The administration of an estate involves the collection and distribution of money, property and other assets belonging to a person following their death where these are held in the United Kingdom.
We will advise you of the steps involved and then either guide you through the process or carry out the administration on your behalf. The period following bereavement can be a difficult time and we can take the administration burden away from the deceased’s personal representatives. The fees involved are directly based on the amount of work carried out by us.
Our current rates and timescales are:
Charge rate of £240.00 per hour
Routine letters/email sent and telephone calls at £24.00 per item
Routine letters/email received at £24.00 per item
Where required, travel/waiting time £240.00 per hour
Telephone calls over six minutes in duration will be charged in the same way as attendances
Vat is currently set at a rate of 20%.
Generally where the instructions are limited to proving the Will and extracting the appropriate grant of probate we would estimate that it would take no more than six months to conclude the matter. We would estimate that the fees involved excluding vat would be in the range of £1,000 to £2,000.
Where our instructions go beyond this and we administer the estate to the point of final distribution the process can be considerably longer and take anything between six months and a year. The time taken will depend on the range of assets in the estate and the number of potential beneficiaries. Fees will be in the range of £1,000 to £15,000 in a particularly complex estate. We do not charge a fixed fee nor do we charge a percentage of the estate.
Separate charges may apply if the matter is or becomes contested.
In addition to our fees the likely disbursements are the Probate Court fee of £300 (plus £1.50 per sealed copy); Section 27 Notice Fees £200 approx; HM Land Registry search fees of £3 (per title); HM Land Registry bankruptcy search fees of £2 (per search); copy birth/death/marriage certificate fee £9 - £30 and mileage at £0.70 per mile.
Disbursements arise where a payment is made on behalf of a client to a third party for which reimbursement is subsequently sought from the client.
Our private client manager is responsible for our Wills and Probate department. For more information visit Meet The Team.
