The probate process
What to Do When You Receive Your Grant of Probate
Receiving your Grant of Probate (or Grant of Letters of Administration) is a significant milestone. It confirms that you have the legal authority to deal with the deceased’s estate. But it is not quite the end of the process. There are several important steps to complete before the estate can be distributed.
Step 1: Get copies of the Grant
When you apply, you will have requested a number of official copies of the Grant at £2 each. Once received, send these to each financial institution, mortgage lender, and investment platform holding assets in the deceased’s name. Banks will not release funds without seeing an official copy, so ordering enough upfront avoids delays.
Step 2: Place a Statutory Notice for Creditors
Before distributing a single penny, place a notice in The Gazette under the Trustee Act 1925. This notifies any unknown creditors of the death and gives them a period of at least two months to come forward with claims. If you skip this step and distribute the estate, then a creditor appears later, you as executor could be personally liable for that debt. Placing the notice shifts that liability to the beneficiaries.
Step 3: Collect in the estate assets
Contact every bank, building society, investment platform, pension provider, and other institution holding assets and provide them with the official copy of the Grant. They will then either transfer the funds to an estate account or confirm they are satisfied the legal authority is in place.
Step 4: Pay outstanding debts, bills, and taxes
Before distributing anything to beneficiaries, pay off all outstanding liabilities:
- Any remaining mortgage or secured loans
- Credit card balances and personal loans
- Utility bills and council tax up to the date of death
- Any outstanding income tax or capital gains tax owed by the deceased
- Funeral costs, if not already settled
Step 5: Seek tax clearance from HMRC
Where IHT, income tax, or capital gains tax has been a factor in the estate, formally request clearance from HMRC before distributing. This confirms there are no outstanding tax liabilities and protects you as executor from later claims.
Step 6: Prepare estate accounts
Draw up a clear record of everything that has come in and gone out since the date of death. Estate accounts should show all assets collected, all income earned, all debts and expenses paid, and the final balance available for distribution. Beneficiaries are entitled to see the accounts before receiving their share.
Step 7: Distribute the estate
Once debts are cleared and accounts are in order, you can fulfil the wishes set out in the will (or follow the Rules of Intestacy if there is no will). Distribute specific gifts first, then cash legacies, then the residuary estate to the residuary beneficiaries. Get receipts from beneficiaries for anything of value.
The easy and affordable way to apply for probate
Related articles
It has been a real game-changer streamlined the process and lifted the burden of endless paperwork. It’s straightforward and took away so much stress from dealing with probate during a difficult time. Huge shout out to Tom for his patience and clear guidance; he made everything feel manageable and approachable. Honestly, I couldn’t imagine going through this without their support. We were quoted around £6,000 from lawyers! The Probate Office needs to help us out more by referring everyone to this site!
Very easy to follow . Help available if required. Certainly a savings compared to solicitors fees.
Excellent and easy way to do probate yourself for a fraction of the cost.
Easy to follow, well guided
Highly recommend this company. The intuitive software is easy to use and the friendly and professional telephone support is excellent. On the advise of the team I posted off my documents as I had considered using the government online form assuming it may be quicker! However Probate was granted in 15 days from when I posted my documents. Thank you to all the team at You Can Do Probate for making a stressful and emotional task much easier to navigate without the need of expensive solicitors! Nb The only improvement that I feel would be beneficial is the function to print the breakdown of all the values and calculations
It was so easy ,a couple of teething problems that were sorted out quickly by the contact team .I would recommend this company highly,if your probate is pretty straightforward it’s a must and will save you money,it’s a 10/10 for me
YCDP asked all the right questions, it was fairly easy to complete. I spent about 2 months preparing the application, getting valuations etc. Probate was approved in 3 weeks from posting the application.
I wanted to have a go at doing probate myself but did not have the confidence to go it alone. This platform was the perfect compromise and saved us thousands in Solicitors fees. I work as a Digital Project Manager so I am computer literate, but I can confirm the platform is very user friendly and intuitive for anyone to use. I phoned the helpline once for advice and they called me back within 24 hours with helpful and friendly guidance. It was not an ‘accepted estate’ and there were several exemptions to be submitted. You Can Do Probate handled this with ease. After using the platform to generate the first set of estate summary forms for HMRC I received confirmation from them within 11 days of posting. I then printed and submitted the probate forms to HM Courts. It took 9 days to receive an approval email and the Certificate of Probate arrived in the post the next day. So from start to finish – 20 working days. We were shocked at the speed! I would highly recommend You Can Do Probate. Absolutely worth the purchase fee. Thank you for making a really difficult time a little easier to navigate.
YouCanDoProbate saved me over £2000 (maybe £2500). Their fee of £399 bought me access to an online process that took me step by step through what would otherwise have been a very daunting task – as I suspect it would be for most people. The objective is to obtain a Grant of Probate and however many copies you require. The fee also includes advisors on the end of a telephone should clarification or advice be required – and when one was not immediately available they called me back very quickly. I called them 3 or 4 times and each time the advisor was patient, thorough, very knowledgeable and extremely helpful – each time stressing that if I had further questions I should not hesitate to call them again. The online process (which comes with a comprehensive online guide for each section needed to be completed) called for a lot of information to be entered; mostly regarding the banks, building societies, funeral expenses and much more but if it is not immediately to hand, the process allows you to step out as may times as you like and all the information already entered is retained. It can seem daunting at first but the more I stuck at it, the easier it seemed to get. The end result of the online process is a PA1P Probate Application form which is 90% auto-filled based on the information I entered as I stepped through the online process. Depending on circumstances, other forms may also need to be generated. Once I printed out the form and checked it over, it was simply a case of sending it to HM Courts and Tribunal Service along with a death certificate and the original will (in my case) along with a cheque for £300 plus a £1.50 fee for each Grant of Probate copy required. I believe that had I gone through a solictor to apply for a Grant of Probate, I was probably going to have to pay around £3,000 so YouCanDoProbate saved me a lot of money. I could not recommend them highly enough.
First time having to go through the probate process, so used this service for peace of mind.had. A call back very quickly on a query I had sent the forms off and received my ref number after two weeks. And probate was granted the following week. Can’t recommend this service enough.
Such a great help at a time of loss
Excellent solution Easy no nonsense approach to take you through the process
AFFORDABLE FIXED PRICE
Forms filled in for you
No expertise needed
Unlimited UK support
One time payment
£499
including VAT
Get started in 3 simple steps
Back Guarantee
T&Cs apply.
Monday to Saturday; 9am - 6pm
Trusted & Secure
