Joanne Leetch

So I think that's a lot of the reason why currently the applications are taking so long.

Yeah, that's it.

But generally, the valuation date for the purposes of inheritance tax does not arise until such time as the grant of probate issue.

So the date of issue of the grant of probate is generally the valuation date for the purposes of inheritance tax.

But it causes unnecessary delays if the

grants take 12 to 14 to 16 weeks to issue.

Obviously, there's monies tied up in accounts.

People need money to pay off bills incurred in the administration of the state, etc.

So if the grants can issue a lot quicker, it just speeds up the process completely and just makes it easier for the families involved so that they can get access to funds quicker.

in order to pay off bills etc you know there could be farms there could be a farmer that has passed away and his assets are frozen his accounts are frozen and family members are looking after the farm and if they have to wait a considerable period of time for the grant of probate to issue that obviously causes unnecessary hardship for them and

So, yeah, e-probate is coming and hopefully it will improve things for the better.

yeah so so what happens is that the executor so the executor is the person applying for the grant of probate they will need to have an email address in order to partake in e-probate they will also need to have a mobile number so what happens is when the information is submitted into the court service portal

the court service will automatically send an email link to the executor.

The executor then will have to click on the link, enter their mobile number, they'll get a code text to their mobile number, they input that and then they view the document that the executor

what it's known as a statement of truth, approve that and then the solicitor gets the notification that that's been approved by the executor and then literally we print off an acknowledgement and send that with the original will to the probate office.

There was, obviously there are some glitches because it's a very new system.

There are certain glitches.

Now, initially when this pilot scheme was rolled out,

The probate office required the executor to actually set up an account with the court service before they could actually get the email link.

But now they've realised that that's not going to work.