Please send your queries to Dominic Coyle, Q&A, The Irish Times, 11-15 D'Olier Street, Dublin 2, or e-mail to dcoyle@irish-times.ie. This column is a reader service and is not intended to replace professional advice. Due to the volume of mail, there may be a delay in answering queries. All suitable queries will be answered through the columns of the newspaper. No personal correspondence will be entered into.

Wills and probate

Would you be able to define testamentary expenses? Could testamentary expenses include probate tax? Who is responsible for probate tax - i.e. who pays it?

Mr A.H., Louth

Put simply, testamentary expenses are those costs involved in administering or proving the will. Such expenses would include the liabilities incurred by the executors of the estate in advertising to ensure that all the estate's creditors have filed notice of their interest.

However, I doubt that probate tax would come under this category. After all, it is not a part of the administration of the will or of proving it.

The probate tax is payable out of the estate and that is done by the executors or by a solicitor hired by them.

Renovation grants

I am about to get some home repairs done on my house, which was originally built in 1898. Could you advise me on the best loan available or, indeed, if there is a grant available? The current repairs will be to the back entrance and will cost approximately £2,000. I am a member of a credit union, where I have about £700 in savings. I also have the deeds to the house to secure a loan if necessary.

Someone recently told me that I would be better off getting an overdraft on my current account as it works out cheaper than building society or bank loans or, indeed, the credit union.

Ms I.D., e-mail

The one piece of information which you do not include in your question is whether the house is listed. As it happens that is the most telling factor in the availability of grants.

The situation is that, unless the house is listed, there are no grants available for the type of work you are considering.

However, if it is listed, it is possible the property might be eligible for grant aid under a scheme initiated last May to help defray the costs of conservation works to listed buildings. Under the scheme, which is administered by the local authorities, up to 50 per cent of the cost of eligible repairs can be covered by grant aid up to a maximum of £10,000. In exceptional circumstances, up to 75 per cent of the costs can be covered up to a maximum of £20,000.

The catch is that there is not an open-ended pot of money. Each authority receives an allocation for the purpose of such grants from the Department of the Environment. This figure is an absolute one and does not relate to the number of applications for grant aid.

It is up to the local authority to prioritise applications according to rules which they themselves must set down. As you can see, it is an imperfect science, but it is currently the only route available unless one of the heritage groups is in a position to help out.

As to where to go to get money, the choice is really down to you. A quick tour of the banks will give you some idea of lending rates on offer, but I would imagine the credit union might prove to be a competitive alternative and you certainly have enough saved there to fund the costs you mention.

I have not checked the overdraft rates of the bank and building societies but I would be surprised if they were lower than variable lending rates and certainly astonished if they bettered credit union lending rates.

In relation to the deeds of the house, it is unlikely that these would be required as security for a loan of such a small size. However, that largely depends on your particular financial circumstances.

Flotations

I read with interest your column regarding company flotations. I have recently heard that the Scottish firm, Scottish Telecom will be floating some time soon. Do you know if there is a resource for floating companies on the Internet? I am only new to this game and have purchased Eircom shares hoping to build up some sort of share portfolio. Will stockbrokers provide information on flotations for free or will they not disclose information without a consultation first?

Mr I.M., e-mail

I am not totally sure about the question. If you are asking whether companies can float onto an Internet-based market, the answer is no, not yet. There are a number of electronically-based trading floors, most notably the US Nasdaq index, but the Internet has yet to invade this space although there are certainly people looking at the whole question of trading on the Net.

If, on the other hand, you are looking for Internet-based brokers which will execute trades for you over the Net, there are a number of these. While none is licensed to trade in the Irish market yet, in Britain, they are forming an increasingly important part of the sector. I am not familiar with Scottish Telecom but I assume, if it were to float, it would probably do so in Britain, allowing access to these traders.

Regarding stockbrokers and advice, the simple answer is that it depends on the circumstances. By and large, the one thing that separates online traders from more traditional stockbroking organisations is the research and advice that the latter make available to the customer. For this, they have traditionally charged rates on share deals that exceed those levied by online traders. So, yes, advice costs. If you want a simple, execution-only service on a trade upon which you have already made all the decisions, the costs are lower.

Then again, if you contact the stockbroker which is acting for the company planning a flotation, it would certainly be more forthcoming with information as it is in its interest to generate enthusiasm for the issue. It might also be able to tell you if the flotation will be predominantly targeted at institutions or whether it aims to attract the smaller retail investor. But always remember, such a broker is paid by the company to act in its interests; any advice taken should bear that in mind.