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Probate is a term that, unhelpfully, signifies a number of different things.  Officially, a Grant of Probate is a document which confirms the appointment of executors by a valid Will.  Although executors actually derive their authority from the Will and in theory do not need any further documentation to authorise them to deal with a deceased’s estate, many financial institutions and public bodies will insist on seeing a Grant of Probate before they act on the executor’s instructions.  It is a sort of indemnity for them.

However, where there is no Will, the terminology changes.  The Grant of Probate is instead called a Grant of Letters of Administration and, incidentally, the executors are called administrators.  Although the majority of practitioners, myself included, simply use the term ‘probate’ to mean either of these two types of documents.

Probate is also the term used more generally to describe the process of dealing with a deceased estate, ‘we have instructed David Allen to deal with my grandmother’s probate’, for instance.  Our website, along with many others, informs visitors that we offer ‘probate services’ which includes not just obtaining a Grant of Probate (or Letters of Administration) for our clients, but also the work that comes after that.

Which leads me neatly into the third use of this word, which is not quite unique to David Allen but is certainly not applied universally.  We use the term probate to refer to the first stage of dealing with a deceased estate, that is, up to the issue of the Grant of Probate (or Letters of Administration).  We refer to the stage after this as the administration stage, which is where, armed with the Grant, you can start to administer the estate by closing down, selling, encashing assets and then distributing them.

The multiplicity and interchangeability of meanings can make this term a bit of a landmine for clients so it can be helpful to define it broadly at the outset to avoid confusion.

To speak to one of our expert team members contact us or visit one of our offices in Dalston, Dumfries, Penrith or Workington.