Solicitor costs

43 Posts

Hi all,
Just looking for some ideas of costs for solicitors to deal with my parents estate. We lost both of them last year.
We will need probate as the total estate is circa £1.3m to £1.4m. There are quite a few bank accounts, investments and pensions involved. The house is in a discretionary trust but I'm not sure if that covers just the first death or both.
If it makes a difference we are in the Midlands.
Just looking for some ideas of costs for solicitors to deal with my parents estate. We lost both of them last year.
We will need probate as the total estate is circa £1.3m to £1.4m. There are quite a few bank accounts, investments and pensions involved. The house is in a discretionary trust but I'm not sure if that covers just the first death or both.
If it makes a difference we are in the Midlands.
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Depends on the complexity and how much work is involved.
There are lots of experienced people on this board with experience of administering estates so don’t hesitate to ask questions. Did they both have wills in place?
There is likely to be IHT but there may be options to reduce it.
Nearly 12 months has been lost if they died in 2021.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6404543/executors-account-recommended-required-or-what#latest
Lots of good advice so far .You may have made progress in advising banks, utilities,pensions etc
As a tip, for financial institutions always google the bereavement contact details, which avoids wasted time listening to Greensleeves or similar.In my experience ,waiting times on these numbers is around 5 minutes
My personal view is to work alongside a solicitor if you are dealing with an estate of this size.There is so much you can do yourself, or with a co-executor,but there are also areas such as tax and IHT forms where it is well worth paying to share the load
If you have a will involving trusts I would recommend using a STEP qualified solicitor
We ( three executors) are using an executor bank account set up with the solicitor.This works in our situation, but may not in yours.
In terms of bank accounts and investments I have progressed matters to the point where in each case the next stage is one I can pass to the solicitor.Typically this has been for the solicitor to to arrange transfer of estate funds to the executors' account..We are not finished yet.
We are paying on time rather than fixed fee ,and are dealing with a solicitor in an expensive part of SW London.Estimate for completing probate is £ 6k - 8k on an estate of around £1.6k.
We have a separate quote for distribution, but this is a complicated will involving charities and more than 20 additional beneficiaries.I don't think our pricing around this wold be helpful to you.
Hope this helps.