Wills and dealing with an estate

[mathmos]

I am trying to sort out my late father in laws estate and I had a couple of questions I am struggling to get a clear answer to.

So he had a house, current and savings Account all in joint names with his wife.

He had an ISA and some shares in his sole name.

For the purpose of completing the inheritance tax form prior to probate, do I just include the value of the ISA and shares? So just stuff in his sole name? Does anything in a joint name automatically pass over to his wife?

For the will itself for anything he's bequeathed I take it that just comes out of his sole assets?

And last question (for now!!)! How do you actually close probate and who confirms the will has been executed correctly?

[mathmos]

Thanks, yep it does help, I'll take another look through the forms and see if I can figure it out.

So I am not sure how the house was set up, I am going to try and talk to the solicitor who dealt with it at the time to see if he can confirm. Unfortunately my FIL's documentation is a complete mess, just boxes of unopened mail some of it going back 25 years or more.

My presumption is that this will be an excepted estate, but I am still not 100% sure.

So basically from what I've found at the moment, he seems to have sole assets that are below the £325k limit. However if I add in 50% of the value of the property and accounts that are in joint names it's way above that. However the amount bequeathed to named people is spot on £325k, with any remainder going to his wife.

So I am scratching my head a bit!