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Probate Glossary

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Beneficiaries

People named in the will who should receive a share of the deceased person’s estate

Copy of probate

Copies of probate cost £1.50 and are available from the government website. These can be helpful if you have a lot of organisations to contact e.g. bank, pension provider, utility suppliers etc.

DIY probate

Do it yourself probate. You don’t need a solicitor or other provider to do it for you and charge enormous fees. YouCanDoProbate will help you prepare your probate application correctly with its intuitive online app.

Estate

The property, money and possessions of a deceased person.

Estate administration

Distributing the estate e.g. giving the deceased person’s property, money and possessions to the people named in the will or as directed by law.

Executor

Person named in the will to administer the deceased’s estate. They will need to get probate to be able to distribute the assets in line with the will.

Grant of probate

The document the probate office sends you giving you the legal right to deal with the will, money and property of the person who has died.

Grant of representation

More commonly known as probate. The old fashioned term for the document the probate office send you, giving you the legal right to deal with the will, money and property of the person who has died. You become their “personal representative”.

IHT205

The inheritance tax form that needs to be completed when someone dies. It is used to report the value of the deceased’s estate to HMRC. YouCanDoProbate helps you get this form right by auto-populating it with the information you have provided and flagging any issues or ommissions to you.

IHT217

Inheritance tax form used to claim for excepted estates to transfer unused Inheritance Tax nil rate band from a late spouse or civil partner to the second spouse or civil partner who has now died. That sounds complicated but YouCanDoProbate will auto-populate this form for you if it is required.

Inheritance tax

A tax on the value of a deceased person’s estate (their money, property and possessions). Only a small percentage of estates are large enough to incur inheritance tax but all estate values must still be reported to HMRC as part of probate.

Intestacy

The state of dying without leaving a valid will. They died intestate.

Laws of intestacy

When a person dies without leaving a will, the Laws of instestacy dictate who should receive assets from the person’s estate.

Letters of administration

More commonly known as probate. If a person dies without a valid will, their spouse, civil partner or child can apply for a grant of letters of administration, to give them the legal right to administer their estate. YouCanDoProbate’s Intestacy Walkthrough helps you work out who gets what, in line with the law.

Notification of death

Once you have probate you will need to contact the organisations that hold the deceased’s assets to notifiy them of the death, so they can release the assets, as well as utility suppliers to find out if there are debts that need to be paid. YouCanDoProbate will generate personalised letters for you, to make the process easier.

PA1A

The probate form required if the deceased died without a valid will.

PA1P

The probate form required if the deceased person left a valid will.

Probate

The administrative process of dealing with the estate of a person who has died, clearing their debts and distributing their assets according to their will.

Probate application

Applying for the legal right to deal with someone’s property, money and possessions (their ‘estate’) when they die is called ‘applying for probate’. This involves sending documentation to the Probate Registry including the original will, death certificate, tax and probate forms. YouCanDoProbate can help you pull all this information together, autopopulate letters and forms for you, and store everything in one safe, online place.

Probate fees

There’s no fee if the estate is under £5,000. If the estate value is over £5,000 you’ll need to pay the probate registry £300. Extra copies of the probate cost £1.50 each. This means you can send them to different organisations at the same time. A card payment can be made over the phone to your local probate registry office or by sending a cheque payable to HM Courts & Tribunal Service with your probate application documents.

Probate registry

Government department that issues grants of probate. There are regional district probate registries so check which one is local to you.

Probate online

The government website offers a Probate Service online which you can use if you have the original will and death certificate, and have already reported the estate’s value. The service lets you fill in the required forms online and submit them but uou will still need to send the will and other documents to the probate registry the old fashioned way. YouCanDoProbate is a way of preparing your full probate application online in a guided and supportive way.

Return of estate

Inheritance Tax form IHT205 is used to report the value of the deceased’s estate to HMRC, this is called the “return of estate” information.

Will

A legally binding document that tells everyone what should happen to your estate after your die, that is your money, possessions and property. It also names an executor, the person who will deal with your affairs when you are gone. This person will need to get probate in order to distribute your estate, as per your wishes in your will.

YouCanDoProbate fees

There is a one off charge of £499 to use YouCanDoProbate’s online tool for preparing your probate application. You can use it at your convenience, at your own pace. There is no time limit to accessing the software and we store all your information safely and securely, to return to at any time.

Probate records

Probate records can be searched online at the government website for any person who died from 1858 to the present day.

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