This Catches Executors Off Guard
When someone close passes away, there’s a lot to deal with — and one responsibility often catches people off guard.
We regularly speak with clients who know they need to “get probate”… but aren’t quite sure what that actually means — or what happens if it’s not handled properly.
It’s one of those things that can quietly delay everything or create complications when you least expect it.
We explain what you need to do in this short video below.
If you ever find yourself in this position, it’s worth understanding this early — it can make the process a lot smoother.
Working with you,
The Millens Team
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Joe Sweeney:
Hi. Sometimes at Millens we'll have clients come to us and they're going through a sad time having recently lost a loved one, but they know they have a job to do because they are named as the executor in the will of the deceased. And so they'll say to us, I know I have to obtain probate. What is probate and how do I go about it? So what is probate? Well, the grant of probate, you can think of it as a document issued by the court that gives you the legal authority as the executor named in the will to administer the estate. And it's really as simple as that. The process for obtaining a grant of probate involves you first publishing a notice on the court website, which tells the public that you have the intention to apply for probate.
Now, once 14 days has passed from publishing the notice, you can then apply, but the application requires some background work, including ascertaining what the assets and liabilities of the estate are and preparing a written statement, we call it an affidavit, where you confirm that you are the executor and you write out an inventory of the assets and liabilities of the estate. So you submit that to the court. The court reviews it and is satisfied that you are the executor and you've done all the work to identify the assets and liabilities and the grant of probate is made to you.
So once you hold it, you can then go ahead with administering the estate, which may involve, for example, using monies within the estate to pay any outstanding debts or liabilities of the estate and also distributing the estate to the beneficiaries named in the will. And so it's quite a process as you can hear. And we as lawyers at Millens are here to hold your hand throughout that process and help you contemplate any important legal considerations that ought to be factored into your unique probate application process and administering of the estate. So we'd be glad to help you. Please get in touch.