Our hourly rate is £150 per hour. We are not currently registered for VAT.
Self-Help/Limited Involvement
We find that many clients are happy to deal with general administration themselves but welcome help in submitting the application for a grant of representation. We are always happy to discuss a fixed fee quote to deal with any particular aspect of the administration – for example, a “grant only” which might cost £600 to £1,000 in straightforward circumstances and where you can supply all of the necessary information.
Full Administration (Valuing the estate, applying for grant, collecting and distributing the assets)
It might take 10 to 30 hours work to administer a straightforward estate (excluding any conveyancing work/costs), so that we would estimate costs of £1,500 to £4,500 plus disbursements to deal with an estate where we handle the process and:
- There is a valid Will
- There is no more than one property
- There are no more than 10 bank or building society accounts
- There are no other intangible assets
- There are 1-5 beneficiaries
- There are no disputes between beneficiaries on division of assets
- There is no inheritance tax payable and the executors do not need to submit a full account to HMRC
- There are no claims made against the estate
Within this estimate, the cost will depend primarily on the number and type of assets and beneficiaries.
Disbursements payable to third parties (in addition to our costs) commonly include:
- Probate application fee, currently £155 but expected to rise
- Fees to surveyors and valuers e.g. for valuations of land, shares or chattels
- Bankruptcy-only Land Charges Department searches
- Notices in the London Gazette and local newspaper to protect against unexpected claims from unknown creditors.
- Additional copies of death certificate and/or grant of probate
- Accountancy fees e.g. for Income tax/Capital Gains Tax Returns
- All Conveyancing costs
Note: All costs are subject to quotation in the circumstances of your case and will fall outside the given range where these differ from those which form the basis of the estimate.
Timescale
On average, estates that fall within this range are dealt with within 9 to 18 months depending on various factors including number of assets, time taken by the Probate Registry and/or HMRC, time taken to sell property etc
Typically:
- obtaining the grant of probate takes 12 to 26 weeks
- it can then take 6-52 weeks to collect in, sell or transfer the assets
- we can then pay any liabilities, resolve any issues (such as pre-death tax liabilities), pay legacies, finalise the estate accounts and distribute the residuary estate