Our Prepaid Probate Packages

Most estates typically take around 6 to 9 months for beneficiaries to receive their inheritance. It can be shorter on a small estate with no property and significantly longer on complex estates or where no Will is in place, known as dying intestate.

The probate registry fee needs to be paid up front in order to obtain the grant of probate. The Executor usually pays it, this along with any other fees and debts can be reimbursed from the estate. All debts should be reimbursed prior to assets being distributed to ensure the Executor does not end up footing the bill for probate.

If you take out a prepaid probate plan with us, you pay a single fixed fee for the process of obtaining the grant of probate and the administration of your estate. The current probate application fee is £155 if made by a solicitor or £215 if made by an individual. This is paid out of the estate by the executors of the Will. It is paid as an up front disbursement fee at the time of sending the application for the grant of probate, but reimbursed out of the estate funds once they are ready to distribute. All disbursements are paid out of the estate. Most banks offer probate and estate administration services at the time of death. These are usually charged on a percentage of the estate value and can be significantly higher.

There are a couple of reasons. Firstly, we get some elderly applicants who wish to proceed to purchase from us, but they have lower estate values. Because our pricing is based on age, with lower estate values, it is cheeper to use a solicitor charging a percentage of the estate. In these circumstances we are unhappy taking payment where it would be cheaper to proceed elsewhere. Secondly, if we know the value of your estate, we can give you a direct comparison of what a typical solicits cost would be against our age related fixed cost. You can then see just how competitive our fees are. Finally, if we spot that you have an inheritance tax problem, we do not want your beneficiaries to end up paying 40% tax unnecessarily. With your consent, we would introduce you to a fabulous firm who have some great IHT solutions.

Yes, you can do probate yourself. You will be responsible for all the paperwork which includes legal, financial and tax. You will also be responsible for administering the estate and ensuring beneficiaries receive according to the Will. Some people find it too time-consuming and complex so seek assistance from probate specialists.

We can re-write a simple Will naming our professional Executors, at our expense. They will be contacted at the time and will take over probate. If you do already have a Will in place please discuss this with our experts and we'll advise you individually.

The government announced there would be changes to probate fees, with some seeing a large hike. However, the changes have been delayed with no future date in place for review. Correct as of April 2020.

Whilst the job of obtaining a grant of probate is time consuming and complex, our probate specialists are super efficient. But the trick is to be completely organised in advance. To start the probate process, we need the will, all account numbers for savings, banks, insurances, utilities, lists of all assets, contact details of executors and beneficiaries and numerous other things. We make it easy for you to store/supply all these things, which saves weeks off the usual time it takes your loved ones to discover all this information. Getting all this info ahead of death makes sure that no assets are lost or forgotten and if things need to be done to simplify matters, there is the time to do it whist you are here. In reality, the whole probate industry has been over charging for far too long. You just do not need to be paying a solicitor £250-£300 per hour (including VAT) or paying a percentage of the value of your estate. The bulk of the work is simply administration, with the specialist legal and accountancy part only accounting for a small amount of time. Our professional probate practitioners can read and understand even the most complex of wills. They are familiar with all the difficult HMRC and court application forms as well as being experienced in managing the expectations of the most demanding of beneficiaries.

Funds are held by independent trustees until the grant of probate is needed. We nominate a professional probate practitioner from the outset to your case and you are notified of which firm has been nominated. However if the firm ceases to trade, you don’t need to worry. The trustees have complete power to appoint your case to a different probate lawyer.