UK Probate Lawyer Question

mtelliott · 04-10-2008, 12:38 PM

My wife's uncle passed (he was Scottish) and my wife and her sister are named in his will. She's been contacted by the law firm (is that what they call them in England?) and all paperwork has been filled out.

Question I have is, how long does it usually take? Is there anything we need to consider from a tax purpose?

Wife doesn't know the amount but doubt it's much. This happened about 3 months ago. We plan to go over to England with any money we receive to pay our respects. He had no children and very few friends but we wanted to go just as a way of saying goodbye.

Anyone know the laws of England and how it all works. Wife feels it's disrespectful in a way to call the firm and ask what's going on. I'm just wondering if there will be any tax implications that I need to be aware of.

Michael

dagriff · 04-10-2008, 04:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mtelliott

My wife's uncle passed (he was Scottish) and my wife and her sister are named in his will. She's been contacted by the law firm (is that what they call them in England?) and all paperwork has been filled out.

Question I have is, how long does it usually take? Is there anything we need to consider from a tax purpose?

Wife doesn't know the amount but doubt it's much. This happened about 3 months ago. We plan to go over to England with any money we receive to pay our respects. He had no children and very few friends but we wanted to go just as a way of saying goodbye.

Anyone know the laws of England and how it all works. Wife feels it's disrespectful in a way to call the firm and ask what's going on. I'm just wondering if there will be any tax implications that I need to be aware of.

Michael

Was he living in Scotland or England? Two different countries with different legal systems.

mtelliott · 04-10-2008, 05:42 PM

He was living in England.

Michael

Dueller · 04-10-2008, 06:31 PM

Your wife should not feel embarrassed or being disrespectful in the least about calling the law firm and inquiring about the process, whether she will need to appear, make arrangements to communicate by email, etc.

dagriff · 06:58 PM

As far as England goes the tax rate is 40% of anything over 250,000 UK pounds.
Because 250k won't even buy you much of a house in most areas, you could be affected. The amount is taken from the total estate, not you personally. The estate is divided as per the will after the tax has been taken.

In Canada, as the tax has been already taken, there is no further liability as far as revenue Canada is concerned. I suspect it is the same in the U.S.
Please check that out further.
Be sure to inform your bank of what's going on or you may get a visit from "other" government agencies when an amount of cash is transferred to your account!

If it was three months ago I would guess that it has already gone through probate.
The next step is valuation for the tax man. The valuation may not take long, but the taxman works at his own pace.
For instance, my best friend died in Feb '05 and we are still trying to settle the estate. Admittedly it is a very complicated one due to an incompetent lawyer giving him bad advice on how to set up his companies (The lawyer coincidentally died 2 months after my friend. He had a wife & 2 children and no will.... that shows how good he was).
I am paying 200 pounds an hour for one of the best in the UK to sort it out.........

I'm sure you wont have problems like this, but don't hesitate to call the lawyers to speed them along.
They are being paid to do it by the estate, which is indirectly you
Follow up with e-mails (they seem to charge less to answer an e-mail than answer the phone or write a letter.

I know it's hard to be cold and unemotional about money left by a loved one, but you have to put your "business head" on, all the people you will be dealing with will have theirs on.
I felt guilty about it myself, then someone told me if he hadn't wanted me to have it, I would not be in the will. And that he worked his **S off all his life to get where he was, so I owed it to him not to let the taxmen get a penny more than they are entitled to.

Hope that helps. Main thing is call the lawyer, (If after a while you think they are dragging their heels, try mentioning the Law firm of "Clarke, Wilmott" that seems to light fires under people !

ps. incidentaly, that's actualy a picture of him under my user name.

mtelliott · 04-11-2008, 05:55 AM

Thank you. I guess it's time to suggest to my wife she call the lawyers and ask about the status.

I know he had sold his house shortly before his death so that he could retire and live off the earnings. Not sure how much, if any, he had however anything we get will help go to the kids college education fund. Of course, the nice thing is value of the dollar is so low that we get a nice boost when pounds is transfered into US dollars.

Michael