Saul is head of our Probate team and has been practising Probate for over 20 years. Saul has a LLB degree from the University of West London. Saul qualified as a Solicitor in March 1984, his initial experience being in Civil Litigation and since the practice started on 1 May 1999, he has also worked in Probate. His experience gives our practice the unique ability to use his Dispute Resolution skills to reduce possible disputes that may arise. Probate work in the practice is supervised by Saul Marine.
Saul Marine is assisted by Paralegals who all have legal academic qualifications and work under Saul’s supervision and receive training within the firm.
Saul Marine hourly rate – £290.00 plus VAT (£58.00 ) Totalling £348.00 per hour
Paralegal hourly rate – £120.00 plus VAT (£24.00 ) totalling £144.00 per hour
The work involved relates to applying for the grant of probate, collecting and distributing the assets.
Projected costs in respect of work in this section can vary depending on the value nature and number of assets and complexity of the work.
Essentially the charges may consist of two elements: an hourly rate and secondly a value element, being a valuation of the assets in the estate.
Value:
It is usual to divide the estate into two parts
- The deceased residence – this is the value of the deceased’s home or as much of it as they owned. If the property is jointly owned the values is reduced by half.
- Value of the rest of the estate.
An appropriate percentage is then applied to the value of the assets.
- Where a Solicitor is not acting as executor in an estate of more than £100,000 then the value of the gross estate less residence is calculated and a percentage of 1% is applied plus VAT on the said percentage at 20% with the value of the residence applying a percentage of 0.5% plus VAT at 20% on the said total.
So for example in an estate of £250,000 with the residence valued at £400,000 the fees would be 1% of the value of the estate ignoring the residence i.e. £2500 plus VAT of (£500) totalling £3000 with a further 0.5% applying on the value of the property of £400,000 i.e. £2000 plus VAT of £400 totalling £2400.
- Where the Solicitor acts as a sole executor or joint executor with another person in an estate over £100,000 the value of the gross estate less residence is calculated and a percentage of 1.5% plus VAT at 20% on the said total is applied with the value of the residence applying a percentage of 0.75% plus VAT at 20% on the said total.
Therefore as an example in an estate where the value of the gross estate is £500,000 the fees would be here £7500 plus VAT plus VAT of £1500 totalling £9000.00 and where the value of the property is £600,000 the fee would be £4500 plus VAT of £900 totalling £5400.
In every case using these formula we will review the figures to ensure that the charges are fair and reasonable having regard to all the circumstances and where appropriate hourly rates may apply.
Final figures will always be reviewed to ensure that the charges are fair and reasonable having regard to all the circumstances.
In high-value estates, we will give consideration to reducing the value element percentage charge in order to ensure that the overall level of charges are fair and reasonable.
In relation to estates where there is one beneficiary and no property, we expect that the costs could range between £800 plus VAT of £160 totalling £960 to £1500.00 plus VAT of £300.00 totalling £1800 in circumstances where there is no more than 2 to 3 bank or building society accounts, no other intangible assets and no dispute between beneficiaries on division of assets. If a dispute arises, this is likely to lead to an increase in costs. Furthermore in these cases no inheritance tax would be payable and the executors would not need to submit a full account to HMRC and there are no claims made against the estate.
In all cases, we would ask you to apply for a more accurate estimate which can be given once we have received all details of the estate and the above is only an estimate of the likely costs and we cannot guarantee that actual costs for your matter will be in this range.
In all work under this section there will be disbursements payable in addition to our legal fees as follows:
- Probate application fee in estates over £5000.00 £273.00 (no VAT)
- Swearing of an oath fee per executor: £10 (no VAT)
- Bankruptcy – HM Land Registry searches: £2 plus VAT of £0.40 totalling £2.40 per beneficiary
- Advertisement in the London Gazette to protect against unexpected claims from unknown creditors: £109.20 plus VAT of £21.84 totalling £130.54 (approx.) or in the local newspaper in the range of £185.00 plus VAT of £37.00 totalling £222.00 (approx.) The likely range of fees in estates of this size is therefore including disbursements and VAT between £ 1597.00 to £2437.00
Disbursements related to your matter are those payable to third parties, such as court fees. We handle the payment of the disbursements on your behalf to ensure a smooth process.
Dealing with the sale or transfer of any property in the estate is not included in these fees and please see our conveyancing fees.
On average we estimate the process can take between 3 to 4 months. Typically obtaining the grant of probate can take between 6 to 8 weeks. Collecting assets then follows which can take between 6 to 12 weeks. Once this has been done we can distribute the assets which normally takes 2 to 3 weeks.
