Our specialist private client services
If you’re 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.
Our probate fees: click here for details
The information below is supplementary to the details above. 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: £120-185 plus VAT
- Manager: £230-265 plus VAT
- Director: £370-550 plus VAT
- Partner: £650-1,325 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.
Making a complaint
We are committed to providing a high-quality service. If you are dissatisfied with any aspect of our probate or estate administration work, please let us know.
Our complaints partner for probate work is Ryan Bevan. You can contact him on +44 (0)29 2130 2131 or by email at [email protected].
You may raise a complaint whether you are a current, former or prospective client, or a personal representative, beneficiary or other person directly affected by our services.
Please let us know if you require any reasonable adjustments, including in relation to language or accessibility.”
We will acknowledge your complaint within five business days of receipt and aim to provide a full response within eight weeks. If we require more time, we will explain why and keep you informed of progress.
We keep a record of complaints and use this information to improve our services.
Legal Ombudsman
If we do not resolve your complaint within the timescales above, or if you remain dissatisfied with our response, you may be able to refer the matter to the Legal Ombudsman (LeO).
The Legal Ombudsman deals with complaints about the quality of service provided by legal service providers.
The Legal Ombudsman normally expects complaints to be raised with us first so that we have the opportunity to resolve the issue.
The time limits for referring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman are:
- No later than six years from the date of the act or omission; or
- Three years from the date you should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint; and
- Within six months of our final written response.
Contact details for the Legal Ombudsman:
- Telephone: 0300 555 0333
- Email: [email protected]
- Post: Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ
ICAEW
BKL Probate LLP is authorised and regulated by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).
You may also have the right to complain to the ICAEW as our regulator. The ICAEW primarily deals with complaints relating to professional conduct rather than the quality of service.
Further information about how to complain to the ICAEW can be found on their website.
ICAEW Probate Compensation Scheme
In the unlikely event that we cannot meet our liabilities to you, you may be able to seek a grant from the ICAEW’s Probate Compensation Scheme.
Applications to the scheme should normally be made within 12 months of the date you became aware (or reasonably ought to have become aware) of the loss.
Further information about the scheme, including eligibility criteria, is available on the ICAEW website.
Professional indemnity
Our professional indemnity insurer is
Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance Limited,
St. Mark’s Court, Chart Way,
Horsham, West Sussex, RH12 1XL.
The territorial coverage is worldwide excluding professional business carried out from an office in the United States of America or Canada.
ICAEW Probate Diversity Survey
A snapshot of BKL’s diversity
Both ICAEW and BKL are committed to the promotion of diversity, equality and inclusion in all areas of our work. Since the last survey for ICAEW, BKL has started collating its own diversity data and sharing a report. We, therefore, anticipated we may see less engagement with this particular survey.
The key takeaways are:
- Over 8% of respondents are from non-white ethnic groups
- Our gender-balance currently is weighted towards having more male or male identifying employees (52.5%)
- “No religion” constitutes the largest group when questioned on their faith
- 67% are under 45, with specifically 45% being under 35
- 17% consider themselves to be neurodivergent
- 17% have caring responsibilities.
We also recognise that between 2-7% of respondents selected “prefer not to say” on any given question. This represents an opportunity for us to continue to build a more inclusive culture where all our people feel comfortable sharing the many facets of their diversity.
Find out more in our ICAEW Probate Survey results for 2025.
