Estate Administration Price Information

Limited Service

If you would like our limited service which consists of you supplying us with figures for all of the deceased’s assets and liabilities as at their date of death and you require us only to prepare IHT Forms and Oath/Statement of Truth for submission to the Probate Registry, obtain the Grant and supply you with this so you can collect in all assets, our charges will be at the fixed prices of £850.00 plus VAT for Estates where no Inheritance Tax is payable or £1,750.00 plus VAT if a full Inheritance Tax Form IHT400 is needed.

The timescale for dealing with the limited service is approximately 4-6 weeks.

Full Service

Our costs in relation to our full service which includes the collect and distribution of money, property and other assets belonging to a person following their death are charged on an hourly basis.  Michelle’s current hourly rate is £250.00.  Time spent will include meetings with you and perhaps others; reviewing, preparing and working on papers and documents.   Routine letters written or received, emails and telephone calls will all be charged in units of 1/10th of an hour (i.e. currently £25.00 each).

It is always difficult to provide projections of costs in regard to any estate administration but typically the Estates we deal with involve total fees being within a range of £3,000.00 - £8,500.00 plus VAT provided all assets are in the UK and the matter is not contested.  We will be able to give you a better idea of the fees once we have met with you and discussed the assets involved.  Factors that can lead to our estimates being towards the higher end of the above figures are if there are multiple beneficiaries or if beneficiaries are difficult to trace.  If there are assets outside the UK, the charges will be higher as a lawyer in the foreign jurisdiction will need to be engaged and translation fees may also be necessary.  We do not deal with contested matters so would not take a matter on where there was a clear indication of problems arising from the outset.  If the matter unexpectedly becomes contested (e.g. claims against the estate from family members or dependents, or challenges to the validity of the Will) we will need to engage the services of another solicitor specialising in these areas at additional cost.

Disbursements are costs payable to other organisations which are incurred by us as agency for you.  Disbursements involved in Probate and Estate Administration cases involve obtaining official copies of Titles for property (£6.00 per Title); bankruptcy searches against beneficiaries (£2.00 per person); Statutory Notices to be placed in the London Gazette and local newspaper to protect against claims, if appropriate, which usually amount to a total of approximately £350.00, Financial Assets Search including Will Search (if required) at the approximate cost of £162.00 and Probate Fee of £273.00 plus six Official Copies at £9.00.

A broad outline of the work to be carried out by this firm on your behalf in relation to our full service is to write to all organisations/individuals who appear to have dealt with the Deceased to ascertain the value of the estate as at the date of death, arrange payment of funeral expenses, arrange for Statutory Notices to be published and/or Financial Assets including Will Search to be made (if required), prepare a Statement of Assets and Liabilities as at Date of Death, prepare the relevant Inheritance Tax Forms and Oath/Statement of Truth to be submitted to the Probate Registry obtain the Grant of Representation, collect in the assets and settle the liabilities, prepare Estate and Distribution Accounts for your approval and then distribute to the beneficiaries.

If HMRC require a full Tax Return to date of death to be completed or Capital Gains Tax Computations in relation to the administration period of the Estate, these will involve the services of an Accountant and additional charges will be payable to the accountancy firm who carries out these services.

Timescales for the full service are that, on average, the obtaining of the Grant of Probate takes approximately three months, collecting in assets takes approximately 1-2 months following the issuing of the Grant of Probate (but can be much longer if there is a property to sell), interim distributions occur approximately two months later, final distributions following clarification of any tax payable during the administration period of the estate can take anything between 9 months – 2 years or sometimes even longer.

If Michelle Post is appointed as an executor in the Will, the full service as outlined above will apply.  In addition to the hourly rate as detailed above, Michelle's fees for acting as an executor and administering the estate would be charged according to Law Society recommended guidelines.  At present these would be 0.75% of the value of any residence and 1.5% of the value of the remainder of the estate.