Administrator: Who or what is an administrator?
The person the law says should be responsible for dealing with the property, money and possessions of the person who has died without leaving a valid Will.
Administering the estate: What is ‘administering the estate’?
Dealing with the property, money and possessions of the person who has died. It is done by collecting in all the property, money and possessions, paying the debts including any inheritance tax, and then distributing what is left to the people entitled to receive a gift.
Assets: What are assets?
The property, money and possessions of the person who has died. For example, cash, bank accounts, building society accounts, National Savings certificates, premium bonds, share certificates, house, land, personal belongings, insurance policies, cars, are all assets.
Estate: What is an estate?
All the property, money and possessions of the person who has died
Executor: Who or what is an executor?
The person named as executor in the Will. They are responsible for dealing with the property, money and possessions of the person who has died.
Grant of probate: What is a grant of probate?
This is the legal document which gives you the right to deal with the property, money and possessions of the person who has died. It is issued by the Probate Registry to the executors named in the Will.
Grant of representation: What is a grant of representation?
This is a general term for both a grant of probate, or a grant of letters of administration. It gives you the legal right to deal with the property, money and possessions of the person who has died.
IHT
This means inheritance tax.
Inheritance tax
This tax may have to be paid on the estate depending on the value of the assets, and if certain types of gift were made during the life of the person who has died. Inheritance tax is payable when the estate of the person who has died is worth over £325,000. The estate may be valued as being over £325,000, even if the assets in the estate are worth less than this, if gifts made during the lifetime of the person who has died, have to be added back into the estate.
Intestate: What’s intestate?
A person who died without a valid Will.
Intestacy: What’s intestacy?
What the law says should happen (also known as the rules of intestacy) to the property, money and possessions of a person who died without a valid Will.
Legacy: What is a legacy?
A gift of property, money or a possession, made when someone dies.
Letters of administration: What are letters of administration?
This is the legal document which gives you the right to deal with the property, money and possessions of a person who has died without a valid Will. It is issued by the Probate Registry to the people (called administrators) the law says have the right to do this.
Office Copy: What’s an ‘office copy’?
These are official photocopies produced by the Probate Registry of the grant of probate or letters of administration
Personal representative: What is a personal representative?
This is a general term which can mean either an executor or an administrator.
Probate Registrar: Who or what is the Probate Registrar?
A judge who deals with probate matters.
Probate Registry: Who or what is the Probate Registry?
The Probate Registry is a part of the High Court. It deals with applications for a grant of probate or letters of administration.
Renounce: What’s renounce?
Where the executor or an administrator agrees not to take any part in administering the property, money and possessions of the person who has died.
Residue: What’s residue?
Everything that is left of the property, money and possessions after all the debts have been paid and the individual gifts have been made
Rules of intestacy: What are the ‘rules of intestacy’?
The nearest relatives, in a fixed order, who the law says can be an administrator of, or receive a gift from, a person who died without a valid Will.
Will: What is a Will?
A written document which sets out who is to receive your property, money and possessions when you die. It should be signed by the person making the Will and also by two witnesses. The simplest way is for the Will maker and the two witnesses all to be together at the same time, each watching the others sign the Will.
