Probate Fees

The fees we charge for extracting Grant of Probate and/or Letters of Administration and for thereafter administering an estate differ dependent upon what levels of work we are to undertake. The level of works required to be undertaken by us are often determined by the size and complexity of the deceased’s estate and also the level of works the executors or administrators wish to undertake themselves.

In an estate where an abbreviated Inheritance Tax Return is acceptable and where the client provides to us a detailed breakdown of deceased assets and liabilities; our fees for drafting an application to the District Probate Registry start from £650+VAT plus a court fee of £155.

Clients often wish us to collate information in respect of a deceased’s assets and liabilities, which involves us contacting all the companies with which the deceased held assets or liabilities. If we do this, we charge at a rate of £225+VAT per hour of our time spent in undertaking these works. The time which is required to write to the various companies, will depend upon the number of companies with which the deceased had financial relationships. For example, an estate where the deceased simply held one bank account and some premium bonds will involve much less time and hence lower legal fees than an estate which comprises a portfolio of many assets held with various different companies.

The administration of a basic estate with a limited number of companies to contact may cost £1000-£1500+ VAT and a £155 court fee, whereas a more involved complex estate can be double or triple this amount. A more accurate quotation to fees can be given once we have met with and discussed the estate involved.

Rebecca O’Donnell at our firm deals with Probate matters. She is a qualified solicitor of over 11 years’ experience and a director of the firm.

Timescales: from the point we have details of the deceased’s assets and liabilities it will take us approximately 7 days to draft an application to submit to the Probate Registry. Upon submitting the application to the Probate Registry, they take around 10 working days to issue the sealed Grant of Probate or Letters of Administration. Thereafter the encashment of assets takes as long as the company with which the deceased held assets own internal process which can be up to around 21 days. To finalise the process, we then deal with settling estate accounts and distributing the estate which should take no longer than 10 days.

These timescales can vary dependant upon the individual complexities of each estate. For example, some estates may involve the settling of inheritance tax, income and other tax liabilities and also other third party claims and challenges to the will which would result in a variation from the above estimates.