Wills and Probate Solicitor in Marple
Fixed fees for Wills
Home and hospital visits can be arranged
Professional and personal service at all times
Probate matters handled efficiently and smoothly
Are your affairs in order? The Jones Law Partnership will help. Many people die every year having not made a Will, often leaving their families in a difficult situation and their estate cannot be distributed as they would have hoped. The only way to ensure that your affairs are organised in the event of your death is to make a properly drafted Will. A Will makes sure that the people you love will be taken care of any that they are not saddled with the burden of inheritance tax which could possibly be reduced or avoided with the correct planning. The cost of preparing your Will is agreed and fixed in advance and we are about to arrange home and hospital visits for those unable to visit our office through health issues.
Our probate and estate administration work is carried our by Margaret Williams, a fully qualified Solicitor with over 35 years' experience in this field. The first step is for us to find out from you about the circumstance of the person who has passed away - obtain their death certificate and their Will if they have one. If they have not left a Will, we will advise you on what the law says as to who should deal with things and who is entitled to share in the assets. We then find out about the assets and liabilities, initially from you and then we make checks directly with the financial and other companies concerned and obtain details of their requirements to cash or deal with the assets. This should take a matter of a few weeks dependant on the information we receive and the length of time it takes to hear from the various companies concerned.
We can then prepare and consider whether or not inheritance tax is payable. When it is payable we will prepare inheritance tax forms and arrange the payment of the tax. Once inheritance tax has been dealt with, we will then sort out the probate application and send all necessary documents to the court. This is likely to take about 1 to 3 months after your initial instructions, but will take longer in more complex cases.
In straightforward cases, the grant of probate should be received about a month after the application has been submitted but it can take longer in cases with any complications. After probate is granted we will complete the necessary forms to close, sell or transfer assets as required. How long this takes depends on the companies we are dealing with and should be a month or two. The sale of a house can take longer - usually in the region of 3 to 6 months. We will then prepare final accounts for the executors to approve.
We then ask all beneficiaries to accept and approve the sum due to them and provide details of their bank accounts so that we can make a direct payment to them, in the case of child beneficiaries we consider and advise on the best method of holding funds in trust until they reach 18 or the age specified in the Will.
