For any travel on your matter we charge 50% of the person’s hourly rate. We will invoice you for our hourly rate-based charges and any expenses on a monthly basis, which are payable straight away, unless we are undertaking a very high level of work for you, in which case we may submit invoices more frequently.
Expenses
Our day to day office overheads (for example printing and copying) are included in our above charges. Any expenses under £200 (for example Land Registry fees or parking charges) will be paid by us and then added to our invoices. For any expenses over £200 (for example a property valuer) we will normally ask you to pay the expense directly. Whenever we use a barrister, we will ask you to pay their fee to us before it is incurred.
Probate Grants
Not all estates require a grant of probate. Some smaller estates where no house is owned can be dealt with informally using a bank or building society`s internal procedure.
Where a grant is required, whether there is a will or not (an intestacy) the work required is broadly of two types, completing the appropriate Inheritance Tax Return and completing the Oath to be signed by the executors or administrators setting out their entitlement to act and confirming their acceptance of the legal responsibility.
After the grant is obtained, we will complete as much of the administration work as the executors require.
Applying for a Grant of Probate only, where there is a will and no help with administration is required and only a short form tax return is needed (as no tax is payable )will typically cost £900 – £1200 including 20% VAT.
If a long-form tax return is required as tax is due before the grant can be issued, our fees for the whole of this Grant stage will typically be £1,750-£2,000 including 20% VAT.
In both cases the following work will be required:
- checking for the existence and validity of a will or applying the rules of intestacy
- obtaining valuations of estate assets to inform the tax return and oath application
- applying for the grant of probate
- assessing and dealing with any claims on the estate, considering any variations
- liaising with the representatives and beneficiaries to the estate, corresponding with all relevant financial institutions and organisations
- where Inheritance Tax is payable, assisting in the release of funds
If administration support is needed we can:
- gather in the assets using the grant
- transfer any jointly held assets, assist with transferring ISA benefits
- prepare estate accounts and distribute legacies
- complete and file tax returns for the year of death, liaising with accountants if required
- assist with any IHT corrective accounts if assets have increased during the administration, consider Capital Gains Tax with appropriation out where possible, completing the tax return for the administration period
- consider any ongoing responsibilities for executors becoming trustees to give effect to will trusts and for example manage money for children until they become of age
- create final estate accounts
Typically, in the smaller estates the administration phase might involve further fees of £900 including 20% VAT, the larger estates will vary depending on the number and complexity of assets held and could exceed a further £1,440 including 20% VAT.
Obtaining a simple grant can take as little as 12 weeks for our work and for a larger estate this may be 6-9 months. The probate registry response time is officially (as at 2024), 16 weeks and HMRC can require similar time for the tax return to be considered in addition.
The time for the post grant administration period will depend on the extent of the assets and the speed of response of the banks and indeed HMRC. The likely timescale for this part of our work is 2-6 months.
The fees that may be payable to other organisations include
- Probate Fees paid to Court £273 (no VAT)
- Copy fees per grant £1.50 (no VAT)
- Advertisements for debtors under the Trustee Act: We would estimate these fees at £300 (including 20% VAT) depending on the range of notices required.
- Copy Death Certificate £10 (no VAT)
Other occasional fees may include tracing fees for an individual £90 (inc. 20% VAT), for HMLR records £6 (no VAT), professional valuations for shares from £75 (inc. 20% VAT), replacing lost share certificates from £30 (inc. 20% VAT)
