Wills, Estates & Trusts

Administration of Estates

The administration of an estate can be a time consuming and often complex process and depending on the record keeping of the deceased and the complexity of their estate may take a considerable amount of work. Graysons solicitors can help by carrying out the administration for you in an efficient manner with the costs met out of the estate involved.
Administering an estate involves dealing with all the assets and liabilities of the deceased and then distributing the estate to the beneficiaries entitled under the Will or Intestacy rules.
A brief summary of what is involved includes:

Obtain authority from the Probate Registry to administer the estate

Follow the link for Probate where this is explained in more detail

Ascertain the value of the deceased’s estate

This involves finding the value of the person’s assets at the time of death. This includes property, bank and building society accounts, shares & other investments, cars, jewellery and other assets. Some assets may pass automatically to others on death – for example a house which is owned as beneficial joint tenants.
The deceased’s liabilities also have to be settled out of the estate. These can include loans and mortgages as well as income tax and possibly inheritance tax if the estate is valued higher than the nil rate band. Please note that a tax return to the Inland Revenue is necessary in all cases, even if no tax is due.

Establish entitlement of beneficiaries

These will be set out in the Will or if no Will was left the government has a statutory list of entitlement under its intestacy laws. Establishing entitlement is not always straight forward and if the estate is distributed incorrectly the personal representative may be liable.

Distribute the balance of the estate

The personal representative needs to keep a record of all the money they have received and paid out, including interest earned while holding the funds. All the beneficiaries are entitled to see this record.

Every estate is different and Graysons solicitors offer a full range of services from simply obtaining a Grant of Probate to full administration of an estate. Contact us for a no obligation consultation where we will be happy to advise you on your particular circumstances.