We offer our services at an agreed fixed fee or we work on an hourly basis. Siobhan’s hourly rate for Probate services is £150.00 per hour and there is no VAT charged on this as we are not a VAT registered company.
Our fixed fees are agreed with you once we have assessed your case, however on average our fees are:
- £500 – £750 – for obtaining the Grant of Probate or Letters of Administration only on non-taxable estates.
- £1,000 – £2,000 – for obtaining the Grant of Probate or Letters of Administration only on taxable estates or estates where a full Inheritance Tax Account is required to be delivered to HMRC.
- £1,200 – £2,500 for the administration of a simple estate where there is no Inheritance Tax to pay or estates where a full Inheritance Tax Account is required to be delivered to HMRC.
- £2,000 onwards – for the administration of a complex estate where there is inheritance tax to pay or where a full Inheritance Tax Account is required to be delivered to HMRC.
There are various factors which affect this range of costs listed above which are as follows:
- The amount of time we spend working on your matter
- The size of the estate
- The number of individual assets held and liabilities which need to be investigated
- The number of executors and beneficiaries
- The level and detail of information provided about the deceased and their assets.
While we try to fix the fee for each case we work on, sometimes this is not possible and we will need to provide you fixed fees at each stage of the matter. We will provide you with a clear pricing at the outset of your matter and we will not undertake any work which you do not authorise us to do.
There will be cases which do not fall within the standard average estate costs, which are listed above, for these cases we will provide a bespoke estimate/quote. Estates which fall outside the average range are likely to apply to the following:
- If Inheritance Tax is payable
- The preparation of a full HMRC account in respect of the estate
- Any investigation which has to take place of previous lifetime gifts made by the deceased
- If it considered that significant time will need to be spent on the collection, securing, collation and sale of specific assets, including a property
- The complexity of the assets held in the estate, for example if the deceased owned a business or if the deceased was a beneficiary of a life interest trust
- If there are concerns about the validity of any Will
- If there are disputes between beneficiaries on how the estate should be distributed
- If there are potential claims pending against the estate for unreasonable financial provision
- If there are issues identifying and locating beneficiaries
- If the Will being administered has a degree of complexity, including whether or not there are any trusts involved in connection with the Will and whether or not there are any minor beneficiaries.
In these types of cases you would not normally pay fees in excess of 2.5% of the estate value.
Disbursements
The above quoted fee does not include the payment of disbursements. Disbursements are costs relating to the administration of an estate that are payable to third parties, such as Probate Court fees. The below is an approximate summary of the likely disbursements included in a Probate matter:
- Probate Court fee – £155 (no VAT)
- Additional copies of the Grant of Representation – £1.50 each – one is usually needed to deal with each asset and we usually obtain 5 as a minimum (no VAT)
- Bankruptcy search against each beneficiary – £2.00 (no VAT)
- Valuation of assets, including property, jewellery/antiques and share valuations – approximately £500.00 plus VAT
- Statutory Notices – between £150-£300 per notice plus VAT
- Fees payable to trace any missing beneficiaries – variable and usually between £30 and £200 including VAT
- Obtaining copy documents such as grants of probate and marriage certificates to claim any transferable Inheritance Tax allowances – between £20 and £65 per document including VAT.
The above fees are of course not accurate and are just a representative example. We will advise you on the approximate fees on an individual basis.
If you require a quote for probate, please contact us and we are more than happy to help.
*To find details of the individual solicitors experience and qualifications in relation to the administration of estates please visit our about us page.