Probate FEES

If you are the executor or administrator of a large, complex estate consisting of multiple assets and investments, BKL can reduce your administrative burden. Provided by BKL Probate LLP, our probate specialists can support you through every stage of probate, including:

• Listing and valuing the estate’s assets, including joint assets – bank accounts, investments and property
• Listing and quantifying the estate’s debts – credit cards, utility bills and loans
• Applying for probate (if there is a valid will which names executors) or Letters of Administration (if there is not)
• Preparing and filing the inheritance tax return
• Collecting the assets of the estate
• Settling the debts of the estate
• Preparing a detailed estate account showing monies received and paid and proposing a distribution of the estate to the beneficiaries for their approval
• Distributing the estate monies to the beneficiaries

Our tax and wealth management specialists can provide the advice you need on:

• Personal tax – if you have inherited income-generating assets
• Investments – if you have inherited a lump sum
• Term life insurance – if you need to arrange extra financial protection for your children until they are 18 or 21

To help you ensure that your family receive the greatest benefit from your estate, we can:

• Advise you on estate planning and inheritance tax
• Write your will to reflect that advice
• Act as executor or administrator
• Provide probate services and distribute your estate to the beneficiaries

For more information or help from one of our tax specialists, please contact us using our enquiry form below.

Probate fees

The information below is supplementary to the details on our probate services page. Our charges for administering an estate are calculated on a time basis. We do not charge based on the value of the estate. Our current hourly rates for the employees who would typically be involved are:

• Senior: £175 plus VAT
• Manager: £230 plus VAT
• Director: £615 plus VAT
• Partner: £620 plus VAT

Below we provided an approximate indication of our likely fees by categorising probate work as basic, complex or very complex.

Basic cases

These would typically be characterised as:

• No inheritance tax (IHT)
• A maximum of two beneficiaries
• A maximum of five bank accounts
• Few dividend holdings
• No intangible or business assets
• No potentially exempt transfers or gifts out of income

Our fees for this type of estate would usually be in the range of £8,000 plus VAT to £12,000 plus VAT. 

In very simple cases, fees may be in the range of £4,500 to £8,000 plus VAT. 

Complex cases

These would typically be characterised as:

• IHT to pay
• Multiple beneficiaries
• Multiple bank accounts
• Multiple investments
• Multiple properties
• Life assurance policies
• Potentially exempt transfers
• Gifts out of income
• Business property

Our fees for this type of estate would usually be in the range of £12,000 plus VAT to £24,000 plus VAT.

Very complex cases

These cases would involve most of the aspects of complex cases plus multiple high value assets, foreign assets and probate, Lloyd’s underwriters, and estate accounts. Our fees for that would be in excess of £24,000 plus VAT. Unfortunately, we cannot provide a cap as such cases can sometimes take years to finalise.

Disbursements

Disbursements such as probate court fees and other third-party costs would be additional to the fees quoted above.

Additional services

We are also able to offer additional services such as:

• Estate accounts
• Estate administration (i.e. arranging settlement of the debts of an estate and distributing the bequests)
• Executor bank accounts
• Resealing foreign grants

Prices for our estate planning services are available on request. We do not deal with contentious probate. If a case that we are dealing with becomes contentious, we would bring in lawyers to resolve the position, before recommencing work. Such costs would of course be additional.