One of the more common financial ‘problems’ that we see all too often is the fallout from administering an estate when someone passes away.
That’s not to say there is any strife within the family or a dispute over the estate but simply that the process is excruciatingly slow and really does not need to be in so many cases.
You don’t have to have a lawyer doing Probate. There are some great law firms out there but some acting as executors are not the best, sadly.
Frankly, if you mainly have financial assets in an estate, you are better to engage a competent firm of financial advisers and investment managers such as ourselves and not a law firm.
This is because we know what we are doing with financial assets and especially what can prove to be more complex related matters as that’s our ‘day job’ whereas it’s not the average law firm’s strength or specific additional regulated capacity to advise upon, manage or deal with such assets.
A case in point – we have a client (not local) who was hoping to move home on the strength of an inheritance from their mother’s estate. She died in autumn 2022 and they have yet to receive a penny, not even an interim payment. Then there is the arrogance of ‘don’t bother us’ from their solicitors, rather than the sympathy of a helpful response.
It’s not by all accounts a complicated estate and really does beg the question why there should be such a delay. We come across such stories too often and beneficiaries feel unable to do anything.
A complaint afterwards may be all well and good but how does that help you now? In this case the opportunity to purchase their chosen property was lost because of the delay.
The answer is to consider who you have appointed as your executor – what confidence do you have in them to act appropriately and efficiently with your estate to ensure your family and other beneficiaries are being looked-after properly when the time comes?
This is not a slur on solicitors generally by any means but clearly some executors are less equal than others… what have your experiences been like?
Pensions and IHT reforms
A short update to our column last week and linking in to the above – the Government has announced it will share draft legislation on its plans for pension pots and Inheritance Tax ‘later in the year’.
Following the recent public consultation, HMRC has said it is reviewing the concerns and views raised and will publish a formal response and draft plans in due course.
Several sectors of the finance industry have continued to call on the Government to rethink its plans, with particular concerns over the extra burden potentially placed on pension scheme administrators and the likely long delays to settle estates as a result, let alone treatment of early death benefits for workers.
Beyond general principled objections, some of the industry fears the notion of making schemes act as tax administrators rather than the estate itself is a recipe for dither and delay.
Pension scheme administrators tend not to work very quickly in our experience in any case, due in part at least to the extra consumer protections added in recent times. Of course, that’s important but does add a great deal of time to proceedings.
So the proposed six-month deadline for paying the correct amount of IHT could prove difficult to meet and yet another delay to settling an estate.
