Wills, Trusts & Probate charges and approximate timescales explained (1 Jan to 31 Dec, 2024)
We understand that the cost of our services will be important to you and we have detailed below our charges for the various types of work you may wish us to undertake.
We will always provide you with written details of our costs where possible before we start the work.
Our quoted charges (including our hourly charges) are current for the year 1st January 2024 to 31st December 2024.
LASTING POWERS OF ATTORNEY (LPA)
We aim to complete the drafting of your Lasting Powers of Attorney within 2 weeks of our receiving your final instructions. If, due to complexity or some other matter, the drafting is likely to take longer we will advise you of this.
If you choose to have your Lasting Powers of Attorney registered, once the Deeds have been signed by all parties we will arrange to submit the same to the Office of the Public Guardian. This process can take 2-3 months from the date of the submission of the application.
- For 1 LPA £571.00
- For 1 Property and Financial Affairs LPA and 1 Welfare LPA for the same person £795.00
- For 1 LPA each for spouses or partners £795.00
- For 1 Property and Affairs LPA and 1 Welfare LPA for each spouse or partner £1,020.00
VAT is added to our costs. The current VAT rate is 20%.
In addition, if you want the Powers to be effective as soon as possible, a registration fee of £82.00 is payable to the Office of the Public Guardian per Lasting Power of Attorney.
COURT OF PROTECTION APPLICATIONS
We aim to complete the drafting of the Court of Protection Application documents within 2 weeks of receiving your final instructions. Some documents are required to be sent to you as the Client for signature, others are required to be sent to relevant professionals (such as the individuals’ registered GP) for completion.
Once the initial application is submitted to the Court of Protection, we would anticipate that it should take no longer than 12 months (to include the Notification of relevant Parties and responding to any queries raised by the Court of Protection) but we will, of course, keep you informed of progress and anything which may cause delays.
Generally the costs of an application to the Court of Protection are payable from the assets of the incapable person
The Court sets fixed costs for certain applications but if the work exceeds the fixed costs the Court will assess the costs to see that they are reasonable. Where appropriate we will agree to accept fixed costs. There are additional payments such as Court fees and we have examples of these below.
Fixed costs: £1204.00
VAT is added to our costs. The current VAT rate is 20%.
Fees etc payable to others: Court Application fee £408.00 (no VAT is payable on this)
WILLS
We aim to complete the drafting of your Wills within 2 weeks of our receiving your final instructions. If, due to complexity or some other matter, the drafting is likely to take longer we will advise you of this.
For most people a simple Will is all that is required and we have given details of the cost for these below. Where a more complex Will is necessary we will agree with you the cost we will charge before we carry out the work.
Single Will £167.00
Mirror Wills (e.g. spouses or partners) £267.00
VAT is added to our costs. The current VAT rate is 20%.
PROBATE
Although it is not possible to give a precise estimate of the time required to conclude matters we would anticipate that it should take no longer than 12 months (to include the 16 weeks estimated by Probate Registry if an application for a Grant of Representation is required to be made) but we will, of course, keep you informed of progress and anything which may cause delays.
We calculate our costs by reference to the time we spend on the matter, for example in dealing with correspondence, telephone calls and emails, preparing forms and having meetings with you and others.
Time calculations are based on units of 6 minutes each so one hour equals 10 units. Generally letters written, telephone calls and emails are charged at one unit, unless they are unusually long.
The hourly rate is £274.00 so one unit is £27.40. However letters received are charged at a reduced rate of £18.00 per item. Short standard letters received (for example acknowledging receipt of documents etc) are not charged.
In addition we also charge a percentage of the value of the estate. We charge 0.5% of the value of the deceased’s house if solely owned. We do not charge for jointly owned property which has passed to the joint owner. We charge 1% of the value of the rest of the estate which is solely owned by the deceased. We do not charge for jointly owned assets which have passed to the joint owner.
VAT is added to our costs. The current VAT rate is 20%.
Because every estate is different we are unable to give an exact cost figure until we have full details of the assets and the terms of the Will. If there are multiple, or complicated assets and multiple beneficiaries, or the Will is complex, our costs will be higher.
Example of charges:
For an estate where there is a valid Will naming three beneficiaries, no disputes or claims arise, there is no Inheritance Tax liability requiring a full HMRC account, which has one solely owned property worth £150,000 and four bank accounts totalling £100,000 we would expect to spend a total of 4 hours working on the matter and receive 10 letters.
This work would include meeting the executor(s) to discuss the estate and how it will be dealt with, obtaining probate values of all of the assets and liabilities, preparing the HMRC short form IHT Return and papers to apply for the Grant of Probate, contacting the beneficiaries, gathering in and selling the assets as required, paying the liabilities, producing estate accounts and having these approved by the executor and beneficiaries, paying any income tax due and distributing the estate.
Our costs are likely to be £3,026.00. VAT is charged on our costs at £605.20 giving a total of £3,621.20.
Disbursements are payments we make to others in dealing with the estate. They are in addition to our costs and no VAT is paid on these.
The following are the usual disbursements needed:
Probate Court fee (payable to the Probate Registry): £300.00 payable to the Probate Registry.
Official Probate Court copies of the Grant document: £1.50 each
Bankruptcy search fee: £2.00 per beneficiary
Where we are asked to carry out limited work, for example to obtain the Grant of Representation only, we may offer a fixed fee. Although the fixed fee will depend on the work to be done, our usual fixed fee for obtaining the Grant only is £948.00 plus VAT (at 20%).
TRUSTS
We aim to complete the drafting of your Trust within 2 weeks of our receiving your final instructions. If, due to complexity or some other reason, the drafting is likely to take longer we will notify you when it is expected to be completed.
Every trust is different and the work involved in setting up the trust and administering it will vary.
If the Trust is straight forward we may agree a fixed charge. Where the trust is more complex our costs will be calculated by reference to the time we spend on the matter, for example in drafting documents, telephone calls, emails and having meetings with you. Time calculations are based on units of 6 minutes, i.e. 10 per hour. Generally letters written, telephone calls and emails are charged at 1 unit unless they are unusually long. We will give you a written estimate of our charges once we know what work is likely to be involved.
Our current hourly rate is £329.00 so 1 unit is £32.90.
VAT is added to our costs. The current VAT rate is 20%.
Example of our charges:
A simple trust declaration confirming the ownership shares of a house would cost £463.00 + VAT (at 20%).
An asset protection trust for personal injury damages of £50,000.00 would cost £550.00 + VAT (at 20%).
A complex trust with high value assets requiring tax advice where the trustees will have extensive powers and will be able to make decisions as to distributions etc. might cost £1,824.00 + VAT (at 20%).