ScottRich-225

Probate & Estate Administration Pricing

The details below refer to the collection and distribution of money, property and other assets belonging to a person following their death, where these are within the UK and the matters are not contested.

We understand the stress and emotion surrounding a recent bereavement.  We can provide you with as much or as little help as you need.

How much does it cost to apply for a Grant of Probate?

Before we begin work for you, we will provide a detailed estimate of fees together with a timetable for completion of the work.  Your estimate will include all predicted costs, including any third-party fees, such as Probate Court fees.  Our costs are based on the assumption that the estate is relatively simple, all beneficiaries are based in the UK and that there are few, if any, assets that would complicate the process or lengthen our time estimates.

We can offer you a range of different options, depending on how much or how little of the administration of the estate you are comfortable with dealing with yourself.  The two main options are set out below, but we are happy to work with you in the way you feel best suits your needs.

JRD-crop222

Application for a Grant of Probate only

We offer a fixed fee for this work.  Before you can apply for a Grant, you need to pay any inheritance tax that is due or be able to show that no inheritance tax is payable.  For most estates, there is no tax to pay but the size of the estate still needs to be reported to HMRC. If there is tax to pay, or if the affairs of the deceased do not meet certain conditions, you will have to provide a formal account of the estate by completing form IHT400. After the inheritance tax position has been considered, the Grant of Probate can be applied for.

For our Grant-only service, you would ascertain the value of the estate as at the date of death. We would then complete the relevant HMRC tax report and submit the application for the Grant of Probate (or Grant of Letters of Administration) only.  You will be responsible for dealing with the estate administration once the Grant has been obtained.

Our Grant-only fee where no tax is payable and a form IHT400 is not required, is £950.00 plus 20% VAT, on the basis that the deceased left a valid Will.

Our Grant-only fee where a form IHT400 is submitted but there is no tax to pay, is from £1,950.00 plus 20% VAT. If there is tax to pay, we can organise this on your behalf and prepare the form IHT400 for a total cost of from £2,100.00 plus 20% VAT.

The Probate Registry fee to issue the Grant is £300.00 (no VAT).  Additional copies of the Grant of Probate can be obtained for £1.50 each.

Administering the Estate in Full

This would mean that we would ascertain the assets and liabilities and value of the estate; attend to the Inheritance Tax (IHT) position if any, obtain the Grant, collect in the assets; settle the liabilities; attend to the income tax position up to the date of death and during the administration period; prepare formal estate accounts and distribute the estate.

The cost of this would depend on the size and nature of the estate but is effectively based upon the time spent and the type of assets involved and the difficulty factor of the estate.  The costs would be highlighted within our client engagement letter after we have established the scope of the estate and familiarised ourselves with the assets, liabilities and finances involved.

As a broad guide, the fees for a full estate administration will usually start from £3,500.00 - £5,500.00 plus 20% VAT for a relatively straightforward estate.  This would be, for example, where estates comprise of one property and up to ten accounts or investments.  Fees for high value and complex estates or challenging estates which require a greater amount of our time can be higher than this.  We will always provide a detailed estimate of our fees together with a timetable for completion of the work, before we start working for you.

The prices shown above are just an average price based on recent instructions.  The actual cost to you will depend on a number of factors which we will discuss with you if you decide to instruct us.

Additional Costs Involved

There may be some additional costs which we will need to pay on your behalf as part of the process.  The typical costs are set out below.

  • Probate court fees: £300.00 (plus £1.50p for each additional copy of the Grant of Probate or Letters of Administration)
  • Bankruptcy search: from £2.00 for every beneficiary
  • Statutory advertisement to creditors from £220.00 plus 20% VAT (the actual cost will depend upon the papers advertised in)
  • Financial Asset Search – a sweeping search to ensure that no assets or investments have been overlooked - £195.00 plus 20% VAT
  • There may be additional disbursements as required for example, appointing accountants to deal with complex tax returns.
  • Stockbroker fees dealing with lost share certificates and selling shares (these vary depending upon the stockbroker involved).

What costs are excluded?

Our fees do not include any external costs and charges that we may incur as part of the administration of the estate such as inheritance tax, income tax, penalties, repayable benefits, fees and charges. You will also be responsible for these items on behalf of the estate.  If there are any properties to be sold, the costs for this are separate to the administration of the estate.  We would be delighted to help you with this area and you can find more details about this service and see the members of our property team here or call them on 01626 772441.

How long will it take?

How long it takes to administer the estate will largely be dependent upon the complexity of the estate itself and the number of beneficiaries involved.  Typically, where we are applying for the Grant of Probate only on your behalf, this will usually take between 1 and 3 months.

Where we are carrying out the full administration of the estate, this will typically take 1 to 3 months to obtain the Grant of Probate in a simple non-taxable estate. This is followed by collecting in all the assets.  Once all assets have been gathered in and all liabilities settled, we distribute the assets to the beneficiaries.  A straightforward estate may take between 6 and 12 months to conclude from start to finish.  If there is a complex or valuable estate, it is likely to take longer.  We will be able to give you a clear idea of the likely timescale when we talk to you.

The People Involved in Estate Administration

You can find out more about the range of services that we offer and the team who can help you by visiting our Private Client pages.

Please get in touch if you have any questions or if you would like us to instruct us by calling us on 01626 772441, emailing us at law@scottrichards.co.uk or via our Contact Form.

Private Client Team

Contact a Team Member

Partner Solicitor

Partner Solicitor & Head of Private Client

Partner Solicitor

Private Client Executive

Consultant Solicitor

Private Client Assistant

Private Client Assistant

Private Client Assistant

We use cookies to analyse our traffic and share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. View more
Cookies settings
Accept
Reject
Privacy & Cookie policy
Privacy & Cookies policy
Cookie name Active

Who we are

Our website address is: https://www.scottrichards.co.uk.

What personal data we collect and why we collect it

Comments

When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor's IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.

An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

Media

If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.

Contact forms

Cookies

If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

If you visit our login page, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.

When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select "Remember Me", your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.

If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Analytics

Who we share your data with

How long we retain your data

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

What rights you have over your data

If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

Where we send your data

Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.

Your contact information

Additional information

How we protect your data

What data breach procedures we have in place

What third parties we receive data from

What automated decision making and/or profiling we do with user data

Industry regulatory disclosure requirements

Save settings