John Mann providing Q & A on 2GB discussing Unfair Wills & Estates - 14 August 2021

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CS – Chris Smith / JM – John Mann – C1,2,3, etc – Callers

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Read the transcript below:

CS       We’ve got an email here from listener Phillip. Phillip has emailed and says my aunt died recently and I am the executor of her will, she had her own home and some shares and money in the bank, I am told I have to get probate of her will, what does probate of her will mean? How pays for this?

JM      Chris, where you’re the executor of a will, it is your obligation if you take on the office, to prove that the will is the last will of the person and that’s been made according to law. So you apply for probate and the probate is an order of the Court, if that is the case. That the will has been properly made as the person’s last will, and it then gives by the authority of that order the ability of the executor to then deal with the assets of the estate. Now the cost of all that is born by the estate.

CS       So probate is like a confirmation the will is valid.

JM      That’s part of it yes, but the probate itself is, is actually a sealed document from the Court that the executor wanders around, waving around saying I’m the executor, it authorises the executor to do what’s necessary to administer the estate.

CS       Okay, now Phillip also asks the question who’s responsible for the funeral account?

JM      The funeral account is, can be paid out of the estate although funds are not always immediately available when a person passes away. Generally where a deceased person has a bank account and sufficient funds, the bank will release funds for the payment of the funeral account by production of a copy of the will and the funeral account, they’ll pay the funeral account direct to save that obligation falling to the executor but otherwise it’s the executor’s responsibility, they may be entitled to reimbursement later but that’s where that cost falls.

CS       And does that happen sometime where the executor pays in advance and then takes from the estate down the track when it’s released.

JM      Yes, that’s right, the executor is indemnified out of the estate for what they pay out of pocket themselves.

CS       Okay and in terms of the probate question he asked, he should go to a solicitor to get that done?

JM      Yes that is advisable, Chris.

CS       Okay Phillip thank you very much for your email. John Mann that’s fantastic, thank you very much and have a great weekend.

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