Probate Risk Management

If you run into issues, find the probate process too much, or there are disgruntled stakeholders such as beneficiaries, excluded beneficiaries or other executors or administrators, it might be time to call in the professionals and protect your liability:

• Find a Probate Solicitor – for help with checking your work, Grant Applications, or Full Estate Administrations.
• Contentious Probate – if anyone who is a stakeholder or has been excluded is unhappy, you should be very careful and seek immediate professional help.  You can get a free contentious probate consultation by following the link to our page.

This section of our risk management resources is designed to provide guidance for the early stages after someone has passed away, when you have been appointed as the Executor (if there is a Will) or an Administrator (if there is no Will).

Whilst you may not feel like you have the headspace right now, even scan-reading can save you a headache further down the line.

Recommended Reading

Insuring Property

• Insuring an empty house after the owner has died
• Understanding your liability when insuring property
• The Risks of Extending The Existing Insurance
• Probate Property Insurance (when you are ready to review our Policy Cover)
• Protecting Probate Property - what insurers generally expect you to do.

An Introduction to Probate Risk Management & Legal Indemnity Insurance

• Download our free Probate Risk Management Checklist
• Read our Executor Insurance and Risk Management Guide

1. Whether there is a Will or not, you should always check for the existence of another with a Will Search from the National Will Register to ensure you are moving forward with the correct version - or to verify if the Estate definitely is intestate (if there are no known Wills).   
2. Order a Deceased Credit Report to check for all known Liabilities.
3. Order an Asset Search to find bank accounts, pensions, imvestments and shares that the deceased may have held.

If the Estate is Intestate, you should consider appointing a Probate Genealogist to advise you on the intestacy risk and to identify any beneficiary risks.

Where there is a Will, consider:

1. Early Distribution Insurance
2. Section 27 Insurance
3. Missing Will Insurance

Where there is no known Will, or an existing Will is ambiguous, add Missing Beneficiary Insurance to the list of considerations.