How to prepare for a simpler probate?

M

MotionSickness

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Unfortunately, my father is ill and has received a poor prognosis. He is very anxious about simplifying his affairs to try to make the probate process easier for my mother and his 3 children.

My mother has Alzheimer's and some other medical issues, and my father is her primary carer. She's not too bad at this time, but can no longer cook for herself or be left alone in the house for more than an hour or two. She has not handled any practical affairs in several years. One of my siblings has stepped into a more active role in helping manage her medical care, but more handover will need to be done. The basic care and companionship is split between the three of us.

Their assets are pretty simple, their home (c. €1m) and about 300k split between cash and state savings certificates.

My father wants to know whether it would make sense to put the names of his children on the house deeds now. Would it make probate easier? All three of us are lucky enough to own our own homes.

The savings are in joint accounts for my parents, and they have a joint current account that bills are payed from. I believe this means my Mum would not lose access to money day-to-day during probate. We will need to work out putting some of us on her household bills so the utility companies will talk to us.

Wills and power of attorney are in place for both my parents. I am going through papers with my Dad to make sure we have birth certs, their marriage cert and so on.

Is there anything else that I can do to help ease his anxiety? I'd happily pay for an advisor of some sort, but we're not sure what we need. It's less a tax question, and more about handling the practicalities of what's to come. Any advice welcome.
 

I think it's simpler if your father lends one of you money now to be used if needed in an emergency. Then there is absolutely no messing around or paperwork necessary.
 
MotionSickness said:
household bills so the utility companies
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Your parent signs a letter adding you as agent and authorising you to act on their behalf. Send it to them all.

As Brendan says have a chunk of money lodged to yourself or a sibling, which they sign for and can be used to cover off any immediate needs.

Joint a/c stays open & DDs will continue to be paid, so that shouldn't be an issue.

You mention a Power of Attorney - what is this for? Or do you mean an Enduring Power of Attorney? - which is a different thing.
 
I'd be very cautious about the idea appropriating money from a vulnerable parent into one's own account in anticipation of probate, and would recommend at the very least that nothing of the sort be attempted without appropriate legal advice preferably to both parties.

You don't want to be pleading "it was only resting in my account" if there was a later accusation of embezzlement.
 
I'd happily pay for an advisor of some sort, but we're not sure what we need. It's less a tax question, and more about handling the practicalities of what's to come. Any advice welcome.

Make sure your father and mother's solicitor is up to date on their current health issues. If your mother has signed an EPA, it may be time to register\activate it. Also, when you say wills are in place, your dad's solicitor will probably not be able to discuss your dad's will with you- but if, for example, it names your mother as executor, your Dad may need to update his will to reflect current realities. Your mother too, if she retains sufficient capacity.
 
MOB said:
our dad's solicitor will probably not be able to discuss your dad's will with you- but if, for example, it names your mother as executor, your Dad may need to update his will to reflect current realities.
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Thank you, we made that change 2 years ago, so I am executor on both their wills now.
 
MotionSickness said:
My father wants to know whether it would make sense to put the names of his children on the house deeds now. Would it make probate easier?
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I don't think it would make anything easier enough to justify worrying about now. As you are executor, that is the important step to make this easier. Probate is what it is, and would not be less complex if you had your dad + mum + three children named on the deeds of the house - probate would still need to progress with the same amount of bureaucracy to transfer your Dad's share of it, and any of course the money/investments.

Probate will be as simple as these things go. A decent solicitor will charge a fixed fee (in the range of €2k-€3k from my experience in a roughly similar situation) if you want someone to shoulder the bureaucracy burden. Maybe get a solicitor to give you a quote, and use this to reassure your Dad that you've looked into it, and it's as straightforward as it can reasonably be already, and get him to focus on quality time with you all (he may be fussing over the will/probate rather than focusing on himself, which is very understandable).
 
kickstart said:
(he may be fussing over the will/probate rather than focusing on himself, which is very understandable).
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Thank you. That is indeed the situation.

I'm going to pull together a list that should help put his mind at ease that I have what I need and there's no need for him to worry.
 
I think if he expects the house to be sold after he and your mum pass away then putting together a folder of paperwork needed for a sale would be a good activity. Are the deeds available. Were any upgrades to the house subject to planning and are the certificates of completion there, is the LPT up to date. Does he have accounts, passwords, lists of assets all organised. Pension details, all his tax up to date, any subscriptions, loans paid off, that kind of thing.
 
Probate, end to end, and with a competent solicitor is likely to take about a year. Adding names to deeds at this stage won't really help or change much as you're at the mercy of the Probate Office. Probate is as much about gathering assets and liabilities as anything else.

Couple of other things to consider and expect based on my own experiences.
  • On the house, was their any ground rent and was it bought out? In the case of my own parents, they had bought it out from the Town Council 20 years previously and we had to produce a receipt to show there was no liability.
  • Ensure property tax has been paid and you have the receipts
  • At the end of probate, it's quite possible that you will have to get a tax clearance cert- that will take about 6 weeks in my experience but is straightforward as well
  • Have a list of what you will need to cancel or move to your mother's name if you Dad goes first, so state pension is the obvious one as your mam will move to the widow's pension, but phone, electricity etc may also need to be moved. In my experience, the utilities are usually very helpful as were Bank of Ireland in our case although after my Dad died, my sister had to pretend to be my Mam on a couple of calls with Electric Ireland and Eir (as Mam was very deaf and just didn't know what to do) to facilitate the transfer of a couple of things to my Mam's name. Sometimes you have to be practical. Phonewatch were the only ones I found useless to deal with.
  • Sounds awful as well, but have a chat with your Dad re the funerals and what he wants. My Dad wanted one night in his local church, no eulogy (and I was warned he's come back and haunt me if I did one!) and one family member who was a priest was not to be on the alter. He was more peaceful when he knew that was all sorted
 
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