My mum passed away and left an estate of circa £40k, requiring a grant of confirmation (Scotland) due to a life policy at 30k. My mum had around £12k of personal debt (unsecured) to around four lenders, including a loan of circa £6k owing to Clydesdale, which had passed to a third-party before she passed away. She'd entered into repayment plans with each lender, most getting token gestures each month, some as little as £1. Some lenders are pursing more than others, the original Clydesdale loan has now made it's way into the hands of another debt collection agency who are phoning and writing constantly. I need to know exactly where I stand in respect of having to pay this off. I know that personal debt should be paid before rewarding any beneficiaries. A few of the debts seem to have almost given up, are writing infrequently and not pursuing aggresively. What do I need to do? I understand I must give 6 months before giving money to beneficiaries. How co-operative do I need to be with the lenders? Do I need to offer to pay? Can it affect my credit with the debt outstanding? Any help or guidance is much appreciated. Regards Grant

Thanks for the above links, much appreciated. I'ts a fine line with the adminstration it seems. If I write to the creditors asking for confirmation of any liabilities, once I have collected this in, I should put an ad in the paper and apply for a Bond of Caution? (Scotland). Obviously I want to tick the boxes, but do the minimum, I do not want to make it easy for creditors to place a claim.

Thanls for the replies so far. My intention is to value the estate in it's entirety and have the solicitor apply for grant of representation. I will then write to each of her supposed creditors asking for any alleged liabilities to be disclosed, which I can then challenge hopefully. I need to ensure I have the legal power to make CCA requests and SAR as the executor, and not the original debtor? The solicitor asked for a break-down or at least a rough estimate of any debt owed. I felt putting that down would make it easier for creditors to stake a claim further down the line. Any Court Grants I understand will be held publicly available, so once it is granted the value of the estate is visible, and with an accompanying acknowledgement of the debt, not a good combination I'd imagine. Despite it feeling morally wrong not to disclose the debt to the lawyer ergo it doesn't appear on anything disclosed to the courts, is this illegal as such?

My mother passed away recently. She made me the sole executor of her will. Her estate is (barely) large enough to require grant of representation (Scotland). She has a number of unsecured creditors (bank loan, bank overdraft, credit cards). She had not worked for 5 years prior to her death, and was recieving various benefits. Around a year ago she contacted Consumer Credit Councilling Services who assisted her in writing to her creditors. Most creditors had applied defaults and were accepting goodwill payments towards the accounts. Two of her creditors had sold the debt to Debt Collection Agencies. I have listed as much relevant facts above as possible. Have I missed anything? I understand I need to publicly advertise to invite creditors to make a claim against the estate. I shall do this in the national press. What I need to find out the extent of my responsibilities with regards to: - Notifying of the death - Advising on the value of the estate - Making offer of settlement (or otherwise) Seeing some of the action taken against unsecured lenders on this site - particularly the CCA then SAR angle, does anyone have any experience of this under the circumstances (deceased estate)? Obviously given the scenario here, I am loathe to allow unsecured creditors to take what my mother intended as our inheritance if you like (life insurance policy). However as stated, it leaves little change if every creditor must be settled. Hence I'm sure you can understand I'd want to establish the boundaries I'm working within! Any help is massively appreciated, and the gesture would be returned if possible. Grant Any other advise appreciated.