Probate Services
Probate services are generally required to carry out the final wishes of someone after they have passed away. All their financial affairs such as their possessions, money and estate will need to be properly dealt with and distributed as stated in their Will. A probate solicitor will tend to help deal with any of the deceased’s outstanding debts and will assist in the distribution of the money and assets to the chosen next of kin.
A person chosen in a Last Will and Testament will usually be legally in charge of administering the deceased’s estate on a neutral level.
Probate services are part of the Family Division of the High Court and are typically needed when there are no disputes associated with the Will of the deceased. Probate services are currently divided into a number of separate areas, these include the following:
- Principle Registry in London
- 11 district probate registries
- 18 other Probate Sub-Registries that are in England and Wales
Probate services issue grants of representation, these are needed to assign a person with the power to administer the deceased’s estate. These grants of representation are categorised as follows:
- administration letters – this will happen in the case where there is no Will
- administration letters with a valid Will – this is used when there is no executor named in the Will
- probate – this is used when there is an acting executor to administer the Will
Probate services can also assist with acquiring a second copy of a Will. But if the deceased estate was quite small there may be no record of probate. In this case there will be no public record of a grant of representation being issued on the national index.
However, the majority of cases that use probate services will be able to see a complete record of the grant of representation regardless if a Will was made or not. These kinds of records are stored at Principle Registry in London.
The legal procedures that are associated with probate services can at times be quite a complex and long process. Probate services tend to involve a lot of effort that can take some time by those involved. Most probate services can take anything from 6 to 9 months to complete and in has been known in some cases to go well beyond 9 months.
It should also be noted that there are great deals of probate services scams that exist online. These scams tend to mislead the victim to think that they are entitled to a substantial legacy that has been left to them in a Will. A scam probate service aims to steal money from the victim by stating that standard probate fees and taxes will be needed to process the legacy. In order to ensure that no one loses out to this scam you should always seek probate service from a professional and avoid any emails or letters that may seem dodgy.