Probate & Estate Administration: First Steps

This guide is a practical starting point. It does not decide whether probate is required in a particular estate and is not individual legal or tax advice.

1. Find the Will and identify who is responsible

If there is a Will, check who is named as executor. If there is no Will, the person entitled to deal with the estate depends on the intestacy rules. Keep the original Will safe and avoid writing on it.

2. Start an estate information file

• Original Will and any codicils
• Death certificate
• Bank and savings account details
• Pensions, investments, shares and insurance policies
• Property details and mortgage information
• Loans, credit cards and other debts
• Utility and household accounts
• Beneficiary details
• Information about relevant lifetime gifts
• Letters already received from banks, HMRC or other organisations

3. Check whether a grant may be needed

Not every estate needs a grant. Financial organisations can have their own requirements, and some jointly owned assets may pass automatically to the surviving owner. GOV.UK recommends checking with the organisations holding the assets.

4. Value the estate before applying

Before a probate application, the estate normally needs to be valued. This involves identifying assets and debts and considering whether the estate needs to be reported to HMRC. Even if no Inheritance Tax is payable, estate values are still needed for the probate application.

5. Common reasons an estate becomes more complicated

• Property or business assets
• Overseas assets
• Trusts
• Large lifetime gifts
• Missing beneficiaries
• Unclear financial records
• Questions about the Will
• Family or beneficiary disputes
• Inheritance Tax or other HMRC complications

6. What Tony Legal Support can help with

We can help with the practical administration around an estate: gathering information, identifying assets and liabilities, corresponding with organisations under appropriate authority, organising estate records, property and utility administration, and keeping the administration moving.

Where a matter requires a reserved legal activity, contentious probate, conveyancing, regulated tax advice or another specialist service, we explain that and can recommend that an appropriately authorised professional is involved.

7. What to tell us when you get in touch

You do not need every figure. Tell us what you currently know: whether there is a Will, who the executors or closest relatives are, whether property is involved, the approximate estate value, and which banks or organisations you already know about.

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Official guidance: Applying for probate – GOV.UK and Valuing an estate – GOV.UK.

Tony Legal Support is a trading name of Paralegal Services Sunderland Ltd. We provide paralegal and legal support services and are not a firm of solicitors.