Probate application

[Greenfires]

Good afternoon everyone,

I am one of three executors of my late Father's will, the other two being my Sister and my Dad's wife, who have agreed that I should handle the settlement of Dad's affairs

I have contacted the various banks, P2P lenders where he had money invested, the Premium bonds people, and a Building Society. All these bodies are happy to release the funds held with them once they have confirmed identities and seen copies of the will and so on - so no problem there.

However, Dad also had a fair bit (around £45k) with an investment brokers in various stocks and shares, and this company alone say they will require a grant of probate in order to proceed with the sale or transfer of holdings into a new account I will have to open with them. Along with my co-executors we think the best thing at the moment is to leave these shares and so on where they are for the time being, until hopefully the markets make something of a recovery after the current crisis.

My question is - when applying for probate, do I have to include the total of ALL the assets with people who don't require probate, or just detail the holdings with the people who do? A pity this has come up really as we were sailing along quite well until the requirement for probate appeared over the horizon!

Any help or advice would be very much appreciated!

Many thanks,

Andy

[des8]

Hi and welcome
Condolences on your and your families' loss.

Without probate interests in stocks and shares, and property cannot be transferred to the executor or beneficiaries.

The totality of your father's estate has to be declared for IHT and probate.
This means that even the value of your father's share of jointly held assets should be recorded.That applies for assets passed by survivorship, such as homes owned in a joint tenancy.

[Greenfires]

Thanks very much for your quick reply DES8 - that's much appreciated.