Archer Rusby based in Rickmansworth is a solicitors practice providing legal advice to individuals and businesses. The team’s dedicated lawyers and support staff provide services including: residential and commercial property, property development work, the buying and selling of small businesses and advice in respect of wills, probate, trusts and estate planning.
Ruth Garland joined Archer Rusby in August 2016. Ruth is experienced in handling probate matters, a considerable proportion of which are taxable Estates.
Ruth Garland, Solicitor explains: “We have a relatively small team at Archer Rusby and this means we can develop a personal connection with our clients. People handle grief very differently and so we always try to meet in the first instance to ensure our empathetic approach will support them in a way that’s right for them
“Some people are pragmatic and very matter of fact but for others, it’s understandably a much more emotional time. We often talk about the person who has passed away and look at photos. For us we are not just dealing with another case but someone’s mum or dad or another family member and we aim to guide families through legal practicalities as sensitively as possible.
“One of an executor’s key roles is to establish the assets held by the deceased. Over the past few years this has become increasingly challenging due to the move to online banking. Previously, monitoring the deceased’s post for a few months would reveal any bank statements to help identify accounts. However, these days, a large proportion of financial institutions have become paperless. Therefore, if we are appointed executor we always compete an asset search. Even if the family has supplied all the paperwork, a Financial Profile Search ordered through Estatesearch will provide certainty.
“Depending on the case, we also suggest a Financial Profile search for lay executors if they are not 100% sure of the assets held.
“Estatesearch’s Financial Asset Search is ordered through a free, secure online portal and the company automatically contacts more than 150 organisations, searching over 450 companies and brands including banks, building societies, investment managers, share registrars, pension providers and insurers to help identify accounts. This means we can then make further enquiries if a financial institution confirms the deceased holds an account or a pension for example.
“Nine out of ten times we don’t find anything other than what is expected. However, we have often discovered small shareholdings or forgotten Premium Bonds which families have not known about.
“In one recent intestacy case the beneficiary had stopped contacting us before the estate was finalised. We instructed a firm to track her down but sadly she had passed away after moving into a nursing home. Without a Will, the lady’s estranged daughter was due to inherit as next of kin but she had no knowledge of her mother’s assets, so we conducted an Asset Search. Estatesearch confirmed one financial institution held an account belonging to the deceased. Our further enquiries revealed an unexpected discovery of investments worth around £190,000 for the estate which had originally only been believed to be worth around £20,000
“If this had been a taxable estate, the tax on such a large sum at 40% plus interest for an asset found at a later date would have been significant.
“We also use Estatesearch’s portal as a central space to order Will Searches, place Statutory Notices and complete Overseas Bankruptcy Searches. We use Estatesearch for share valuations too.
“The Estatesearch portal means rather than re-keying the same client information for different providers, it’s all set up after initial input. I really like it as everything is one place and it’s easy to use. As soon as a search is completed we get an email notification so we can log-in and download the report. It means we have an audit trail to prove due diligence.
“When someone passes away it is our role to support clients through a difficult time. Estatesearch helps protect us when we are appointed as executors and also our clients who are lay executors. The searches are a very small price to pay for peace of mind and we are happy to recommend Estatesearch.”
For further information about Archer Rusby please see: https://www.archerrusby.com/
Originally published in Today’s Will’s and Probate.