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Where the person who has died ("the Deceased") made a Will, the people named in the Will as Executors will usually have to apply for "Probate" of the Will. Probate is the name given to the official form giving the right to the Executors of the Will to deal with the assets and property of the Deceased.
A bank, or other organisation with whom the Deceased held assets, will usually need to see a copy of the Probate before it will allow the Executors to deal with the particular asset. In order to obtain Probate, the Executors have to make an application to the Court and promise to deal with the estate according to the law. The Court is then able to enforce that promise against the Executors if they do not carry out their obligations properly.
Where there is no Will, or there are no Executors named in the Will, there is a similar procedure but the official form is then called "Letters of Administration". If there is no Will, the Deceased is said to have died Intestate and in such case, their estate will be dealt with in accordance with strict legal rules which state who can deal with the estate and who benefits from it. For further information on who would benefit under intestacy, please refer to the Wills page on our website.
Unless otherwise stated, all references to "Probate" include Letters of Administration for the purposes of this summary.
In some cases, it is possible for a claim to be made against the Deceased's estate if someone thinks that they should have been named in the Will or if they think that what they were left in the Will is not fair. Any such claim has to be made within six months of Probate being granted.
Unlike some other countries, in the Isle of Man there is no Inheritance Tax payable after someone has died. There may be Inheritance Tax issues to consider however if the Deceased was not domiciled in the Isle of Man, prior to their death.
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