s well as obtaining a Grant of Probate or Letters of Administration for you, we can provide a full estate administration service which includes:
- An appointment with your appointed Partner of Solicitor during which we will take your instructions and deal with any preliminary questions you may have. You would be required to provide details of the estate including date of death balances in respect of bank and building society accounts, and any investments
- Obtain details of the appointed Personal Representatives (Executors) and beneficiaries
- Advice on intestacy if there is no valid will
- An initial letter of advice recording the details of our meeting and an overview of how we will progress your case
- Liaising with any bank, building society or asset holder to establish all required financial information to enable us to obtain the Grant
- Obtaining formal share and property valuations
- Preparation of the required Legal Statement
- Assisting you to arrange for the Oath to be sworn in the presence of an independent solicitor
- Preparation, completion and submission of HM Revenue & Customs Inheritance Tax Forms
- Preparing estate accounts
- Advising on and dealing with any IHT (Inheritance Tax) allowances or exemptions
- Payment of IHT
- Submitting your application for the Grant of Probate or Letters of Administration and dealing with any queries raised by the Probate Registry
- Receiving and approving the Grant of Probate or Letters of Administration
- Settling any estate liabilities
- Collecting the estate assets and distributing them
How much does this service cost?
In addition to the costs involved in obtaining a Grant of Probate or Letters of Administration, all additional work will be charged on a timed basis in accordance with the following charging rates:-
Partner or Consultant – £275 per hour
Solicitor – £200 per hour
We anticipate that a full estate administration should take between 10 – 50 hours work, although the amount of work required will depend on a range of factors including the nature and extent of the estate, the number of beneficiaries, assets and liabilities and taxation matters.
Are there likely to be any additional legal costs?
If there are any complex, unforeseen or time consuming matters involved it may be necessary to revise our charges. Examples of some issues which may require an additional charge are:-
- Registering the death
- Arranging a funeral
- There is a dispute or contested estate
- Business or agricultural property
- Private company shareholdings
- Foreign assets
- Rare or particularly specialised assets
- Complex taxation matters
- Property title difficulties
- Transfer of investments
- Deeds of Variation
- Disclaimer or renunciation of executors
- Trusts
- Complex intestacy estates
If the estate involves large and complicated transactions and contracts or if a Partner or Solicitor with the firm is appointed to act as an Executor, a fee additional to our hourly charging rate is levied at 1% of the value of the transaction and/or estate. This is based on Law Society guidelines and intended to reflect the care, skill and specialist knowledge involved in the matter and the risk and importance.
Additional expenses
In addition to our above-mentioned costs, there may be additional expenses (Disbursements) required to be paid to third parties. We handle the payment of the disbursements on your behalf to ensure a smoother process. Examples of the usual form of additional expenses are:-
- Probate application fee of £273 if the value of the estate exceeds £5,000. There is no fee if the value of the estate is £5,000 or less.
- Additional copies of the Grant of Probate or Letters of Administration – £1.50 per copy
- Bankruptcy Search fee -only Land Charges Department searches – £2 per beneficiary
- £75.90 Post in The London Gazette – this is required to protect against unexpected claims from unknown creditors
- £72.52 to post notice in a local newspaper (Please note that this cost is for a notice to be placed in the Wirral Globe and the cost may vary) – this also helps to protect against unexpected claims
- Land Registry Search fee on a registered property – £3
How long will the process take?
This will very much depend on the nature and extent of the estate. Typically, obtaining a Grant of Probate or Letters of administration normally takes between 3 – 12 months. Collecting assets then follows, which can take between 2 – 4 months. Once this has been done, we can distribute the assets, which normally takes 1 month.