How can I write my will so my beneficiaries get their money as quickly as possible? It has been four years since the death of a family member and nobody has received anything. I don’t have an urgent need for the money, but relatives are now frustrated and almost wishing there had never been a will.
A few small items are delaying everything, which is cruel. I would like my beneficiaries to enjoy anything I leave them without years of uncertainty and bureaucracy. Is there anything I can do to make that possible?
For example, could I request that my shares go to charity to avoid the complexity of selling them before proceeds are divided? Or should I turn my assets into cash so my inheritors will have an easy and fast probate process?
A: You can never fully control how quickly your beneficiaries will get their inheritance, says solicitor Marusia Geampana of Coyne Solicitors in Lucan, Dublin.
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If a beneficiary died before the administration of the estate was completed, for example, your executor would need to wait for the grant of probate from that estate before they could make a distribution of that beneficiary’s estate, says Geampana.
They do, however, have the discretion to make payments to other beneficiaries in the meantime.
The best way to avoid other more predictable delays is to make sure your own estate is in order, she says. First off, if you own your mortgage-free house and want to leave it in your will, make sure you know where the title deeds are.
“Do you or your solicitor have them and does the executor who is going to administer your estate know where they are?” asks Geampana.
If you don’t know where they are, you can order a certified copy of your folio and map from the LandDirect website. Older properties will be under the Registry of Deeds system. You may have to get lost deeds reconstructed, she says. This can take months.
A property sale cannot be closed until the Probate Office issues the grant of probate. A new online system has shortened the sometimes 16-week processing time for probate to between four and eight weeks.
“It’s a significant improvement, but if there are queries it still takes time,” she says – and that clock only starts when the file is submitted, which will take several months.
An estate with shares can also delay things for beneficiaries – although again, once probate is granted, an executor does have the power to make a partial distribution of the estate other than the shares.
“I’m happy to see this reader query coming in, because you can be pulling your hair out dealing with shares,” says Geampana. “Back in the 1990s and early 2000s, there was a big trend of Irish people buying shares. Some of them are worthless now and some are actually worth a lot.”
She mentions one instance where the equivalent of €1,000-worth of shares in CRH that were bought in the 1980s are now worth more than €1 million.
If you have misplaced the original share certificate, check your latest dividend statement or the company’s website to find out which registrar manages their shares. They will ask for supporting documents and may charge a replacement fee to replace your certificate – or register your ownership electronically, which is increasingly how it works these days.
If you don’t do it, your executor will have to, and it will be more complicated and time-consuming.
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Giving the shares to a charity doesn’t solve things. The share cert will still have to be located for the solicitor to transfer the shares.
If you have the share certificate, letting your executors or your children know where to find it will make it easier for the shares to be sold when you die.
Alternatively, you could take your share certificates to a stockbroker, like Davy or Cantor Fitzgerald, and open an account with them. They will hold your share certificates for you and any dividends will be paid into the account – although that does come at a cost.
“The shares are administered by the stockbroker. So when I process the estate, I just go to the stockbroker after the death is processed by them and the estate is registered as the client, and tell them to sell the shares,” says Geampana.
You must declare dividend income to Revenue. Dividend withholding tax at 25 per cent will have been taken at source for Irish-registered companies, but higher rate taxpayers will have a further liability.
“When your estate is being administered, the executor has an obligation to Revenue to ensure your taxes have been paid, not only in the year of death, but also five years prior to the death,” says Geampana.
“By having an account with a stockbroker, they can see exactly what income the shares have generated. If you don’t have an account, there will have to be a forensic analysis, or the executor will have to write to the company in which shares were held to confirm what dividend was paid for the five years to enable an accountant to prepare the tax return,” she says.
If the shares are in a US company, for example, they can require what’s called a medallion guarantee to confirm the legal authority to sell or transfer a deceased person’s shares. If the share certificate is lost, this takes time to obtain.
“In one case, I had to wait a year to get a medallion because the share certificate was lost. The shares were worth €20,000. The cost of getting the medallion and doing the legal work was €2,000.”
Turning your assets into cash before you die is a personal decision – you could consider whether any shares you have are still growing in value.
You can help your beneficiaries get their inheritance quickly by making a list of your assets, getting any property title deeds or share certificates in order, and letting your executor or trusted loved ones know where everything is.
The name of the reader who submitted the question is not being published to protect the identities of those involved.
Please send your legal queries to Joanne Hunt, Ask the Lawyer, The Irish Times, 24-28 Tara Street, Dublin 2, or by email to joanne.hunt@irishtimes.com with a contact phone number. This column is a reader service and is not intended to replace professional advice.
