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Estate Administration - Pricing Information

When someone dies, it is necessary to establish who has the legal right to administer their estate. Freeths offer a variety of detailed information guides, including your duties as an estate administrator.

Estate administration - pricing information

Dealing with an estate when someone has died can be daunting and it can be difficult to know where to start. At Freeths, we have a great deal of experience in advising and supporting people with the administration of estates and liaising with family and friends to ensure that the deceased’s wishes are carried out.

Peace of mind

You may have concerns about the costs of administering an estate. With this in mind, we provide a flexible administration service at competitive rates.

Expert understanding and supportive guidance

The administration of an estate can be highly confusing and time consuming. To help you get the process started, we will provide you with a free, no-obligation 30 minute consultation with one of our lawyers during which we can discuss with you what an administration involves and your responsibilities. This meeting will also help identify whether there are any unusual aspects to the administration, upon which you may need specific advice.

Our specialist probate team forms part of our UK top ranked Private Client Services department. So, rest assured, the lawyer assigned to help you will have the experience and knowledge to make the administration of the estate less daunting.

We provide practical legal assistance tailored to your needs, which allows you to decide how much or how little you would like us to do.

The administration

Every estate administration is different, and we tailor our service to the requirements of each estate. Our charges are based on the time we spend dealing with an administration. Because every estate is so different, it is not possible in a guide such as this to say exactly what our charges will be for any given estate. However to help you understand the likely costs that might be charged, we have envisaged three possible levels of complexity that an estate administration might bring so as to give you some perspective. Costs for estates in dispute or subject to legal proceedings are priced separately. We can provide a full estimate specific to your case on request.

Before starting work for you, we will provide a detailed letter setting out our costs estimate for the specific estate.

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Costs

The basis of our charges

Our fees are based on the hourly rates of the specialist probate lawyers who carry out the work during the estate administration. You will be advised of the lawyers who will be acting for you and their hourly rate at the outset of your matter. Our letter of engagement with you will set out the full details of our charges for the estate that you ask us to administer.

Other expenses

There are fees that must also be paid during the administration. The usual disbursements and expenses will include the following:

  • inserting s27 Trustee Act 1925 notices in a local newspaper and The London Gazette: approximately £200.00 – £250.00;
  • Land Registry search fee for register entries: £3.60 per entry;
  • bankruptcy search fees:  £2.40 for each beneficiary;
  • HM Courts & Tribunals Service fee for issue of the Grant of Probate: £300; and
  • HM Courts & Tribunals Service fee for sealed copies of the Grant of Probate: £1.50 per copy.

These disbursements are levied by third parties and may change without notice.

Additional costs

The examples given above do not include all of the work that might be encountered in the administration of the estate. Any work that falls outside of the estimate contained in our letter of engagement with you will be charged at our hourly rates and will be agreed with you in advance. By way of example, this may include:

  • arranging the funeral;
  • tracing missing beneficiaries and executors and dealing with attorney grant applications and applications for Letters of Administration with Will Annexed;
  • missing wills;
  • applications for emergency grants ad colligenda bona or grants of probate de bonis non.
  • dealing with a person’s digital estate and online assets;
  • dealing with the distributions of chattels when this is not dealt with by the family;
  • calculation of inheritance tax on lifetime gifts including claims for normal expenditure out of income relief and taper relief;
  • advice on capital gains tax issues during the administration and mitigation steps prior to sale / distribution of assets;
  • inheritance tax planning including preparation of  deeds of variation;
  • advising about the constitution or management of trusts created by the will;
  • completion of tax returns both to the date of death and for the period of the administration (please ask for our guide and price list); and
  • the interaction of a deceased’s estate with trusts of which they might have been a settlor, protector or beneficiary in their lifetime.

If you require any of these services or would like us to help you obtain a grant of probate or administration only we will give you an estimate of costs before these are incurred.

Meet the team

Louise Lewis's Profile

Louise Lewis

Partner & National Head of Trusts, Estates and Tax Team

Lisa Mark-Bell's Profile

Lisa Mark-Bell

Director & Joint Head of Oxford Trusts, Estates and Tax Team

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Whatever your legal needs, our wide ranging expertise is here to support you and your business, so let’s start your legal journey today and get you in touch with the right lawyer to get you started.

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