Glossary of Terms

Grant of Probate – A legal document confirming the authority of executors under a will to administer an estate.

Grant of Letters of Administration – The legal document of title where the deceased did not leave a will or where the executors of a will either do not or cannot act.

Grant of Representation – An umbrella term covering Grant of Probate and Grant of Letters of Administration.

Administration of an Estate – The full process of dealing with all of a deceased’s estate. This would normally include completing IHT forms, applying for the Grant of Representation and dealing with the deceased’s assets and liabilities.

Executors – The people appointed by a will to deal with the administration of an estate.

Administrators of an estate – People who apply for a grant of administration where there either is no will or where the Executors appointed by the will are unwilling or unable to do so.

Personal Representatives – An umbrella term for the Executors or Administrators.

Probate Disbursements – Disbursements are third party expenses paid on your behalf. There are not many disbursements connected to the administration of an estate. The main one is the Probate Court fee. Others might include oath fees if an affidavit is required, estate agents fees for valuing and/or marketing a house or the fees for lodging Statutory Advertisements.

Probate Court fee – This is the fee charged by the Probate Registry for dealing with a Probate Application. When submitted by a solicitor the Probate Court fee is currently £155 plus 50p per copy applied for. As at June 2019 a new (generally increased) fee based on the value of the estate is due to be introduced. Whether this will happen depends upon the current political landscape.

Statutory Advertisements – We sometimes advise lodging Statutory Advertisements to protect the Personal Representatives from personal liability, particularly in respect of unknown debts.

Testator/s – the will-maker/s.

Beneficiaries – the people who are left any money, property or a share of the estate in the will of the Testator.

Single Will – a will made by a single person disposing of their estate.

Mirror Wills – wills made by married couples, those in registered Civil Partnerships or cohabiting couples where typically the first person to die leaves everything to the survivor and the survivor then leaves their estate to the chosen beneficiaries. Both wills will have the same beneficiaries on second death as only one of the Testators will die second. It would always be open to the survivor to change his or her will after the first person dies.

Family Trust Wills – mirror wills whereby the first to die leaves his or her share of the matrimonial home to the survivor “on trust for life”. This means that if the survivor goes into a Nursing Home the first to die’s half of the home will normally be protected from nursing home fees.

Severance of Tenancy – this allows a couple to leave their respective shares of a house in accordance with their wills as tenants in common rather than by survivorship which happens if they are joint tenants. It is necessary to sever the tenancy if a Family Trust Will is required.

Lasting Power of Attorney (Property and Affairs) – a document whereby you can choose who would deal with your affairs and property typically if you were to become mentally incapable of managing your affairs.

Lasting Powers of Attorney (Health & Welfare) – a document whereby you can choose who makes decisions as to your Health & Welfare when you are no longer capable of making those decisions yourself.

Attorneys – the people appointed to act for you under a Lasting Power of Attorney.

Trusted Advice on Probate matters

Excepted Estates

An excepted estate is an estate where a full inheritance tax account is not required for one of the following reasons:-

  1. Low value estates. These are estates where the gross value (including the deceased’s share of jointly owned assets) does not exceed the inheritance tax nil rate band currently £325,000.
  2. Exempt estates. These are estates where the gross value of the estate does not exceed £1 million and the amount passing to a spouse, civil partner or charity brings the estate below the inheritance tax nil rate band (£325,000)
  3. An estate where the second person in a marriage or civil partnership dies. Providing that the first to die left everything to the person who has now died and the gross estate does not exceed double the inheritance nil rate band (£650,000)
  4. The estate of an individual (who died after 6 April 2002) and who was domiciled outside the UK (they permanently lived and died abroad) and their UK assets were less than £150,000.

There are some exceptions, please see below.

A non-excepted estate

  1. Where the gross estate is more than £325,000 (or £650,000 on the second death, see 3 above) and is not an exempt estate.
  2. When the person who has died made gifts of more than £150,000 in the seven years before they died.
  3. When they made a gift but they continued to receive a benefit from that gift (gift with reservation of benefit)
  4. Where the deceased benefited from more than one trust during their lifetime or the assets held in a single trust (to be treated as part of their estate) are more than £150,000.
  5. Where the person who died had overseas assets worth more than £100,000.
  6. Where the deceased paid premiums on life insurance policies that did not pay out to the estate or were not for their own benefit.
  7. Where the deceased changed or disposed of their pensions in the 2 years before they died (ignore any pensions that paid to a surviving spouse or civil partner)