004 · WRITING
What we find ourselves explaining twice a week.
Plain-English notes on the questions people are embarrassed to ask. Nothing here is advice about your situation. It is what we say across the desk before anyone opens a file.
005 · LATEST
The most recent note.
PROBATE · MARCH 2026
Why probate takes as long as it does, and the two things that make it longer
Most estates take six to nine months from the first phone call to the last cheque. Here is where that time goes.
The grant itself is the quick part. The Probate Registry is currently taking around sixteen weeks, and that clock only starts once every asset has been valued and the tax forms are in. The slow part is before and after: waiting for banks and pension providers to reply, and waiting for a house to sell. The two things that make it longer are a missing valuation on the day the forms are sent, and a house put on the market before the grant arrives. Both are avoidable, and both are ours to watch for, not yours.
006 · ALL NOTES
Everything we have written down so far.
PROBATE
Why probate takes as long as it does, and the two things that make it longer
Most estates take six to nine months from the first phone call to the last cheque. Here is where that time goes.
PROBATE
The bank will not talk to you yet. Here is what to do in the meantime
Until there is a death certificate and a grant, the bank will freeze the account and say very little. That is normal and it is not a judgement on you. Funeral costs can still be paid straight from the account, and here is how to ask for that in one call.
WILLS
A will written in 1988 and a family that has changed twice since
An old will is still a valid will. The trouble is what it leaves out: a second marriage, a stepchild, a house that was sold. This note walks through what an out-of-date will actually does, and what a short codicil can fix without starting again.
ESTATES
What actually happens to the house, and when it can be sold
The house cannot be sold until the grant of probate arrives, but it can be cleared, insured and put quietly to an agent before then. Here is the order things happen in, who pays the bills in the meantime, and the one form that catches people out.
POWER OF ATTORNEY
Lasting power of attorney is not a form, it is a decision
The form is twenty pages and the fee is eighty two pounds. The decision is who you trust to pay your bills and speak to your doctors if you cannot. This note is about the decision, including the conversation to have before anyone signs anything.
INHERITANCE TAX
Who pays the inheritance tax, and when
Tax is due six months after the death, usually before the estate has any money in it. This note explains who is actually liable, how the tax can be paid from a frozen bank account, and the instalment option for a house that has not yet sold.
WHEN SOMEONE DIES
The first week: a list you can actually follow
There are five things that need doing in the first week and about forty that do not. This is the short list, in order, with the phone numbers, so you can put the rest down until you are ready to pick it up.
007 · SUBSCRIBE
One note a month. Nothing else.
008 · TALK TO SOMEONE
Ring us before you start filling anything in.
Twenty minutes on the phone, no charge, no file opened. You tell us what has happened and we tell you what needs doing this week and what can wait. Most people leave the call with a shorter list than they came with.
TALK TO SOMEONE