Whilst they fulfil their duties in accordance with the deceased’s wishes, many view the process as a burden and wish for the estate administration to be dealt with in an efficient and prompt manner.
As such, one of the more common questions asked by an executor is “how long will the process take?”. Whilst we can offer guidance on matters within our control, one of the difficulties is taking account of the turnaround time at the Probate Registry between the application being submitted and the grant being issued.
In recent cases we have seen a wide range in processing times from as prompt as a four week turnaround, to a drawn out turnaround time in excess of 18 weeks, with no significant differences between these two cases. These turnaround times are on top of the twenty working days which are required to pass from the date the Inheritance Tax Account is submitted to HM Revenue & Customs, to the date that the application is electronically submitted to the Probate Registry.
One of the reasons for the recent increase in turnaround time is that the Probate Registry were focussing on addressing cases which had previously been ‘stopped’ for one reason or another. This allowed older cases to progress through the system, although it did also have a knock on effect of slowing down the more recent cases.
It was recently published that the HM Courts and Tribunals Service that the average turnaround time on a case is just under nine weeks, with the intention that this turnaround time will reduce to three to four weeks by March 2022. Any reduction to the turnaround time will be welcome news for the executors at what is already a difficult time for them.
The next steps
For more information, please contact Nick Edwards on n.edwards@uhy-uk.com or your usual UHY adviser.
