wills.

[sbrown1450]

If someone dies, can a person distribute the deceased person's possessions if they have a will without checking with a solicitor or going to probate? was said to have left a handwritten will(although all her life the deceased said she was doing somehting different and her niece's daughter said she changed her mind.). We think she has a will with a solicitor, how do we find out if the 'handwritten will' was really signed by her?

[Buenchico]

A will is only valid if the testator's signature is witnessed by two people. If the witnesses to the handwritten will are still alive (and can be contacted) that would seem to be the obvious way to check that the testator's signature is genuine.

The executors of a will don't acquire their powers to distribute an estate until they've received grant of probate. Unless the estate is unusually complicated there's absolutely no reason to employ a solicitor to seek probate (unless, of course, an executor is actually a solicitor anyway). It's a really easy process, which just involves a bit of form-filling and swearing an oath.

Chris

[dzug]

If the estate is small it can be distributed without going to probate - not sure what the limit is though. Might depend on the individual banks, etc, with whom the deceased had money

[Skyline D]

I guess the answer may depend on where you live but I don't know enough about it. I do know I personally dealt with my grandmother's estate without any legal steps without any trouble at all. I saw a solicitor to begin with just to check what was necessary but he told me I was fine to go ahead so I did. There wasn't much to it, just a few thousand pounds in a building society account, and everything was passed directly to my grandfather who was still living so it wasn't complicated.

That was under Scottish Law though. My grandfather's estate was much more complicated (mainly because there was a house involved) so the solicitor did deal with that for me by and large though I did deal with a bit of the financial stuff. I am a Chartered Accountant though so that was in my own expertise area.