Probate and estate administration
Help for executors after a death, priced three ways — a fixed-fee review of what actually needs doing, support with the parts you would rather not handle, or the wider administration handled for you.
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What it costs
- Executor & Estate Review
- £195
- Estate Administration Support
- Quoted for the work agreed
- Comprehensive Estate Administration
- From £2,500
Quoted in writing before you commit to anything. The first phone call is free, and there's no travel charge for coming out to you anywhere in Kent and East Sussex.
Right for you if: you have been named executor, or you are the person the family has turned to, and you are not sure where to begin.
Probate arrives at the worst possible moment. Somebody has died, and within a fortnight the person closest to it is holding a folder of paperwork, a list of institutions to notify, and a set of decisions nobody has ever explained to them.
The first thing worth knowing is that the amount of help you need is probably less than you fear, and it is certainly not an all-or-nothing choice. That’s why this is priced three ways.
Who applies for the Grant
Worth saying at the outset, because it shapes all three tiers below.
Where a Grant of Probate is required, the executor makes the application directly to HMCTS as a personal applicant. Preparing a probate application for somebody else is a reserved legal activity under the Legal Services Act 2007, and I am not authorised to do it or to charge for it. What I can do is give you practical guidance around the process — what the application will ask for, what has to be settled with HMRC first, and what the Grant is needed for once it arrives — and carry on with the wider administration of the estate before and after it is issued.
The application fee is paid by you direct to the Probate Registry. It is a disbursement, not part of my fee, and it doesn’t pass through me.
Executor and estate review
The sensible first step, and for a good number of families the only step.
I read the will, go through what the estate consists of, and give you a clear written account of where you stand: whether a grant is needed at all, what each organisation holding an asset is going to ask for, what the deadlines are, whether inheritance tax is in play, and the order in which to tackle it.
People come out of this in one of three places. Some find no grant is needed and they can deal with everything themselves in an afternoon of phone calls. Some find they can run the administration but want help with one or two pieces. Some find the estate is more than they want to take on. All three are fine outcomes — and it costs a great deal less to find out which you are before instructing anyone to do the work.
Estate administration support
For the executor who is running the administration themselves and wants help with specific parts of it.
That might be preparing the inheritance tax account, valuing assets, corresponding with a particular institution that has gone quiet, drawing up estate accounts, talking you through the Grant application you’ll be making yourself, or simply having somebody at the end of the phone when something unexpected turns up — which, in probate, it usually does.
The exact work and the fee are agreed in writing before I start, and if the job turns out to need something beyond that, I’ll tell you what’s involved and what it adds before doing any of it.
One condition worth stating plainly: where I’m preparing estate accounts without having run the whole administration, they can only be as accurate as the information I’m given. I rely on you as executor to tell me everything that has happened in the estate — every asset, every payment in and out, every distribution already made.
Comprehensive estate administration
Everything the administration involves except the Grant application itself, which stays with you as executor.
Registering the death with banks, pension providers, utilities and the rest. Valuing the estate — property, accounts, investments, chattels, and any lifetime gifts that have to be brought into account. Preparing and submitting the inheritance tax account to HMRC, whether or not tax is actually due. Guidance through the Grant application you make to HMCTS as a personal applicant. Dealing with HMRC on any tax that arises during the administration. Calling in the assets, settling the liabilities, taking the protective steps that guard you as executor, and distributing to the beneficiaries with a proper set of estate accounts at the end.
Quoted as a fixed figure once I know what’s involved, with the scope written down so you can see what is and isn’t included. Probate registry fees and any inheritance tax are payable separately, to HMCTS and HMRC rather than to me.
What I don’t charge
A percentage of the estate.
It’s the standard way this work is priced, and around Kent and East Sussex it’s a poor deal, because it charges you for the value of a house rather than for the work an estate actually requires. An estate with one property and three bank accounts is not four times the work of an estate with one property and no savings, but a percentage will bill it that way. The percentage is also, very often, charged plus hourly fees for the executor work — which means the figure you agree at the outset is not the figure you pay at the end.
If you’re comparing quotes with a solicitor, that’s the question worth asking: does the hourly charge sit inside the percentage or alongside it? The answer usually tells you everything.
How it runs
A free phone call first, so you can describe the estate without committing to anything, and I can tell you honestly which of the three tiers fits. There’s no travel charge for coming out to you anywhere in Kent and East Sussex, and I’ll come as often as the family needs while the estate is being administered — kitchen table, cup of tea, paperwork spread out between us, which is a considerably better setting for this than a solicitor’s meeting room.
Probate is also the one service I don’t ask to be paid for in advance. We agree at the outset how and when the fee is settled, normally out of the estate as the administration proceeds.
Common questions
Do I always need probate?
No. It depends on what the assets are, how they were owned and what the organisations holding them require. Property owned as joint tenants passes automatically to the survivor without a grant. Banks and building societies each set their own threshold below which they'll release funds on a death certificate alone. A good number of estates need no grant at all — which is exactly why the first thing I sell is a review rather than an administration.
Do you apply for the grant on my behalf?
No, and it's important you know that before you instruct anyone. Preparing a probate application is a reserved legal activity under the Legal Services Act 2007, which means only an authorised person may do it for somebody else or charge a fee for it. Where a Grant of Probate is required, the executor makes the application directly to HMCTS as a personal applicant. I can give you practical guidance around the process, and I carry on with the wider administration of the estate before and after the Grant is issued. The application fee is paid by you to the Probate Registry as a disbursement — it isn't part of my fee and it doesn't pass through me.
Why don't you charge a percentage of the estate?
Because a percentage charges you for the value of the house rather than the work the estate needs. Two estates of identical value can take wildly different amounts of work, and the one with a single property and three bank accounts should not subsidise the one with a business and a missing beneficiary. Percentage pricing also tends to arrive with hourly fees on top, which means nobody can tell you the final figure when you agree to it. I quote a fixed fee for the work we agree, in writing, before it starts.
How long does it all take?
Longer than most families expect. The probate registry has been running to several months for a straightforward application, and longer where inheritance tax is involved, because HMRC has to be satisfied before a grant is issued. Add the time to gather valuations first and to sell any property afterwards. Six to twelve months is common for an estate with a house in it, and very little of that is within anyone's control.
What is an executor personally liable for?
More than most people realise, which is the real reason to take this seriously. An executor is personally responsible for paying the right tax, paying the right people, and not distributing to beneficiaries before the estate's liabilities are met. Distribute early and a creditor or an overlooked beneficiary can come after you rather than the money. There are protective steps — statutory notices, the right searches, a proper set of estate accounts — and knowing which apply to your estate is part of what the review is for.
The person died without a will. Can you still help?
Yes. Without a will the estate passes under the rules of intestacy and the person who applies is an administrator rather than an executor, taking out letters of administration instead of a grant of probate. The order of who is entitled to apply, and who inherits, is fixed by statute rather than by choice — which is frequently not what the family assumed. The practical work afterwards is much the same.
Not sure whether this is what you need?
That's what the first phone call is for. It's free, there's no obligation, and if something else would serve you better I'll tell you so.