How long can succession take

The overall problem with probate is that the heirs are forced to rely on many different people to get things done, and if one or more of those people are not motivated to help you, you will run into delay, confusion, and frustration.

Here are a few of the other complaints I've heard about probate:. Heirs don't like that they are at the mercy of government employees to make sure their probate moves along. Sometimes, government employees can be unmotivated so that paperwork that needs to be processed sits on a desk for weeks or months at a time.

When a customer of a financial institution dies, accounts are frozen. Banks have many systems and processes and checks and balances in place in a probate to make sure they transfer funds to the appropriate parties. They must get their own estate lawyers to review and approve probate court orders before any frozen accounts are released. If an estate does not owe creditors and no estate taxes are due, a simple possession succession can sometimes be opened and closed in one day.

In order for this to happen, all of the legatees or heirs must accept the succession unconditionally. Factors that will complicate and lengthen a succession are the value of the estate and the cooperation of family members. If any of the following is true, a succession can take several months to complete:.

These kinds of factors will have to be resolved before a succession can be finalized. On average, most successions can be completed in less than a year. Even when there are no conflicts to resolve, if the proper steps are not taken, a succession can be dragged out longer than it should. However, when you work with an estate and probate attorney to open a succession and assist throughout the process, you can be sure everything will proceed as efficiently as possible.

This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this site you're agreeing to our cookie policy. For a straightforward estate with no property and a single bank account it could take as little as 3 months for beneficiaries to receive their inheritance.

Typically it will take around 6 to 12 months for beneficiaries to start receiving their inheritance, but this varies depending on the complexity of the estate. There are several factors which affect the complexity of an estate and some of these can increase the time it takes for beneficiaries to receive their inheritance.

Some particularly complex estates can even take years for probate to be completed. The person responsible for administering the estate called the personal representative is responsible for collecting in all the assets. This includes closing any bank accounts in the name of the person who died, selling or transferring shares that they owned, and selling or transferring any property held in their sole name.

A legal document may be needed in order to carry out these tasks. This document is normally called a grant of probate if there's a Will and a grant of letters of administration if there isn't. Once this document has been obtained from the Probate Registry, an official copy will need to be sent to all of the banks and financial institutions that have asked to see it.

Generally, collecting straightforward estate assets like bank account money will take between 3 to 6 weeks. However, there can be more complexities involved with shareholdings, property and some other assets, which can increase the amount time it takes before any inheritance is received. Some assets are more time consuming to sell than others, like shares.

This is because shares are often sold through a stockbroker or share registrar, which can involve a lot of paperwork. If share certificates are lost, a search will have to be carried out and replacements requested if they cannot be found. For more information, see selling shares during probate.

Selling a property can also add to the delays during probate, simply because finding a buyer and completing the conveyancing often takes time.

Dealing with foreign assets will add time to the probate process too. If there's a property abroad that needs to be sold, foreign estate agents and lawyers will need to be instructed. The personal representative must also comply with local laws when it comes to issuing notifications of the death and obtaining the necessary permissions to sell the property. Another common cause of delay is missing beneficiaries.

If a beneficiary can't be found, then reasonable investigations have to be carried out to try and find them, usually by using a tracing agent. This can happen if family members struggle to track down a beneficiary who has been named in the will, or if the deceased was estranged from their relatives. When someone dies with outstanding debts, their creditors can claim repayment from the estate.

The personal representative can notify potential creditors of the death by placing a statutory advertisement in the Gazette and the local paper where the deceased lived.

Again this can prolong the process, as the minimum time given for creditors and other potential claimants to come forward is two months. The Department for Work and Pensions DWP may decide to investigate whether they have overpaid benefits to the person who died. If they have, the estate will need to repay them. This investigation will often add a further 6 to 9 months to the probate process. If an insurance policy forms part of the estate, the policy trustees often have discretion over who to pay.