For details of our fees and services concerning Grant of Probate and Letters of Administration (with or without us administering the estate), please click on the relevant drop-down option below.
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Grant of Probate/Letter of Administration & Estate Administration
If you wish, we can assist with all aspects of the estate administration for you.
You will appreciate that the size and complexity of estates and the work we are required to do to administer these can vary substantially from case to case. To reflect this, our charges are calculated in general terms on the basis of the time we spend working on the matter applying the hourly rate charged by the legal professional acting.
Our fees for estate administration
As a guide, we estimate our fees for dealing with the administration of an estate will be in the region of:
- Where there is no Inheritance Tax payable, no IHT accounts are required by HMRC, there is a maximum of one property and three financial institutions and three UK-based beneficiaries and the estate administration is straightforward – our fees would be one to two per cent of the gross value of the estate assets for Inheritance Tax purposes plus VAT – subject to a minimum fee of £3,500 plus VAT.
- In other circumstances – our fees would be two to three per cent of the gross value of the estate assets for Inheritance Tax purposes plus VAT – subject to a minimum fee of £6,000 plus VAT.
Hourly fees for our Wills & Probate team
- Partner / Consultant – From £365 plus VAT
- Legal Director – From £325 plus VAT
- Senior Associate – From £290 plus VAT
- Associate – From £235 plus VAT
- Trainee Solicitor / Senior Paralegal – From £200 plus VAT
- Paralegal – From £145 plus VAT
Our estate administration service
As part of our service, we will usually:
- Meet with you to take your instructions and advise you regarding the estate administration.
- Agree with you about what work you require us to undertake in the estate administration and what work you wish to carry out yourself.
- Consider the deceased’s paperwork you provide us with to identify the actual or potential estate assets and liabilities.
- Contact the institutions with whom the estate assets and liabilities are or may be held or owed to obtain the information and paperwork required from them.
- Collate the information we receive from those institutions into an Estate Account.
- Prepare the Probate application paperwork and any Inheritance Tax accounts required by HMRC. Claim any Inheritance Tax allowances available and calculate the amount of Inheritance Tax due.
- Meet with you to complete the paperwork and to provide you with an update regarding the estate administration.
- Arrange to pay the Inheritance Tax due from the deceased’s bank accounts.
- Obtain the Grant of Probate or Letters of Administration.
- Once the Grant has been issued, collect in the monies due to the estate and pay out the estate liabilities.
- Contact the estate beneficiaries to check their identity and, once funds are available, pay out the legacies/distributions due to them.
- Submit a corrective account, if needed, to HMRC to finalise the Inheritance Tax position.
- Prepare Final Estate Accounts and provide the executors/administrators and residuary beneficiaries with a copy of these.
Assuming that everything proceeds smoothly, we would usually expect to be in a position to:
- Meet with you to complete the Probate application and Inheritance Tax paperwork approximately three to four months after our first meeting where no Inheritance Tax is payable, or four to five months after our first meeting where Inheritance Tax is payable.
- To complete the estate administration in approximately a further two to three months where no Inheritance Tax is payable, or four to six months where Inheritance Tax is payable.
We may in certain circumstances be able to meet with you to complete the matter much quicker than this. Alternatively, there are many factors, such as the time it takes to sell a property, negotiations with HMRC and delays in obtaining instructions from beneficiaries or information from institutions, which may, unfortunately, mean that it takes longer than this to deal with the matter.
All work will be carried out either by or under the supervision of an experienced solicitor.
Additional fees
Additional fees may be made if we are required to:
- Collect the medical certificate, register the death or organise the funeral.
- Visit the deceased’s property for any reason.
- Deal with any foreign assets.
- Advise upon or deal with any Capital Gains Tax/Income Tax matters relating to the deceased’s lifetime affairs or those relating to the estate administration.
- Deal with the sale or transfer of property or business assets.
- Advise upon or deal with any variation of the Will or Intestacy.
- Involve ourselves in any issues regarding the validity of the Will or Codicil and any disagreements or disputes or claims affecting the estate in any way.
- Instruct genealogists to identify and/or locate beneficiaries.
- Negotiate with HMRC regarding the Inheritance Tax position.
- Assist in arranging a loan to pay the Inheritance Tax due if there are insufficient funds to pay this from the deceased’s own bank accounts.
- Deal with more than one estate property, more than 10 estate assets, more than 10 estate liabilities, more than six legatees or more than six beneficiaries of the residuary estate.
Additional fees incurred in estate administration
Expenses that are or may commonly be incurred in the administration of an estate are:
- Where the value of the estate exceeds £5,000, the Probate Registry charges a fee of £300 for issuing the grant of probate. There is also a £1.50 charge for each sealed copy of the Grant you require.
- Inheritance Tax which in general terms is charged at the rate of 40% upon the net estate for Inheritance Tax purposes after the deduction of available tax allowances.
- Land Registry fees to check the property title – £3 per property.
- Certainty Will search – £114 approximately.
- Estate Search asset and liability search – £268 approximately.
- Statutory advertisements for creditors – £250 – £300 approximately.
Additional expenses may be incurred if it is necessary to instruct experts to, for example, value sell or otherwise deal with assets, such as property, personal effects, business interests and shares.
Income Tax, Capital Gains Tax and possibly other taxes plus accountancy fees may need to be paid to finalise the deceased’s lifetime tax affairs and the estate administration tax position.
As a guide, we estimate our fees for dealing with the administration of an estate will be in the region of:
- Where the gross value of the estate assets for Inheritance Tax purposes does not exceed £75,000, our fees would be £1,500 plus VAT (£1,800).
- Where the gross value of the estate assets for Inheritance Tax purposes exceeds £75,000 but there is no Inheritance Tax payable upon the estate, our fees would be 1% to 2% of the gross value of the estate assets for Inheritance Tax purposes plus VAT – subject to a minimum fee of £1,500 plus VAT (£1,800).
- Where there is Inheritance Tax payable upon the estate, our estimate fees would be 2% to 3% of the gross value of the estate assets for Inheritance Tax purposes plus VAT.
If you wish, we can assist with all aspects of the estate administration for you.
You will appreciate that the size and complexity of estates and the work we are required to do to administer these can vary substantially from case to case. To reflect this, our charges are calculated in general terms upon the basis of the time we spend working on the matter applying the hourly rate charged by the legal professional acting.
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Grant of Probate/Letter of Administration
If you would like to carry out most of the work in the estate administration yourself and instruct us to simply obtain the Grant of Probate, our charges will usually be £1,000 plus VAT and £300 Probate Registry fees plus £1.50 for each sealed copy of the Grant you require.
Our Grant of Probate/Letter of Administration service
- Our Grant of Probate/Letter of Administration service includes:
- Meeting with you to take your instructions.
- Preparing the Probate application paperwork and meeting with you again for you to complete this.
- Submitting the completed paperwork to the Probate Registry.
- Sending out to you the issued Grant of Probate and sealed copies.
What our standard fees cover
We will charge our usual fee on the basis that:
- We already hold the last Will of the deceased or you are able to provide the original to us and there is no issue with the validity of this.
- You provide us with an original death certificate for the deceased and satisfactory identification evidence for yourself.
- You are the only executor(s) currently entitled to take out the Grant and there are no major discrepancies between your name(s) as it appears on the Will and your identification evidence.
- You provide us with a schedule of the estate assets, how they are owned and their value either at our initial meeting or in a single document shortly after the meeting.
- You provide us with a schedule of all declarable gifts made by the deceased during the last seven years of their life, including the amount, date and recipient of each gift either at our initial meeting or in a single document shortly after the meeting.
- The gross value of the estate assets, including the gross value of the declarable lifetime gifts does not exceed £325,000. The lifetime gifts do not exceed £150,000 in value and there are no Trust assets to declare.
- The deceased was domiciled in England and Wales and did not own any foreign assets, nor have a foreign Will.
- All executors meet with us together to complete the Probate application paperwork.
- There is no dispute regarding the estate that we are to be involved in.
- You deal with all other aspects of the estate administration yourself.
Once you have provided us with the information we need, we would usually expect to have prepared the Probate application within two weeks. Once we have met with you to complete this, assuming all proceeds smoothly, we would expect to be able to send out to you the issued Grant of Probate and sealed copies within 20 weeks (the Probate Registry is currently estimating 16-20 weeks from submission of the Probate application to them to issue of the Grant). We can ask the Probate Registry to speed up the issue of the Grant where this is needed urgently.
All work will be carried out either by or under the supervision of an experienced solicitor.
Where the circumstances are as set out above except:
- The deceased died without leaving a Will, then, assuming you are the only people entitled to take out the Grant of Letters of Administration under the Intestacy rules, our charges for carrying out the above work would usually be £1,000 plus VAT and £300 Probate Registry fees plus £1.50 for each sealed copy of the Grant you require.
- No Inheritance Tax is payable upon the deceased’s estate but additional Inheritance Tax accounts are required by HMRC then our charges for carrying out the above work, including the completion of those additional accounts, would be in the region of £2,500 to £4,500 plus VAT and £300 Probate Registry fees plus £1.50 for each sealed copy of the Grant you require.
- Inheritance Tax is payable upon the deceased’s estate then our charges for carrying out the above work, including the completion of the IHT400 account and arranging for payment of the tax from a single bank account held by the deceased, would usually be in the region of £4,500 to £6,500 plus VAT and £300 Probate Registry fees plus £1.50 for each sealed copy of the Grant you require.
Hourly fees for our Wills & Probate team
- Partner / Consultant – From £365 plus VAT
- Legal Director – From £325 plus VAT
- Senior Associate – From £290 plus VAT
- Associate – From £235 plus VAT
- Trainee Solicitor / Senior Paralegal – From £200 plus VAT
- Paralegal – From £145 plus VAT
- Our Grant of Probate/Letter of Administration service includes:
Our expert team
At Nelsons, our expert team of Wills and Probate solicitors in Derby, Leicester and Nottingham can assist with all aspects of estate administration, including Grants of Probate and Letters of Administration. We can help with all or any part of the process and will advise you of the costs involved before we carry out any work.
Our specialist team is recommended by the independently-researched publication, The Legal 500, as being one of the top teams of experts in the country.
Testimonials…
Contact us
For more information about our Grant of Probate and Letters of Administration fees and services, contact us via our online form or call 0800 024 1976 for a guaranteed response.