Can I administer a Will if I live abroad?
If you’re living abroad, technically you could administer a Will from your location; however, you might want to consider appointing a probate specialist or Solicitor to deal with the estate on your behalf.
Why you might not want to administer a Will from abroad
If you decide to deal with the estate yourself, you have to remember:
- You are personally liable for any mistakes
- You are personally liable for any losses
With this in mind, unless you are familiar with rules and legislation, or have time to spare to study these, we would recommend leaving it to someone who specialises in probate.
How to pick who will administer a Will for you
It is important to select someone you trust and know will be able to deal with the job of estate administration. Remember, even though you are appointing someone else to deal with it, you are still personally liable if mistakes happen and the estate suffers a loss because of these mistakes.
The biggest difference between appointing a probate specialist and a probate Solicitor is likely to be the way they price. For example, Kings Court Trust only charges fixed fee prices, which means you know exactly what the cost of the service will be from the start. Whereas Solicitors may charge hourly rates, so you won’t know what you are paying until the estate has been settled.
Another difference is the level of service you can expect from each. For example, Kings Court Trust’s full estate administration service would mean that once you’ve signed the contract, we would deal with everything, including redirecting mail, valuing assets, filling in the Inheritance Tax (IHT) return form, and creating estate accounts, to name a few. Whereas probate Solicitors would only deal with the paperwork, such as the probate application, IHT return forms, etc., so everything outside of that would still be your responsibility to complete.
How do you appoint someone else to administer a Will?
If you want to appoint an Attorney to act as your representative to deal with estate administration:
- You must fill in the government’s form PA11 – Power of attorney (Will). This allows you to appoint up to four attorneys to deal with the estate administration. You will not usually need more than one or two.
- You must fill in form PA12 – Power of attorney (Intestate). This is filled in if there was no Will and the estate is intestate, or the Will is invalid.
If you want to appoint a probate specialist like Kings Court Trust, to deal with full estate administration, you will sign a contract and a Letter of Authority, which will enable us to deal with financial institutions and other institutions on your behalf.
Please note, we won’t make decisions on your behalf. We would stay in regular contact with you, and all decision-making would be up to you. We would just be able to take action on your behalf.
