Professionals engaged in estate work will be familiar with unexpected difficulties or delays that can arise when administering an estate. There are a range of issues, such as a will being challenged or missing beneficiaries, that can complicate and protract the process, adding further stress and upset to families and others involved.

Did you know that there are insurance options available to respond to many of the scenarios you will encounter? DUAL Asset can assist with insurance solutions that provide protection and allow distributions to take place.

Kate Thorp is the Manager of the Executor and Inheritance Protection team for DUAL Asset and has over twenty years’ experience in this specialist area. Kate explains that “DUAL Asset’s policies can provide protection for the personal representatives, the beneficiaries and their legal advisors in perpetuity and for a single premium.”

Executor and Inheritance Insurance can speed up the distribution of an estate. It can be an alternative to reserving funds to pay for future claims, or even going to court. It is not a direct alternative to PI insurance – but this is an area of law where potentially a professional can be deemed as “negligent”, not by intent, but because of the complexities involved in dealing with an estate. In the case of a claim, the professional’s liability may move from the PI provider to an Executor and Inheritance policy.

Here are examples of the types of cover DUAL Asset can offer, covering both the personal representatives, beneficiaries and their legal advisers:

Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975/Early Distribution Insurance – Covers beneficiaries, including charities, who may be seeking a distribution before the expiry of the 10 month period. By way of example, this could be useful to allow a beneficiary to buy a house, or to mitigate a tax bill for the estate.

Section 27 Notice – Useful where a decision is made that an advertisement will not be placed in order to speed up the distribution of an estate. The cover will protect the personal representatives and beneficiaries from claims from unknown creditors.

Missing Beneficiary Insurance – Available on a precautionary basis, or where there is a known missing beneficiary. DUAL Asset can consider cover for small estates, where there are limited funds available to carry out research into one side of the family tree.

Missing Will Insurance – Available on a precautionary basis or where there is believed to have been a will, but it cannot be located.

Comprehensive Insurance – 12 risks insured under one policy for intestate and testate estates and available for all UK regions, Channel Islands and Ireland. As the name suggests, this provides cover for a range of risks such as a will being challenged, proprietary estoppel claims, Inheritance Act claims, missing will and missing beneficiary claims.

Legal Rights – Available for Scottish executries to respond to claims from unknown or missing children, or an unknown spouse who cannot be traced. An example could be where there is an accusation the deceased fathered a child many years ago and specific details of this child are unknown to trace them.

Will Challenge – Cover may be available where there has already been a claim on the estate. Perhaps a disgruntled relative or friend of the deceased, who expected to benefit, has stated they intend to challenge the will, but have not yet substantiated their “claim” over many months, or even years, and the distribution of the estate is being held up.

Identity Fraud – Provides protection where it is not possible to verify absolutely the identity of beneficiaries abroad, perhaps because the authenticity of identity documents cannot be proved.

Forfeiture Rules – Cover responds where a person has been convicted of the killing of a person, but then successfully appeals their conviction and makes a claim on their estate.

Unknown or Historic Tax Liabilities – Addresses the situation where an estate may be subject to an unknown or historic matter. Perhaps there is a concern there may be historic unpaid income tax and there is a concern HMRC may raise an enquiry in the future, despite having agreed the account.