When someone dies, you may be able to apply for a ‘grant of representation’. This gives you the legal right to deal with the person’s property, money and possessions (their ‘estate’). The right to deal with the estate of someone who’s died is called ‘probate’. You don’t normally need a grant if the estate either passes to the surviving spouse/civil partner because it was held in joint names e.g. a savings account, or if the estate does not include land, property or shares, but in most cases it is advisable to establish probate to avoid any future issues with surviving relatives or loved ones of the deceased.
Will, Trust and Protect are partners with Help with Probate, the UK’s leading support organisation on the subject, and we are also able to offer expert fixed rate probate services through a panel of expert solicitors, to give beneficiaries and executors of an estate piece of mind when it is most important.