Administration of Estates

Armstrong Solicitors provide an efficient administration of estate service following the death of a loved one. We guide the family through the process of dealing with the deceased’s assets and property, and also deal with funeral accounts or other creditors of the estate. In some cases we can help the family to maximise the estate and ensure that the deceased’s loved ones obtain the greatest possible benefit.

Our main aim is to help you through an extremely difficult period, by offering you the benefit of our experience and expertise and taking the responsibility of sorting out your loved one’s estate off your shoulders.

How we deal with the estate will depend on a number of issues, including the value of the estate, how it is made up (ie property, bank accounts, shares, policies etc), and importantly whether the deceased left a Will.

The first step when you are ready to deal with the estate is to find out whether a valid Will exists. We can help you with this. A Will appoints an executor or executors, who is normally the main point of contact with us. Usually the executor will gather up all of the deceased’s papers and bring them to us, whereupon we contact all of the various organisations with whom the deceased had an account and in due course arrive at a value of the entire estate. We then assist in the executors in dealing with any Inheritance Tax issues before applying for a Grant of Probate. This Grant gives the executors the recognition that they need to have the estate administered in their name.

If the deceased did not make a Will, the procedure is different and can be complicated. The deceased is said to have died Intestate, and we need to work with the next of kin to deal with the estate. Instead of a Grant of Probate, we apply for a Grant of Letters of Administration. It is essential that all persons who may potentially benefit from the estate are known to us. The law sets down a formula for the people who benefit from the estate (the beneficiaries), and the order in which they benefit.

If you believe that there may be a Will and that it has gone missing, we can assist in trying to locate it. There is a procedure whereby we can advertise to all solicitors in Northern Ireland and ascertain whether the deceased made a will with another legal practice. We can then obtain it and proceed with the administration.

Contact Sharon Taylor for an initial consultation.