Estate Administration
Estate Administration – In addition to providing our clients with a high level of independent financial advice, we also have a network of excellent experienced legal professionals who specialise in areas such as property, litigation, employment law, contracts, mergers and acquisitions, divorce and family matters, wills and probate as well as private client law services
An example of work our professionals can support with is the administration of estates. Administering an estate can prove extremely onerous. Even where the assets are relatively modest, complications can quickly arise, for example if there’s a dispute between beneficiaries or unusual assets. Our Professional connections can provide a range of services from simply advising clients on the terms of the Will or on the other hand, providing a comprehensive service including everything from minimising the estate’s inheritance tax liability to investing assets on behalf of beneficiaries.
What are your responsibilities as an Executor?
When you agree to become an Executor of someone’s Will, you become responsible for winding up their affairs after their death – paying off any debts, sorting out their tax bill and distributing their assets in accordance with their wishes. To do this, you need to obtain what’s called a ‘Grant of Representation’ from the Probate Court. If you don’t administer the estate properly e.g. you overlook a debt, you may be held personally liable out of your own pocket to make good any loss suffered.
When should you call on expert help?
There are some estates that you can handle fairly easily on your own. Usually, this will be where you know the full ins and outs of the dead person’s affairs, where the assets are comparatively few and of modest value, where there’s no outstanding tax liability and where the terms of the Will are completely clear. However, you will probably need some form of help if:
- the dead person was a beneficiary of another estate that still hasn’t been wound up
- the dead person received income from a trust
- the Will creates a trust
- the Will is unclear or possibly invalid
- a beneficiary can’t be found
- the assets include foreign stocks and shares and property or unusual assets such as intellectual property rights and royalties
- the debts are bigger than the assets
- there’s a dispute, for example between beneficiaries or with the Inland Revenue.
The range of support needed can be very little to particularly in depth. To further illustrate, on first death, there is often very little to be done in the way of estate administration especially if the majority of assets are in joint names. So a reasonable fixed fee should be offered for completing the IHT205 and preparing the executors Oath to enable Grant of Probate to be obtained. The widow or widower is often able to deal with the transfer of assets into his or her name by themselves. Where our professional connection can be of assistance is in offering estate planning advice with a view to the second death. Sometimes there is merit in considering a deed of variation to redirect funds or to introduce a trust. With the changes introduced by the new residence nil rate band there is much to think about on first death.
If you have any questions or requirements that you believe fall outside of our remit, but would like to be put in touch with one of our independent financial advisers who can help, please let us know and we will happily put you in touch. for more information regarding Estate Administration please call us on 01273 208813 or email [email protected]
This article was originally published on Thursday, March 31, 2016 – 15:20
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