left out of will – Probate Experts Cost Cutters

How To Cut Probate Costs: Watch Out For…

Stephen Pett — Thu, 29 Aug 2013 16:20:23 +0000

How To Cut Probate Fees (Contact us!)

Cut Probate costs

Three cunning practices which can dramatically increase your probate costs (and they are really common.) So avoid them and reduce probate costs dramatically. Maybe even by enough to buy a new car! (Not that the executors can do so at the expense of the estate – only from their inheritance if any!)1) Responsibility Allowances. Some firms will add as much as 1.8% of the total value of the gross estate ON TOP of their normal hourly rate. Take a couple of examples to show the effect. Just to be clear, you pay the full rate for the work, then a large – sometimes very large – bonus for nothing at all.a) A straightforward estate of £1m – average fees might be (say) £5000 to cover all the work done. The responsibility allowance could be as much as £18,000 – bunce, pure profit. We fully accept that more senior staff may be needed for larger estates, but £18,000 for nothing is just plain wrong.b) A straightforward estate with just one asset and a few bills to pay, gross value £100,000. Average fees might be between £600 and £1,200. Responsibility allowance could add £1,800 for no good reason, more than doubling the bill. Grrr.2) The second sneaky practice – charging on a “time unit” basis. It is standard practice. A 30 second call counts as a unit, which is 6 minutes. So if the hourly rate is £240, you pay £24 for £2 worth of work. Not just once, every time the staff does anything, it will be rounded up to the next 6 minutes. So 9 minutes costs £48 not £36 as you would expect, and the same thing happens on every single piece of worth which doesn’t exactly fall into a multiple of 6 minutes. Lots of extra costs.3) Sneaky practice three is not quite so widespread, but it can be expensive. With some firms, the receptionist (so friendly and chatty) and all other staff are charged out at the same hourly rate as the professional in charge of your case.

Probate Quotes: How much can we save you? It costs nothing to find out.

We find that working with professionals who mirror our friendly and cooperative approach to dealing with an estate after death often results in reduced probate costs / probate fees of around 75% less though it may be more or occasionally less – as well as being a great relief to family executors who don’t really have the experience of a probate lawyer. In the end, both executors and beneficiaries can lose out – which may result in probate claims rather than low probate administration fees. Rushing off to the nearest high street solicitor may result in excessive bills and non-expert staff.We have seen cases where folk have tried to avoid probate lawyers costs and accidentally triggered needless 6 figure tax charges in Last Wills designed to save tax!If you do feel that you need some help, our job is to keep the cost of probate fees as low as possible. Contact us to find out how to reduce probate costs.Using The Probate Department to reduce probate costs after a death will probably save thousands of pounds will be available for the benefit of your chosen beneficiaries if we help you to cut probate costs.

Check out the Assisted Probate Service.

This is pretty much the best way to reduce probate costs, but still have access to professional assistance – as much or as little as you wish. Just pay for the time needed – their is a £250 deposit, but if that isn’t used up, the balance will be returned. We invented the concept and persuaded one of our contacts to implement it, which some success, I am pleased to sayAssisted Probate Service page.

Let us help you to Cut Probate Costs.

Our contacts fees are based on a simple hourly rate in most cases. They will quote a flat fee based on full disclosure of the case, if that is your preference. They will deal with as much or as little of the probate work needed to wind up the estate as you wish. The more work the family does, the lower the probate costs!In terms of additional hidden charges, they only charge for significant things which they have to pay out. They don’t charge for letters or phone calls (though they might if they are overseas!) or or stamps, or £35 per letter or email. They will charge for Court Fees, Registrars fees, and specialist work like conveyancing and mileage. More on “disbursements.”In the vast majority of cases, discussions can take place on the phone, email reduces costs if appropriate and the post is very useful.If you haven’t had a quote for probate from the executors appointed in your Will and they are professionals – you should obtain one immediately before it is too late, you are dead and they are in sole charge – and it is too late to renegotiate the fees! All you can do is ask them to resign, but they won’t resign if they have started work. Some charge a “responsibility allowance” of as much as 1.5% plus VAT of the entire value of your estate. Plus their hourly rate which could be twice that of the firms we recommend.If you have appointed ludicrously expensive professionals (they aren’t all!) or (worse) banks, why not contact us immediately and we can assist you to set up a Codicil to put your family back in charge, and able to negotiate cut probate costs (preferably through us!) You can still use the same bank or solicitors, but the family will appoint them after death and the family will then be in charge, not the professionals.For friendly professional probate help contact us here and reduce probate costs.

Cut Probate Costs and save thousands.

Probate Questions: how to find out if there is an Inheritance

Stephen Pett — Sat, 10 Aug 2013 16:20:22 +0000

Probate Questions

My probate question: my cousins ex-husband died last year and left a 17 year old son. Some time after their divorce he moved to UK and He starting working for Engineers company on till his untimely death in 2010. Is the Son entitled to get any benefit after his fathers death? If yes who we should contact in UK? His ex-wife and Son live in Poland, only Son visit his fother few times a year… is there anything we can do?

Probate Answer

If he left a Will, then his assets should have been distributed under the terms of that Will.If not, they should have been distributed under the Rules of Intestacy – copy attached.If his assets were relatively modest, and did not include a home, then Probate may not have been required, so there is no straightforward way of finding out what happened, apart from contacting the people who dealt with the death, funeral etc.. If you know who his bank was, they may be able to shed some light on what has happened.Unless he has remarried, then his parents – if alive – or his soon would expect to have benefitted.One other possible source of information is the Treasury Solicitor who looks after the estate of people who don’t have any obvious heirs. That is at http://www.bonavacantia.gov.uk/output/.The Local Branch of the Law Society might circulate their members to see if any of them are dealing with the estate.If that fails, then you could pay a firm like Title Research to try to find out what happened. They are at www.titleresearch.com/.I do hope that helps!

Probate Questions and Answers

Cut out of Will

Stephen Pett — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 16:20:41 +0000

Children cut out of Grandmothers Will.

Probate question:I lived with my partner for 20 years and we had three children. He sadly passed away. But what has upset me afterwards is that my partners mother then died and left my children, her grandchildren, absolutely nothing. This was because we were not married so, as far as she was concerned, the children were stigmatised. It was quite deliberate.My question is, do the children have any rights to claim against her estate: could I try to get something for them?Probate answer: More on Probate Disputes. Probate Claim Checker.Under English Law (but not under the law of may other countries) people are entitled to dispose of their assets by way of their Last Will exactly as they wish.But, and it is a big but, they have to consider those people who they should benefit, and sometime such Wills are overturned because the person was confused and forgot one of their children for example – which might indicate that they were not in full possession of their wits. Another time when such a Will might be overturned is on the grounds of what is called “undue” influence. Let’s say that two sisters fall out big time, and one lives hundred of miles away from the other, and that one lives near their mother. If the local sister persistently bad mouths the far away sister, and gradually persuades the mother that she is not deserving of any inheritance, then it may be possible to overturn the Will on the grounds of undue influence. But it is not easy to prove.The Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants Act 1975) also opens up a another way of overturning unfair Wills, and it just might help in your case (but probably not from what you have said). If your mother in law had been helping in some financially related way (cash help, babysitting so you could go to work, accommodation etc etc) with bringing up the children, it may be possible to persuade the Court to replace the help that they were getting with some cash from the estate. But I wouldn’t hold your breath, and you could end up very out of pocket paying legal costs, so don’t even try unless there is a strong case. You could try to negotiate an out of Court settlement with the executors. We can help, at our usual modest fees….

Why the delay paying out?

Stephen Pett — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 04:20:14 +0000

Delay in Paying Out

My husband is one of three main beneficiaries from his grandfathers will, there were smaller gifts left to other member of the family and friends, which have all been paid from the estate, however the 3 main beneficiaries have still not received anything.

All 3 have been asked to provide proof of id from a list of required documents, only my husband has done this to date, the other two beneficaries live overseas so have to seek legal help in providing proof to the uk solicitor dealing with this matter.

Will the remaining estate not be distributed until all 3 have provided id, the solicitor will not speak with my husband as he is not the executor, so we are in the dark (the executor is not very forthcoming).

We wondered whether my husband can insist that the executor request the solicitor pays the 3rd equal share to my husband or whether by law they have to wait ?

Jane

Probate Answer: delay in paying out

There is no legal reason why the executor (or solicitor acting) not to make 1/3 distribution to the beneficiary who has provided ID now.However, they have the freedom to administer the estate as they think fit. If they feel that administratively it is best to get all the IDs and then hand out all the residue in one go, that is not unreasonable, unless there is an unacceptable delay in getting such ID from all the beneficiaries.The beneficiaries are entitled to any interest earned on the legacy up to the date it is distributed and, if has to be held by the executor for any length of time, the executor has a duty to invest the money where it will earn the most interest for the beneficiaries.We would certainly have made at least an interim distribution unless there was some doubt as to outstanding liabilities or assets or beneficiaries.Peter at the Probate DepartmentThank you for such a quick response, I will pass this on to my husband it has been very helpful.RegardsJaneMore on Probate Disputes. Probate Claim Checker.