Jokes2 mins ago
wills and probate
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For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.It can take a long time if documents and records need to be searched. It is longer if there is a dispute about the will, e.g., who gets what, or a query over legal ownership of something by the deceased,e.g., a land registry query. Questions of parentage can also cause problems if the will says something like "My bank account is to be split evenly between my children" and someone pops up claiming to be Dad's "other" child.
To some extent also, delays will be caused by simple bureaucracy and form filling.
Have pateience, I hope the process goes ok if you are involved in it at the moment.
Not everything needs to go into probate - it depends on the circumstances. My uncle recently died intestate and because his savings were under the limit and he lived in rented accomodation, it was not a matter for probate attention. (Even so, its still taking ages to sort all his financial matters out - banks and social security/pension being the worse!)