lost wills uk – Probate Experts Cost Cutters

Father Died

Stephen Pett — Thu, 31 Dec 2015 10:25:06 +0000

My Father died in November.

How can I find out if a Will has been registered?Answer:Sorry about your Dad.

I am not sure if you can’t find the Will (seehttps://theprobatedepartment.co.uk/how-to-find-a-lost-will/.) We do very often get questions about lost Wills, and their loss can cause all sorts of problems. Many are destroyed by people who don’t like them, many are so out of date as to be ridiculous. So we designed a program to keep Wills (etc) under review and secure, and we set up a separate company (Will Custodian Ltd) to run the system. It is very simple, costs most people the price of a coffee a month and help its’ Members to keep up to date with relevant changes in the Law, Tax and (of course) family circumstances. Any or all of those can mean that a review of Legal Planning is needed. If you would like to learn more about the Peace of Mind Service, click the link.2) Or think someone else might have been granted Probate on it (it would be very quick to have done so already in around a month) in which case try here: https://www.gov.uk/search-will-probate3) Alternatively, you might wish to prevent anyone else from attempting to prove a Will you might consider was false/ made under pressure etc etc, by way of a Caveat in which case see here: https://theprobatedepartment.co.uk/contest-a-will/.

4) If it turns out that there is no valid Last Will, then the Rules of Intestacy will apply, but the situation might change dramatically if there is the possibility of a claim under the Inheritance Act and its’ latest update which significantly widens the class of people who can claim that they were not properly provided for under the Will or lack of Will.

Happy to have a brief chat if it helps, and I hope I have answered the question!

Government’s New Wills Archive

Stephen Pett — Tue, 27 Jan 2015 13:46:36 +0000

More than 6 million searches of the government’s new archive of wills have been made in just 1 month.

Tens of thousands of people have gone online to buy copies of the wills of family members, famous names and historical figures by using the new digital service.(Please don’t ring The Probate Department about this – we’re a private company, not a Government Department. The link to search for a Will which has been probated is at the foot of the page.)The archive contains more than 41 million wills held by the Probate Registry since 1858 when the documents became public records.It includes the last wishes of leaders and high profile musicians and writers like John Lennon, JRR Tolkien and Freddie Mercury.They also include wartime leader Winston Churchill, whose death was 50 years ago this week.Since the launch on Saturday 27 December almost 25,000 wills have been bought, showing the strength of interest in the documents.Justice Minister Lord Faulks said:

I am delighted so many people have taken advantage of our unique archive of wills and are looking into the histories of their families.This is an incredible resource and I’m not surprised in the slightest that it has captured the public imagination so strongly.

Now we can all learn about the last wishes of our long lost great aunts from the comfort of our living room.

The innovative project has been carried out by HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) and storage and information management company Iron Mountain.The project is a great example of how the government is opening up public services. It means requests can be dealt with quickly and without people needing to visit the Probate Registry to search archives in person.The availability of the database of 41 million wills follows the first stage of opening up the archive when soldiers’ wills were made available in 2013. There have since been more than 2 million searches of that archive.The latest phase in the programme means that people can now request a specific will online and receive an electronic copy within 10 working days.Creating the wills archive is part of ongoing work to transform HMCTS to make it a modern, efficient, digital service which is easy for the public to access.More than 150 cases have been filmed in the Court of Appeal since the government changed the law to allow court broadcasting in 2013 and £160 million is being invested in digital technology for courtrooms including video links, wi-fi and improved IT systems to end the system’s reliance on paper.You can search for a will here.

Law Commission to Review Last Will Rules

Stephen Pett — Mon, 11 Aug 2014 07:29:36 +0000

It has been estimated that more than 4 in ten adults don’t have a Will. This is a WILD underestimate when you include the Wills which are lost, stolen, accidentally cancelled or so far out of date as to be irrelevant to current family circumstances.It is the authors personal concern that the Law Commission review of the Last Will Rules does not follow the path set by the recent innovations in Lasting Powers of Attorney, which seem to have been designed to encourage fraud. Let us hope that common sense will prevail, though we are unlikely to know before 2018.Where there is no valid Last Will in place, the Rules of Intestacy apply, and you get into the nightmare scenario of Court action being needed under the The Inheritance (Provision for Family & Dependents) Act 1975. This is a real area of danger as the sort of thinking applied to LPAs could bring a flood of claims from flat mates and all sorts of hangers on.Under the Rules of Intestacy, only direct family can benefit, and this includes divorcing spouses, but excludes a partner you have lived with for 40 years and had children with but never legally married or formed a legal civil partnership.Another major issue is who can make a Last Will – in terms of their mental ability, especially as people are taking a lot longer to fade away in their old age these days. And sadly a good proportion of people are not really “with it” all the time. The rules relating to Wills and the ability to make a valid Will date back to not last century, but the one before with the main Wills Act dating from 1837.We thoroughly approve of a review of the Law relating to Wills, but do hope it will be conducted by folk with their feet on the ground and not too strongly influenced by pressure from powerful groups with their own agendas. Minority groups are important, and their interests should be protected, but not at the expense of damaging the interests of the community as a whole.If your own Legal Planning is not up to date, we offer a full (paid) Legal Planning Service, so please get in touch. Last Wills, Lasting Powers of Attorney, Trusts, Inheritance3 Tax planning are all avaialble.

Have we lost the house?

Stephen Pett — Mon, 26 Aug 2013 16:20:25 +0000

Probate Questions: Have we lost the house?

Q: My brother died 6 years ago and the house that was originally my dads and his went to his girlfriend. She has now died and her name and my brothers name are on the deeds. He did not leave a Will. Where do the family of my sister stand ?A: It depends how the property was owned but almost certainly it will go to his family. It may possibly have been owned in equal shares, or have been in trust for him. Do you have a copy of her Will? You can get one for £1.50, details are on this page. Q: Thanks for that. My dad did not leave a Will and neither did my brother. He was only 40, his girlfriend and he has no children. So the fact that no Wills were left and my brothers name was still on the deeds means nothing?A. Have a look at this: which will help answer your probate question.It explains the two types of joint ownership.One way, there might be something in it, the other there would not. You can check the Land Registry and download the Title Register – if it says “No disposition by a sole proprietor of the registered estate (except a trust corporation) under which capital money arises is to be registered unless authorised by an order of the court” you may be on a winner – otherwise, the survivor automatically inherited the whole thing.We can check for you for £30, but it will cost you £4 if you do it!Do let me know how you get on!If you would like us to look at brief probate questions for you, please email details and if we can answer it in less than 5 minutes, and have the time (no promises) we’ll try to help. If it is too detailed and we would have to charge, we’ll let you know in advance. But we do try to help if we can. Clearly, this is informal advice and we cannot accept any responsibility for such advice without a full review which would require a fee.More on Probate Disputes. Probate Claim Checker.

Probate questions.

Problem Wills and DIY probate

Stephen Pett — Wed, 21 Aug 2013 16:21:10 +0000

Problem Wills and DIY Probate.

Over the last 10 years, DIY Probate has taken market share from solicitors.In 2011, nearly 16,000 people whose Last Wills came up for probate didn’t appoint an executor to sort out the estate, or appointed executors who were unwilling or unable to get involved, say the latest data from the Probate Service. This is a 5% worse than 2010. More on Probate Disputes. Probate Claim Checker.Kevin Cole, Head of Research at Title Research seemed to think this indicated a need for greater regulation of Will Writers, but we can’t see the relevance and think he was just jumping on a bandwagon. The real problem is two fold:1) People writing DIY Wills and2) Wills not being reviewed on a regular basis to ensure that the executors (and everything else) remain appropriate. What is relevant when you are 20 or 40 or 60 won’t be the same 20 years later, and may change within months. We are great fans of the system at Will Custodian Ltd, which is designed to prevent this problem, as well as the problem of Lost Wills. Will Custodian also offer a Will Checking Service to new members.

DIY Probate.

The 2011 statistics also show that 86,470 grants of probate were issued to private individuals, mostly doing DIY Probate.Mr Cole said: “The Legal Services Board’s plans to regulate estate administration will not affect the thousands of people who don’t use a probate service provider to administer an estate. The risks of mistakes will remain with complex DIY probate such as undervaluing the estate, under paying tax or missing out entitled heirs.”That is why we offer our hand holding service at the Probate Department Ltd – we recognise that many people do want to cut costs and DIY probate. But we also understand that most of them would like a little help here and there and maybe for a quick check at the end. Unlike most probate firms, we’re happy to do as little as 15 minutes work, and we charge by the minute, not in units of 6 minutes which can substantially increase fees. Nor do we charge a percentage of the value of the gross estate as a “responsibility allowance.”Solicitors share of the probate market has dropped by 30% between 2006 and 2010. In 2011 that decline has slowed with 148 more solicitor grants being issued than in 2010. Grants to individuals for DIY Probate remained at the same level for the period.The Probate Department Ltd offers a range of services from doing everything to helping for 15 minutes. And our fees are VERY sensible. Why not give us a call?