It is possible to handle probate yourself, but the benefit of using a solicitor is ensuring it gets done in a timely manner, and also far more importantly, gives you peace of mind knowing the forms will be completed correctly.

In addition, organisations like banks tend to prefer corresponding with solicitors. A solicitor’s client account is ‘trusted’ and so payments can be obtained faster.

Some people feel bad for paying for a solicitor, or think it will cost them money personally, and therefore feel they should be doing probate themselves.

However, the cost of paying for our probate services falls to the estate because it is seen as a legitimate expense — it doesn’t fall to you the executor.

Probate is the process that you go through when someone has passed away.

Not everybody needs to go through probate—it depends on what assets you have, and how you hold those assets. For instance if you have a house, and that house has to be sold then you will need a ‘Grant of Probate’.

A Grant of Probate is obtained if you have a Will and you have appointed executors. Your executors have to get a Grant of Probate to be able to administer your estate and to be able to sell your house.

However, in order to get a Grant of Probate you have to prove whether or not the estate has to pay inheritance tax. Even if you do not pay inheritance tax, you still have to complete inheritance tax forms and complete an Oath, and send both the Oath along with the Will to the probate registry.

Providing everything is okay they will issue that Grant probate.

If someone does not have a Will, but owns a house for example, then you get what they call a Grant of Administration, which is slightly different – because you do not have a Will to rely on.

If people are beneficiaries then they can also apply to the probate registry to be given a Grant, so they can at least deal with the assets in the estate, and their job then is to make sure those assets pass according to to the Intestacy rules – so the correct beneficiaries get those assets.

It can sometimes be quite a lengthy and complex process to value someone’s estate, which is why most clients come to us for help.

As soon as your new Will is signed and dated it is immediately valid.

However, the key thing to a will is its execution. You must ensure your new Will has been executed correctly, which is one of the major benefits of using a solicitor like us (as opposed to buying one of the “off the shelf” solutions that are available).

Although off-the-shelf or “do it yourself” Wills can be cheap, they run the risk of being invalid due to inaccurate execution, which is the biggest reason for wills failing.

If you are in any doubt about the validity of your Will, consult with a professional solicitor as soon as you can.

Call us today for a free no obligation chat about our Will Writing Service, and get peace of mind knowing your family will be properly catered for after you pass.

Some people review their will very regularly. Others do it once then forget all about it — to the point where it is unfortunately woefully out of date at their time of death.

The key is to get a proper balance.

Do it, tick it off your list, then forget about it for a few years. In fact you may not have to update it for ten years or more.

The time when it is important to update is when you have a major life event, like getting married, divorced, or you have a child.

When any of those events or similar events happen then it is really sensible to revisit your Will again and bring it up to date.

If you have not updated your Will in a long time, or perhaps have not even got a Will yet, call us today and we can ensure this critically important document is in place, well in advance of it ever being required.