A typical estate

About the Estate

Steven Phillips’ estate included the family home in Liverpool valued at £120,000, £20,000 in bank accounts and £5,000 in British Telecom shares – a total estate of £145,000 and below the threshold level for Inheritance Tax in the UK.

The house, shares and bank accounts were in Steven’s name, so even though his Will left everything to his one son, Adrian, a Grant of Probate was required.

What we did

Steven’s son engaged us to handle the Estate Administration because he lived 200 miles from his father (in Central London).  He worked full-time and was concerned at the amount of time the process would take should he do it himself.

Our consultant met with Adrian at his home in London, provided him with a fixed-fee quote for the service and informed him that his dedicated Case Manager would be able to deal with all assets with the minimum of fuss.

Kings Court firstly insured the empty property using our block insurance policy; we then engaged our local agent to ensure that the property was secure and arranged a valuation.  Our in-house lawyers obtained the Grant of Probate allowing us to sell it.  The Grant also enabled us to transfer the value of Steven’s savings into our client account.

Adrian wanted to keep the shares as was confident they would increase in value; we therefore arranged for these to be transferred into his name.

The family home sold relatively quickly and we were able to write Adrian a cheque for his inheritance less than three months after his father passed away.