Estate and Tax Planning

Items considered as ‘assets’ in your Estate would be:

• Your home and the contents inside

• Your vehicle(s)

• Personal possessions such as jewellery and clothes

• Foreign property (holiday homes abroad)

• Investments, shares, interest in trusts

• Anything you gave away in the seven years before your death including any gifts

A Grant of Probate is a document issued by the Court giving power to the Executors named in a Will to distribute the Estate in accordance with your wishes in accordance with your Will.

A Grant of Administration is a document issued by the Court to allow your beneficiaries, to administer the estate in accordance with the rules of intestacy (intestacy is a term used for someone who dies without a Will and the law has specific rules governing what happens in this event).

In order to obtain the Grant of Probate or Grant of Administration the Executor of Administrator (usually with the assistance of their Solicitor) has to value the estate. To do so, it will involve contact with the relevant institutions such as Banks, Pension Companies, and Insurers to establish the value of funds held at the date of death, together with valuations of any land and property held by you. At the conclusion of this will process, it can be established if any inheritance tax is due to be paid by the estate. In very simplistic terms, an Estate is liable to pay inheritance tax if, at the time of death, the estate is worth more than the Inheritance Tax Nil Rate Band (currently £325,000.00) (there are various exemptions and exceptions to this. Contact P.A. Duffy Solicitors for further information on this).

Once it has been established how much tax, if any, is payable and arrangements made for payment, then an Oath is prepared by a solicitor for the Executor or Administrator and is sent to the High Court together with details of the Inheritance Tax position. On being satisfied with the content, the Court will then issue a Grant of Probate or Grant of Administration which will then allow any funds being held in financial institutions to be released to the Beneficiaries (those named in the will or entitled to under intestate) and any property transferred.