percent had not received a legacy initially due to them, over one third finally received a reduced legacy and almost half had experienced undue delays, with more again having to pay for legal costs to receive anything at all.
With recent government legislation indicating that less Inheritance Tax will be paid on Estates which leave a legacy to charity, it is vital that steps are taken to ensure that those preparing a Will receive the best and most accurate advice.
Views on possible steps for regulation are being accepted until 16 July. What would you suggest? A regulated industry body? Strict legal criteria on who can provide this service? With cases being reported weekly of fraudulent probate solicitors and those offering poor advice, it seems that the suggestion to restrict probate services to law firms is extremely short sighted and dangerous, no doubt leading to higher fees and potentially a drop in the standard of specialist advice being provided.
What to do if someone dies
1. Register the death
If the person has died at home or in a care home, call the doctor. If there are no suspicious circumstances, the doctor will issue you with a Medical Certificate giving the cause of death. Take this to the local Register Office, where you will be given copies of the Death Certificate, for which you should expect to pay around £5. You’ll need these in order to deal with the deceased’s bank accounts and creditors. You may prefer however, to contact a funeral director immediately after the doctor has seen the deceased. A good funeral director will collect the Medical Certificate for you and offer to take you to the Register Office if required, before going on to arrange the details of the actual funeral with you.
If the person died in hospital, a doctor will automatically provide a Medical Certificate which you will need to pick up, along with the deceased’s belongings.
2. Inform everyone
Along with family members and friends, you’ll also need to inform the deceased’s employer (if applicable), solicitor and accountant (if they had one) along with the bank or building society. This should be done as soon as possible, but you can wait for a while to inform any other creditors with whom the deceased had an outstanding agreement.
3. Look for the Will
In an ideal world, the person will have told you where to find their Will before they died. However, if you can’t find one, try contacting their solicitor, who should have a copy.
4. If there is no Will
If there seems to be no Will, then the Estate will be processed through intestacy. The deceased’s relatives or friends need to decide who will contact the Probate Office and apply for “letters of administration” which means that probate can begin.
5. Find out the Executor
Whoever has been named Executor of the Will should contact the Probate Office for a Grant of Representation and begin the probate process.
6. Start planning the funeral
If you’re using a funeral director, this person will play a key role in organising the details for you, in accordance with any wishes laid out in the Will. Make sure that they outline all costs up front as you may need to pay them before the Estate is settled.
What will happen to my Facebook page after I die?
Currently, when a person dies, Facebook’s policy states that it will in effect take over that person’s page as soon as the death is reported to the organisation. It blocks the account so that although the page remains, it cannot be added to or amended by anyone else.
Designated individuals are only able to gain access to the relevant Facebook account data (including photographs) if the deceased gave specific written instructions to this effect before they died or if police officials request it.
These restrictions have angered many individuals who are currently campaigning for specific guidelines to be introduced whereby a friend or relative of the deceased is able to act as “social media representative”, taking over and running or closing down their social media accounts including Facebook and Twitter as they see fit. In this way, vital memories in the form of photographs and records of personal thoughts can be preserved, which could help loved ones during this difficult and emotional period. Social media can act as a tool to immortalise those who have left us and as such, these keepsakes should never be lost.
Heir hunters – be your own heir hunter!
Thousands of people have been intrigued by the “Heir Hunters” programme on TV. The idea of identifying potentially valuable, unclaimed Estates and the exciting chase which subsequently takes place as research is carried out to find out if any beneficiaries exists, keeps us spellbound.
But how can you find out whether or not you may be entitled to benefit from an unclaimed Estate?
The Unclaimed Estates Register, also known as the Bona Vacantia List, is available from the government’s website and allows you to search by the deceased’s surname, date of death or place of death.
If you find someone on that list to whom you feel you may be related, contact a member of the Heir Hunters Association, who will help you to make a claim on the Estate. In order to do this, you’ll need to have proof of your connection through birth, marriage or death certificates and a diagram showing the family tree.
Most individuals on the Bona Vacantia List have left Estates valued in excess of £500 so it may well be worth your while finding out if anything has been left to you.
Tenancy for life and divorce
If you are living in a house which is to be left to you in part ownership with another person, then be aware that if the other person subsequently heads for the divorce courts this could have an effect on your financial situation, not to mention rendering you potentially homeless.
To ensure that you can continue living in the property should this circumstance arise, ask for a “tenancy for life” clause to be inserted into the current owner’s Will. This means that in the future, even if the other person divorces, any claim made on the property by their ex spouse will be considered invalid.
It is not recommended that you buy the other person’s share of the property for a pre-arranged small sum if they are heading towards divorce. The court would realise why the transaction had taken place and consider it unfair, most likely invalidating the property transfer and taking the property into account during divorce proceedings.