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Wills & Probate Fees

All costs are subject to VAT which is currently at 20%.

Qualifications and experience

Any of our lawyers who will work on your case are qualified solicitors and have experience of not less than 3-5 years if not more in Wills and Probate Law.

In some cases, our paralegals will liaise with you in relation to the mechanics of your case and will provide a support role, however, only qualified solicitors will be advising you and dealing with the day to day interaction with your employers and/or their solicitors.  We are happy at any time to clarify our costs or any of the below. 

Wills & Probate Costs

Single Will                                                                          £500 plus VAT of £100.

Mirror Will                                                                         £650 plus VAT of £130.

Will with a life interest (single)*                               £750 plus VAT of £150.

Will with a life interest (mirror)*                              £850 plus VAT of £170.

Depending on your personal circumstances and instructions, the following list includes additional fees which may be added to our fees:

 

Registering your Will with ‘Certainty’                     £50 plus VAT of £10.

(Certainty is the national Will register endorsed by the Law Society which is the largest independent organisation to register Wills with a service to search Wills on their vast database.

 

By registering your Will at Certainty, you have the peace of mind that you Will is recorded. It can also be searched in the event the original is lost or family members are unsure whether you had one. There are plenty of other benefits, which our Solicitors can highlight).

 

Letters to third parties i.e. doctor’s mental–        £100 plus VAT of £10.

 capacity assessment    

 

Home/Hospital visit                                                       £100 – £200 plus VAT (depending on distance)

Expedited Service                                                            £100 – £200 plus VAT (depending on urgency)

 

Our Service and Estimated Time scales

BONUS – With Oliver Fisher Solicitors, you’re not just getting a Will- in fact in the process, our experienced Solicitors will review you your inheritance tax exposure based on your circumstances now and will discuss ways to reduce liabilities arising from tax.

DOUBLE BONUS – We offer a FREE will storage at our premises. We will never charge you a fee for the storage; no matter how long it is stored!

Your instructions will include a minimum of two meetings. The first involves taking your instructions, including the executors you wish to appoint, money gifts you wish to make to individuals or charities etc. Upon the finalisation of your instructions, the initial meeting is followed by a draft Will for your approval within 7 working days. Once you are happy with your Will, a second meeting is arranged for you to attend the office to sign the Will.

Providing we have all of your instructions, we estimate that the preparation of your Will from the initial meeting to executing the Will to be between 1 and 3 weeks.

*(Please contact us for enquiries with regards to Trust and we would be happy to discuss this with you)

 

LASTING POWER OF ATTORNEY (LPA)

 

An LPA is a legal document which allows an individual (known as the ‘Donor’) to appoint someone else (known as the ‘Attorney’) to make decisions and/or manage their affairs on their behalf. An LPA is a powerful document. There are 2 types of LPAs; one that deals with health and welfare decisions and the second that deal with property and financial decisions. Examples which cover the health and welfare LPA are choosing care given to the Donor, which care home to admit the Donor or most importantly, whether you authorise your Attorneys to make a decision in respect of life-sustaining medical treatment. Examples which cover the property and financial LPA are making payments from the Donor’s bank accounts, signing legal documents, making decisions in respect of investments etc.

All LPAs must be registered with the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) in order to use them.

 

Our Fees

LPA for single person – 1 type of LPA                       £500 plus VAT of £100 and registration fee

LPA for single person – both types of LPA              £800 plus VAT of £160 and registration fee

LPAs for a couple – both types of LPAs                    £1,350 plus VAT of £270 and registration fee

Depending on your personal circumstances and instructions, the following list includes additional fees which may be added to our fees:

Letters to third parties i.e. doctor’s statement    £100 plus VAT of £20

Home/hospital visit                                                         £100 – £200 plus VAT (depending on distance)

Expedited Service                                                            £100 – £200 plus VAT (depending on urgency)

In addition to our fees stated above, there is a registration fee payable to the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) which is £82 per LPA.  This fee may be either reduced or exempt in certain circumstances.

Our Service and Estimated Timescales

Your instructions may require two meetings. The first meeting involves taking your instructions which includes for example, who you wish to appoint as your Attorney(s). The second meeting involves signing the forms, which is subject to strict rules. Depending on your instructions, we estimate that your matter will take between 1 – 2 weeks from taking your instructions and completing the LPA forms. The LPA forms are promptly submitted after the second meeting and there is a statutory waiting period of up to 6 weeks by the OPG. Overall, we estimate to have the registered LPA within 3 months of submitting the same, providing the OPG do not raise any queries.

 

WILL AND LPA – DISCOUNTED OFFER

In an ideal world everyone should have a Will and an LPA in place. Afterall, if you are making provisions for your assets after you pass away (i.e., a Will), it only makes sense to exercise the same measure of precaution and cover yourself during your lifetime  by having an LPA and vice versa.

We therefore have a discounted package offer as follows:

Will + 1 LPA                                                        £950 plus VAT of £190.

Will + both LPAs                                               £1,100 plus VAT of £220.

Mirror Wills   + 1 LPA each                            £1,300 plus VAT of £260.

Mirror Wills + both LPAs each                     £1,600 plus VAT of £320.

 

DEPUTYSHIP

 

If you have lost mental capacity through an illness, injury or accident and you do not have an LPA in place, the Deputyship route applies.

In this case, your next of kin or any other relevant individual must apply to become a Deputy of the person who has lost mental capacity (the Donee). This requires completing several forms in detail and applying for a Deputyship Order at the Court of Protection. Just like an LPA, there are two types of Deputyship Orders to apply – one that deals with welfare and the other for property and financial matters.

If the Deputyship Order is granted for property affairs, the Deputy is required to pay in a ‘security bond’. This is a type of insurance that protects the finances of the Donee.

Our team of experienced Solicitors will act for you from the initial meeting to submitting the forms to the Court of Protection on your behalf.

Our Fees

Deputyship – one type                                   £1,800 plus VAT of £360.

Deputyship- both types                                 £2,000 plus VAT of £400.

Depending on your personal circumstances and instructions, the following list includes additional fees which may be added to our fees:

Letters to third parties i.e. doctor’s statement    £100 plus VAT of £20.

Home/hospital visit                                                         £100 – £200 plus VAT (depending on distance)

Expedited Service                                                            £100 – £200 plus VAT (depending on urgency)

In addition to our fees stated above, there is a registration fee payable to the Court of Protection which is £365 per Deputyship form.  This fee may be either reduced or exempt in certain circumstances.

PROBATE (Non-Contentious)

 

Our Fees

We want to be up front with our fees and in a bid to simplify this, please see below our estimated fees for probate matters:

TYPE OF PROBATE WORK INVOLVED  OUR FEES ESTIMATED TIME SCALES
 

Simple

 

 

 

 

A simple estate typically involves:

 

–          couple of assets and beneficiaries;

–          Preparing an IHT 205 tax return;

–          Applying for the Grant of Probate

 

 

 

We estimate our fees to be between £2,500 and £4,000 plus VAT plus third -party costs.

 

 

 

We estimate this stage to take between 6 weeks and 3 months.

 

 

Factors which may affect the time-scale are whether the estate valuations are provided to us, whether claiming exemption and reliefs is applicable, e.g.: Transferable Nil Rate Band from predeceased spouse, dealing with enquiries raised by HMRC.

 

 

Average

 

 

An average estate typically involves:

 

–          Everything as above;

–          At least 5 assets including at least one property;

–          At least 5 beneficiaries;

–          Preparing an IHT 400 tax return and schedules;

–          Applying for the Grant of Probate

–          Calculating and paying inheritance tax ;

–          Advising on Capital Gains Tax on sale of the property

 

 

 

 

 

We estimate our fees to be between £4,000 – £12,000 plus VAT plus third -party costs.

 

 

 

We estimate this stage to take between 6 weeks and 9 months.

 

Factors which may affect the time-scale are when the poperty(ies) sell.

 

Complex

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A complex estate typically involves:

 

–          Everything as above;

–          More than 5 assets, including properties;

–          More than 5 beneficiaries;

–          The firm is the executor;

–          Obtaining valuations for specialist/unusual assets;

 

 

We estimate our fees to start from at least £15,000 plus VAT and third- party costs with no upper limit.

 

 

We estimate this stage to take between 6 months and 2 years.

 

Factors which may affect the time-scale are when the poperty(ies) sell.

 

                               

Probate services not included in our fee structure

Whilst administering an estate is broadly the same, certain elements can vary the process from one probate matter to another. These factors can have a big impact on the time scale and requires additional work. If this is relevant in your probate matter, we will highlight this to you in the earliest opportunity and also discuss our fees for the additional work. Please note the following inexhaustive list which sets out extra elements of services which are not included in our fixed fee structure in probate matter:

  • Number of beneficiaries (legatee or residuary legatee) to make distributions;
  • Missing original Will;
  • Missing beneficiaries;
  • Sale of property(ies);
  • Overseas assets (e.g.: obtaining valuation or sale) or any foreign element involved;
  • Deed of Variation or any other form of estate planning;
  • Creating a Trust out of the Will and registering the same with HMRC;
  • All contentious nature of work (including executor clients not providing unanimous instructions)

Disbursments 

The likely disbursements not included in our fee structure to be incurred are as set out below:

Disbursements are costs related to your matter that are payable to third parties which we handle on your behalf.

  • Probate Court fee £273.00
  • Sealed copies of the Grant – £1.50 per copy
  • Bankruptcy search (per person) £ 2.00
  • Bank transfer fee (per transfer) £ 40.00
  • VAT on bank transfer (per transfer) £ 8.00
  • Statutory notice (approx. per notice) £200.00

Examples of cases

  1. In the administration of the estate of the late Mrs W, Oliver Fisher dealt with an equity release charge on a property. We also advised the executor in claiming the Transferable Nil Rate Band of the deceased’s predeceased spouse as well as the newly introduced Residential Nil Rate Band. Claiming these exemptions resulted in a total of £850,000 saving in the IHT liability.

 

  1. In the administration of the estate of Mr X, the deceased gave considerable legacies to charities. Oliver Fisher accordingly advised the executor that this resulted in 10% of the net estate going to charities and therefore claiming the reduced IHT rate of 36% instead of 40%, resulting in a savings of £35,000 in IHT.

 

  1. In the administration of the estate of Miss Y there was a missing beneficiary and Oliver Fisher worked with tracing agents in both the UK and Canada to trace her. They also worked with lawyers in Australia to collect in assets she owned there so they could be distributed with her estate.

 

  1. In the administration of the estate of Mrs Z who was domiciled in Spain. Oliver Fisher prepared the appropriate documents so that probate could be issued in this country and the assets she held here and in the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man could be collected and distributed.