What is estate administration?

Estate administration is the process of dealing with a deceased person’s assets, debts, and taxes before distributing the inheritance to the beneficiaries as directed in the Will or according to the intestacy rules (where a person dies without a valid Will).

What can we help with:

The Executors (where there is a Will) or Administrators (where a person dies without a valid Will) may wish to appoint a professional to assist with the following duties:

• To confirm details and values of assets owned by the person who has died
• Working out the value of the estate
• Confirming any liabilities of the estate
• Finding out the amount of gifts made within 7 years of death and applying exemptions and reliefs
• Advising if any Inheritance Tax is due and claiming all available reliefs and exemptions to minimise tax
• Carrying out an online search for lost of unidentified accounts, shares or other assets
• Advising on whether a Grant of Probate is needed

During the administration there are many things that may need to be dealt with, and we can help with these:

• repaying any debts left by the person who died
• an estate agent may be needed to sell property
• a valuer may be needed to value any expensive items
• paying Income Tax on things like rental income from property, profits from a business or interest from investments
• paying Capital Gains Tax on profits from selling shares, investments or property
• reporting the estate value, income and tax liability to HM Revenue and Customs
• finalising the Inheritance Tax position with HM Revenue and Customs

What is probate?

Probate is the legal right to deal with someone’s property, money and possessions when they die and there are different probate rules in Scotland and in Northern Ireland.

A short video which explains the process:

Our Services:

Compassionate and Caring.

Here at Whitworth Law our team will take the stress out of this process at a difficult time. We are a small, friendly and approachable team who are highly experienced at dealing with probate and estate administration.

Your Choice. Your Way.

Every estate is different and you may wish for us to take the lead, but equally you may want to carry out some of the less complex areas yourselves. Here at Whitworth Law we are entirely flexible and happy to work in a way which suits you and is tailored to your needs. It’s your choice and we are here to guide you every step of the way.

Our Process:

We offer a short free phone call with one of our probate experts to discuss the process and any questions that you may have.

1. We will discuss with you at an initial meeting what is required to administer the estate and make clear your legal responsibilities
2. You can then decide how much help you would like from us
3. We will complete the Inheritance Tax Return and apply for a Grant of Probate
4. If instructed by you to deal with the administration of the entire estate we will handle the process from start to finish to include cashing in the assets or transferring them to beneficiaries, arranging the sale or transfer of property, calculating and arranging payment of any taxes and other liabilities owed from the estate, preparing estate accounts for approval by the Executors and distributing the estate funds to the beneficiaries.