Our team of specialist Wills and Probate lawyers have years of experience dealing with all types of probate services for you and your family.
Losing a loved one is one of the most stressful times in anyone’s life. Don’t just assume that your loved ones will benefit from your Estate. Making a Will is something everyone should do and keep under review. If you die without a valid Will it could be difficult for your family to sort out your affairs. Your Estate will be shared out according to the rules of Intestacy. Under these rules, only married partners, civil partners and certain close relatives can inherit your Estate. If you and your partner are not married or in a civil partnership then your partner won’t have the right to inherit your Estate even if you are living together. It is important to make a Will if you own property, have a business, have children, have savings, investments or insurance policies.
Making a Will without using a Solicitor can result in mistakes or something not being made clear. Mistakes in your Will can even make it invalid.
You will need to think about who your Executors will be. Executors are people named in your Will who will carry out your wishes after you die. They can be family or friends but you should ask them first if they are willing to take on this role as it involves a lot of responsibility. Most people have two Executors but you can have up to four. You should at least have a second Executor in case your main one is unable to act on your behalf.
Your Will is only valid if two witnesses watch you sign it. You must ensure that your Executors know where your Will is kept. We do not charge for storing Wills.
You should keep your Will under review to make sure that it is up to date. This is especially important if your circumstances change, for example:
Our charges start from £200 plus vat for a basic, straight forward Will for one person and £400 plus vat for mirror Wills or in other words two Wills that are almost identical. If you would like to discuss how we can help you then please contact a member of our team.
Should you require any further evidence such as a statement in support of a Will, we charge an additional £50 plus VAT per document.
A Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) is a legal document that lets you appoint one or more people (known as your Attorney’s) to help you make decisions or to make decisions on your behalf.
There are two types of LPA
The Property and Financial Affairs LPA allows you to authorise people to make decisions concerning your assets and personal property.
An LPA for Health and Welfare allows your Attorney’s to make decisions about things such as your daily living routine or moving to a care home. You can also give your Attorney’s the power to provide or withhold consent for life sustaining medical treatment.
When creating an LPA you will need a Certificate Provider to countersign your Application to ensure that you have the mental capacity to make the LPA and that you were not acting under any pressure or undue influence. Provided that this is the case and we have prepared your LPA we are able to act as your Certificate Provider.
Should you wish to discuss LPA’s further please do not hesitate to contact a member of our team.
Probate Pricing
The fees involved in a probate matter can vary and this will depend on the individual circumstances involved.
We offer both fixed fees and an hourly charging rate, whereby you will be charged for each hour of work undertaken.
Grant of Probate
In order for us to assist you through the difficult process of obtaining a Grant of Representation, we are able to offer a fixed fee. This will involve us completing the appropriate HMRC form and Probate Application, drafting the legal statement for you to sign and making the application to the Probate Court on your behalf. Once the Probate is obtained, we will securely send copies to you.
Fixed fees where the IHT205 form is required: £750 + VAT
Should you require us to obtain date of death figures on your behalf OR should there be no Will, we would estimate that this would take another 2 hours’ worth of work and therefore we would estimate our costs to be between £750 - £1,200 + VAT. Please note that these fees do not include the situation in which the estate must complete a IHT400 and quotes will be given for this on an individual basis.
Full Administration of Estate
Should you require us to obtain the necessary Grant of Representation and then deal with the estate in full, we calculate our charges based on the time spent. Separately, should the gross estate be worth more than £750,000 we may apply a value element to our costs. This is calculated as 1% of the gross value.
Should we be appointed as Executors and the gross estate is over £750,000, this value element may be up to 1.5%.
Disbursements payable
Probate Court fee: £273
Cost of copies of the original Grant of Probate/ Letters of Administration: £1.50 a copy
Creditors Notices/Local Newspapers and the London Gazette: £300 - £400 approx.
Land Registry fee which depends on the value of any property ranging from: £30 - £400
Land Registry Search fees: £3.00
Land Charges Search against each Beneficiary: £2.00
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Claire completed her training with Meikles and qualified as a solicitor in 2000...
Lyanne qualified as a solicitor in 1996 and deals with a wide range of legal issues ...
Lucy joined the Private client department of Meikles in April 2023, having qualified...
