In November 2018 the government made a proposal for a probate fees increase from £215 or £155 when made through a solicitor, to a sliding scale that would reflect the value of the estate. The government’s proposal for probate fees increase would see estates worth between £500,000 to £1 million paying £2,500 for a grant to be issued, which is 16 times more than what they are currently being charged. Estates of over 2 million pounds see the biggest increase and will face the highest proposed amount of £6,000. On the other end of the scale, the threshold for estates… read more →
Protecting estate funds is part of the responsibilities of an acting executor. Between the months of April and September 2018 financial losses caused by cyber crime increased by 25% according to the latest figures provided by Action Fraud. This means cyber criminals were able to steal £34.6 million during this time. Conveyancing, Wills and Probate has become an attractive target for a specific type of cyber criminal. Probate cases often involve large amounts of liquid cash waiting to be transferred to beneficiaries and this is where these fraudsters are taking the opportunity to divert thousands of pounds of the estate’s… read more →
The Financial Conduct Authority has fined Santander £32,817,800 for failing to effectively process and distribute the funds of customers who had passed away. These failings in their probate and bereavement process resulted in 40,428 customers being directly affected by more than £183 million that was not passed onto to beneficiaries. Mark Steward, executive director of enforcement at the FCA, said: “These failings took too long to be identified and then far too long to be fixed. To the firm’s credit, once these problems were notified to the board and senior management, they were fixed properly and promptly. But recognition of… read more →
By Ruth Lythe For The Daily Mail Read the Full Article on the Daily Mail website here. Now the banks cash in on wills: 1.5million families face losing billions because their loved ones were sold rip-off testaments The small print gave the banks the right to appoint themselves as executor This meant they could grab up to 2.5 per cent from an estate in legal fees An estimated 1.5M wills have been written by banks over the past 20 years Grieving families face paying thousands of pounds to banks because their loved ones were sold rip-off wills. Up to 1.5million… read more →
‘I was cut out of £300,000 estate by Dad’s second wife’ Stuart Herd was cut out of £300,000 estate by his dad’s second wife when she decided to rewrite her will after her husbands death, leaving everything to her own child. You can read the full article here on the Telegraph website. Unfortunately disputes like this are not uncommon and its something that we are asked about relatively frequently. Once someone has passed away it can be very hard to reach agreements and amend a will to reflect verbal wishes or agreements. This leaves only the option of making a… read more →
HM Revenue & Customs has spent years and £100m or more on a super-computer designed to identify those who may have paid too little tax. And now – with the deadline for filing 2015-16 tax returns just weeks away – the system is being fully deployed for the first time. Instead of relying solely on information provided by taxpayers via their returns, HMRC’s powerful “Connect” system now draws on information from myriad government and corporate sources to create a profile of each taxpayer’s total income. Where this varies from the information provided by the taxpayer, the account is flagged and… read more →
Hundreds of people gathered to pay their respects to Cranberries singer Dolores O’Riordan whose body is in public repose. Her open coffin is resting at the altar at Saint Joseph’s Church, in her home town of Limerick in Ireland. Fans, many holding white roses and daffodils, lined up outside the church to mourn at her side. O’Riordan’s music was played softly throughout the service and photos of the performer on stage, as well as one of her with the Pope, were placed around the church. A message placed with flowers beside the singer’s coffin read: “The song has ended, but… read more →
Wills and Estates made famous by Charles Dickens in his book Bleak House and the fictional case of Jarndyce V Jarndyce. If you went to school in the UK then you will know of Charles Dickens and have probably been forced to read Great Expectations at some point. Although some of us may not have the fondest of memories of his work (and the thousand word essays you had to write about it) it is still relevant today. In Dickens book Bleak house he highlights the effects that contested Wills and Estates can have on a large group of people, something… read more →
Government plans huge rises in probate fees charged after death Probate fees to increase under a new system could see some pay £20,000 when left estates worth more than £2m by a deceased relative. The government is planning huge rises in the probate fees charged when an individual dies and leaves property to their relatives in a bid to raise an additional £250m a year. The flat £215 fee will be replaced with a new system of tiered charges that would result in some paying as much as £20,000 for estates worth more than £2m. For estates worth between £500,000 and… read more →
Saga Probate Stop Providing Quotes Is Saga Probate and Legal Services in choppy waters? Things may not be plain sailing at Saga Legal services, in fact it would appear that unlike their cruise ships, SAGA legal services could be sinking under the weight of its own success. The UK’s largest over 50’s insurance provider today stopped offering quotes to potential legal services customers. SAGA was advertising SAGA probate, SAGA Wills and SAGA Conveyancing via Google but today’s absence sparked curiosity and when phoned they advised they were seeking to change supplier and could not quote for my probate transaction. As… read more →
HSBC has advised all of its Will customers that they will no longer be offering the service and that they need to leave as customers or sign up with simplify. In a surprising move HSBC has told its existing will customers they need to appoint new executors as HSBC can no longer act. In typical bank fashion they have also given their loyal customers a deadline to do so and recommended another company to act as executors, Simplify formally known as ITC. Simplify are one of the largest professional executors in the UK and work for many of the the… read more →
By VICTORIA BISCHOFF FOR THE DAILY MAIL ‘When mum died, Lloyds made the grief even harder to bear’: Our writer’s moving account of why big firms MUST change the insensitive way they treat bereaved families. When Victoria Bischoff’s mother Julie died in April, Lloyds were unhelpful They made her call automated service and sent computer-generated letters An insensitive customer service adviser asked a series of intrusive questions and didn’t know the rules about credit card debts Other organisations such as the local council were much better Mum had been a customer at Lloyds Bank for around 25 years. The staff… read more →
Inheritance Tax 2015 Final Duties has taken a look at the manifestos of the main political candidates in order to understand their positions on inheritance tax (IHT) Current Inheritance Tax Allowances The current rate of Inheritance Tax and allowance is £325,000 with 40% tax paid on assets above £325,000. This mean if your esate was worth £500,00 then you would pay £70,000 in tax. Your inheritance after tax would be £430,000. What The Conservatives Promise if Elected We have guaranteed that ISAs can now be passed on to a spouse tax-free, so that from this April they are no longer… read more →
Don’t let your probate turn into a saga Obtaining a grant of probate needn’t be a Saga. Some people would have you believe its a complicated process that could leave you regretting you started. This need not be true. If you have a few grey hairs and time to spend, if you over 50 or maybe retired you may have the free time it takes to apply for probate yourself and avoid the whole solicitor Saga. In the coming months we will be looking at DIY probate in more detail and understanding how to deliver a great service to your… read more →
On the 27th December 2014 the government launched a digital will archive detailing 41 million wills that date back to 1858. The archive includes the wills of, Author George Orwell, politician Sir Winston Churchill, Codebreaker Alan Turing, economist John Maynard Keynes and the author of the Victorian Classics Great expectations and Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens to name but a few. Members of the public will be able to search the wills database to find out more information about their relatives and lost loved ones. Rather than needing to visit the probate registry and search the archives in person you will… read more →
With the cost of living increasing and house prices rising it’s no surprise that Young families rely on their early Inheritance. Around one in five Brits have already received part of their inheritance from their parents, according to a new study. Research from Skipton Financial Services (SFS) has suggested an increasing amount of families are turning to their parents for financial support years before they pass away. It was indicated that 16 per cent of under-35s have already received a sum of around £50,000 from their parents. Whilst one in ten have been given a six-figure sum. A report from Myfinances.co.uk says that many… read more →
Inheritance is a taboo subject for the majority of Brits. the majority of Brits will not talk openly about inheritance, according to new figures. A survey by Aviva revealed that 63% of respondents have yet to discuss the subject with their families, despite four out of ten secretly expecting to receive money through inheritance. Talking about how much parents plan to leave in their wills is understandably a sore subject, especially if it leads to the possibility of discussing whether they plan to release any equity from their homes. However despite it being an uncomfortable subject, moneyhighstreet.com reported that 76%… read more →
The cost of dying has risen above £9000 in 2018 according to the SunLife (2018), Cost of Dying Report, which has been recording the costs of dying since 2007. Since they started the cost of dying has increased by 57% and in the last year alone, it has increased 3.4% from £8,905 in 2017 to £9,204 in 2018. The report is produced through an online survey and telephone interviews with funeral directors across the UK and combines funeral costs, send-off costs and the cost of professional fees to work out the average total cost. The average cost of a basic… read more →
The European parliament has back proposals which will bring in regulation that would change the way succession and inheritance is dealt with across the EU. The inheritance procedure will become much easier as you will be able to elect British law in your will to apply to assets you hold abroad. The New EU inheritance laws should prompt more people to right a will say experts, reported in the law Gazette. Under the new regulations, a British man who settles in France, for instance, could designate in his will that his assets be distributed according to the British laws of… read more →
We spend our whole lives working and saving money only for are relatives to get a bad deal upon our death. Inheritance tax has been falling in real terms for 3 decades. The value Of Inheritance tax reliefs has been cut by a 3rd because the government has not raised it to be in line with inflation. This is not good news for the savers and their relatives. Peter Goodman, partner at Wilkins Kennedy, says: “Simple reliefs such as the annual allowance on transfers or gifts are very popular, but £3,000 doesn’t go as far today as it did in… read more →
Probate Market leaders Final Duties tests the market leaders – In a recent mystery shopping exercise Final Duties invited the probate market leaders to quote for a simple probate estate. Both the CO-OP and Simplify (the chosen provider of Barclays Bank) insisted on meeting face to face as part of their sales process and so appointments lasting about an hour were booked with both. We asked each representative to quote for identical estates with a value of £137,000 made up of one property and two bank accounts. The CO-OP quoted £4631.62 and Simplify £3080.40. A fixed rate quote for the… read more →
ITV daybreak reports on will writing is a program that has aired in the UK on ITV. Featuring Actress Tina Hobley and family Lawyer Marilyn Stowe, it concentrates on the importance of writing a will and doing it now. Statistics in the UK show that around 56% of adults have not written a will, that’s half the population. Many people don’t realise what would happen to their children or families if anything was to happen. The number of cohabiting couples in the UK rose by 292,000 between 2001 and 2011. Last year a survey found that when it comes to property… read more →
The Cost of dying rises to equal three months worth of the average UK wage. Yet almost half of the population are unprepared. The cost of dying has risen to the equivalent of three months worth of the average pre-tax British salary, according to figures published this week. In the UK today, the cost of dying – which include death-related costs such as funerals, probate, headstones and flowers – have increased to an average of £7,248. That represents a rise of 20% since 2007 and over £400 since last year. However, Sun Life Direct, the insurer which carried out the… read more →