Executor's respomsibility

[jayhay]

My father has recently died and I am his executer. His entire estate has been left to his widow (my mother).

As there can no taxes involved on an estate left entirely to a surviving spouse, is there any shortened or abridged probate procedure I can adopt as executor; or must I comply with the customary submittal of the time consuming and demanding routine probate documentation

[AGoodman]

You only need probate if you need to prove title to assets - i.e. it won't be necessary to put joint property (including land/buildings and bank accounts) into the sole name of your mother. Many banks will also release smaller bank balances without a grant.

If you do need probate because an asset was in your father's sole name, there is a (much) shorter form which applies to most IHT free estates - IHT205.

[maths]

What are the major assets and their values which were in father's name only?

[jayhay]

Thank you for your interest

There is in excess of £650,000 in the deceased's sole name, In broad terms:

Property (Buy to let) £375,000
Cash iSA £100,000
equities £250,000
Cash £ 40,000

[AGoodman]

You will need to complete the IHT205 and I'm afraid the probate application process is the same.

One caveat, as an applicant in person, you may be able to use the online probate application process, avoiding the need to visit a registry. It has its limitations, not least some bugs and the need to send documents by post, but is worth exploring - not least because the Registries appear to be degrading their regular process.