Can anybody recommend a good book? . . .

A question about : Can anybody recommend a good book? . . .

Can anybody recommend a good book that covers the duties of an executor and probate in detail?. There seems quite a few on Amazon but a lot do not make it clear whether they are for the UK, which is obviously what I need, I not want to make the mistake of buying a USA book. Thanks in advance.

Best answers:

• Local library is a good place.
  Which is often recommended.
  You need to be sure you have one that is fairly recent so it covers relevent changes. there were some to intestate late last year so may not be in the books.
  I found it usefull to have more than one(and check on-line) because they describe things diffently you get a better idea by consolidating the info.
  It can also help to do a worked example starting with a PA1 and a full set of IHT400.
• Thanks for your reply . . . can you explain where I would find a worked example to look at? I am totally new to all this, but unfortunately I have a feeling it's not going to be long before I have this responsibility for an elderly relative.
• Do your own estate as an example just work through the forms.
  Gives you a good idea of the sort of things you need to think about for records should someone need to do yours and the sort of paper trail that would be usefull for your relatives to keep.
• I googled "fixed fee probate" and found plenty of companies offering this. Has anyone experience of that route? Is it a good option?
• Have you read this forum's FAQs (sticky thread).
  All you need (assuming a simple estate) is available for free online.
  Big questions you need to answer:
  does the elderly relative have a will ?
  if so are you a named executor of that will ?
• These are the main sources of clear accurate up-to-date info:
  (a) Which and (b) gov.uk
  (a) Five years ago I used the excellent printed 'Which' Guide to probate. The same informaiton now seems to be available for free on the Which website:
  https://www.which.co.uk/money/retirem...g-for-probate/
  Possibly it will take you so far and then want you to pay. In which case you then choose between continuing online or buying the printed book.
  (b) The gov.uk website also has information.
  It's mostly spot-on; occasionally over-simplified for a complex query.
  The actual forms you'll need to fill in are here in section 4:
  https://www.gov.uk/wills-probate-inh...representation
  These are PA1 and IHT(205) for the most straightforward estates.
  There are guidance notes which can seem quite daunting, but if you cross out all the sections not relevant for you, you'll find that what is left is very straightforward. As you already have Power of Attorney you can do a 'mock' run-through without distressing your relative with lots of questions. But if the procress throws up anything you can't answer, that will be helpful to look at now.
• I've been using 'Probate: The guide to obtaining grant of probate and administering an estate' by Gordon Bowley. You can get it from Amazon for Kindle for about Ј4 - very readable as a guide through the process and legalities, and has example letters etc. Mostly 5-star reviews too.
• I too can highly recommend Gordon Bowley's book. My father died suddenly three years ago and with no previous experience of estates or any legal experience this book guided me simply through everything. Some of the figures are out of date due to law changes but fundamentally the principal is the same to obtain probate and administer a will. I very rarely keep books once I've read them but this one I've held onto and I've referred to it several times for others and no doubt will be using it again myself. I completed the whole process without a solicitor with the help of this book.
• Good. Gives me some confidence I am reading the right stuff!