Is this Will valid?

[Bouleversee]

My beloved husband of almost 50 years has died. He has been ill for a long time so of course we should have updated his Will, made in 1997, but keeping him alive seemed more important and took all my time so we didn't. I dug it out yesterday. I had forgotten that it was self-typed (based on the one I had recently made) on 2 A4 pages stapled together, the 'of'' address was our previous address, it was witnessed by our former next-door neighbours (now deceased) who had also signed 2 codicils, removing a clause and a deceased executor. I am the sole executor, presuming I am still alive and capable (not sure about the latter), and the main beneficiary, though whatever is the current IHT exempt amount is left to our 2 children. Our house is held as Tenants in Common; I think this was because at the time the Will was made he didn't have enough assets outside the house to cover the IHT exempt amount, which is no longer the case as he has ISAs slightly in excess of that.

Am I likely to run into problems getting probate with this home-made Will? I think he just mirrored the one I had had done through a solicitor to save money as we were very strapped for cash at the time as my husband had not received what he was due to from his Mother's Will and we had bought our house by tender in the expectation of doing so, so we had to borrow a large sum to complete..

We may wish to do a Deed of Variation anyway, possibly leaving some of the IHT free money to grandchildren instead of their parents. The other thing that is bugging me is whether any change should be made to the sum left to anyone other than me in order to retain some of the allowance until my death in order to benefit from any future increase if this is related to the value of the house. I have lost track of what is happening on that front. I seem to remember it was going to come into force in 2017 but if we could benefit from any future increases in the IHT amount on his estate as well as mine, that could be useful on my death. I have not yet had time to check up on this, so if anyone has chapter and verse on this and is prepared to share, I should be enormously grateful. So much to do in relation to cremation, memorial service and wake, not to mention dealing with banks, isa managers, council, etc etc. etc.

I am still peeved that pension funds, whether in drawdown or not, can be left to heirs free of IHT without encroaching on the IHT allowance, despite accruing from untaxed inpayments, whereas ISAs (accruing from taxed inpayments) incur IHT unless left to spouses.

I'd like to have a shot at dealing with the Estate myself rather than using a solicitor and definitely not a bank. Is there is a guide published which spells out exactly what to do and how it all works?

[supremetwo]

My beloved husband of almost 50 years has died.

Firstly, a virtual hug and great sympathy from the forum.

I've had no problem in obtaining probate with a correctly-witnessed, home-produced Will.

There is no rush, so take things gently.

There is much information via the linked pages here:-

https://www.gov.uk/inheritance-tax/overview

Re. the deed of variation, you might consider the IHT allowance to go to yourself rather than the children.
Then gift any amount from yourself to children or grandchildren.
Gifts fall out of your estate after 7 years leaving twice the IHT allowance (increases?) against what you have left.

https://www.gov.uk/inheritance-tax

If you’re married or in a civil partnership and your estate is worth less than £325,000, you can transfer any unused threshold to your partner when you die. This means their threshold can be as much as £650,000.

[modellingman]

My sincere condolences. 50 years is a long time and I can only imagine how you are feeling at the moment.

Death is one of the areas where the .gov.uk website seems to have got it reasonably correct. As well as the other links that have been posted this one is quite helpful as a starting point: https://www.gov.uk/after-a-death/overview

When you register the death, the Registrar Service will probably offer a service for dealing with the public bodies (DWP, DVLA, etc) that need to be informed. They were certainly offering this service 4 years ago when my father-in-law's death was registered. Based on a sample of one experience of using it, it seems to work. The Registrar Service also advised that any official documents (such as passports) which have no continued validity after death can be made unuseable by diagonally snipping off the top-right corner (though in this case the document still needs to be returned to the Passport Office, but they will return it, less corner, if requested.)

Others with greater expertise may offer comment on the validity of the will, but provided some basic conditions were met (capacity to make and witness signatures) then it will be valid - the passing of the witnesses, change of address or being typewritten should not have an effect.

Provided you are not the sort of person who is phased by official forms and processes there is no reason why you cannot tackle administering your husband's estate yourself. There is no need to rush straight into this and you shouldn't: your immediate priorities should focus on funeral arrangements, family, etc. There's plenty of time for dealing with the state's processes for probate and inheritance tax once you have got past the funeral and the initial shock.

When you do come to deal with the sorts of issues you have mentioned (deeds of variation, IHT, etc), you can always buy in professional assistance. The general advice on these matters on the TMF boards was to keep control: by all means seek professional advice on specific aspects of the administration where you feel the need but avoid handing over control and certainly never hand it to a bank. There is plenty of reasonable advice available on the internet on dealing with the administration of an estate including, of course, through these very boards.

Once again, my sincere condolences.

[Bouleversee]

Many thanks to you both for your kind and helpful replies. I had already done the registering, tell us once, and made most of the funeral/memorial service arrangements, with only the contents to be decided on. Tell us once doesn't work all that quickly however and various payments which I thought I would be in time to stop have gone into his account. Interestingly, Lloyds bank said they could pay these sums into my account, which surprised me. I am entitled to a proportion of his pension annuities and I was surprised that the main provider (Phoenix) doesn't even propose to write to me before Dec 9, having been told last week and stopped his Dec 1 payment, let alone pay me anything in the foreseeable future. Just as well I have savings.

I have printed out all the HMRC stuff and will plod on. Masses to do and I daresay I shall be back.

[Chrysalis]

Boulerversee, I just saw this and wanted to pass on my condolences for your loss. 50 years is a long time.

I am sure you are capable of dealing with the probate, but I will say what I always say and that is do not be too stoical about it and ask for support if needed. I am sure others will be able to help with the technical questions.

Take care and be kind to yourself.