The following information concerning the likely costs of dealing with Probate matters does not apply if the Estate has assets outside of the U.K. or is subject to any kind of legal action (i.e. a challenge to the validity of the Will, or an Inheritance Act claim).
If you are not sure if the Estate is likely to involve overseas assets or contentious probate or alternatively, if for some reason the Estate is complex, please call us to discuss the likely costs involved.
The exact cost will depend on the individual circumstances of the matter. For example, if there is one beneficiary and one property, costs will usually be lower. If there are multiple beneficiaries, a property and multiple bank accounts, costs will usually be higher.
We can help you through this difficult time by handling the full administration of the Estate for you; this includes applying for the Grant of Probate as well as collecting and distributing the assets. Alternatively, if you would rather collect and distribute the assets yourself, our role can be confined to obtaining the Grant of Probate for you.
Full administration of the Estate
We can assist you with the administration of an Estate from start to finish, including obtaining a Grant of Probate as part of the process, as well as collecting and distributing the Estate.
Costs for this are likely to be between £3,000 + VAT and £6,000 + VAT. The costs are on an hourly basis, please see below for further information on our hourly rates.
VAT is charged at the prevailing rate. The rate is currently at 20%.
To give you some idea of what is involved, the following is a guide to the stages of administering an Estate and the likely time that this could take:
1. Obtaining values of the assets and liabilities of the Estate 12 – 16 weeks
2. Preparing the Inheritance Tax return and the Oath to be sworn 2 – 4 weeks
Please note that the tax return will need to be signed and the Oath sworn and this may therefore take longer depending on your availability.
3. Submitting the Inheritance Tax return, requesting funds to be used to pay any tax due and receiving the necessary paperwork from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) to proceed with the Probate application 4 – 8 weeks
4. Submitting the Probate application and obtaining the Grant of Representation 2 – 4 weeks
5. Using the Grant of Representation to obtain the assets 4 – 8 weeks
6. Paying any liabilities, distributing legacies and making interim distributions 4 – 8 weeks
7. Selling the property and where necessary as a result of that, pay any Inheritance Tax due. This could take any amount of time as we cannot estimate how long it will take to sell the property.
8. If necessary, finalising the Inheritance Tax position and submitting documents to HMRC. This could take 9 – 12 weeks or longer.
9. Draw up the Estate accounts, obtain approval of the Estate accounts from the executors and beneficiaries and then make final distributions 4 – 8 weeks
