Hart Reade Solicitors, specialists in personal legal services and business law.
In this particular area of law, and as with most solicitors, we calculate our charges on the time we spend dealing with your matter. Our charges are based upon our hourly rates, and are subject to the addition of VAT at the prevailing rate, currently 20%. In addition to this, there will be disbursements to be added, which are costs related to your matter that are payable to third parties, such as the Probate Registry. We handle the payment of these disbursements on your behalf, to ensure a smoother process, but these are ultimately payable by you.
The full details of our charging rates and our estimates of costs are detailed in our client care letter and also set out in our terms of business, which documents you will receive from us at the outset of your matter. Our aim is always to provide you with all information in a clear, transparent and easy to understand manner. However, should you have any queries, or would like to speak to someone in person, please contact us and we will be happy to help.
As part of our client care, we will confirm the hourly rates of those lawyers who will be working on your matter, together with an estimate of the likely overall costs. Our hourly rates differ depending upon the qualifications and experience of the lawyers concerned. For more information on the qualifications, experience and specialist areas of expertise of our Private Client team, please click here. You can also view testimonials from our clients here.
We can only provide estimates of our charges after meeting with you, and receiving your detailed instructions. Our hourly rates are set out below. However, when receiving your specific instructions, we will confirm with you whether there will be any revision of these to reflect the complexity, value or urgency of the matter; and our resources to accept your instructions.
We can provide assistance in connection with the administration of a deceased's Estate. This can be either where there is a Will (Probate) or where there is no Will (Intestacy). We can also limit our involvement to obtaining the Grant only or can deal with the whole administration including gathering in the assets and distributing the Estate. In addition we can provide a consultancy service to you where we can provide advice on the probate process and inheritance tax liabilities and reliefs.
In all scenarios it will be necessary to ascertain if tax is payable and what amounts are due and when. This is a complicated area and specific advice is needed based on the value of the assets in the Estate, gifts made during the lifetime of the deceased, the type of assets and the reliefs available. Specific advice can be provided, or more information and a tax calculator are available on HMRC's websites.
We will prepare the relevant inheritance tax forms and Oath to lead to the Grant. These will be prepared on the basis of the information you supplied to us and it will be your responsibility to ensure that it is accurate. If we need to correct the information provided at a later date there may be an additional charge. We would expect our costs for acting in this respect to be between £1,000.00 and £3,000.00 plus VAT. Simple assets with a single beneficiary are likely to be towards the bottom end of this range of figures, with more complicated assets and multiple beneficiaries, at the higher end.
Typical costs for dealing with the whole administration of the Estate are between £5,000.00 and £15,000.00 plus VAT. The complexity of the assets, the number of beneficiaries and the inheritance tax position will all affect whether our costs are at the top or bottom end of this range of figures.
Administration Period Tax. Some Estates can be dealt with on a simplified procedure which would be included within the above figures. However, in other cases the Estate must be registered and Administration period tax returns completed. Typically £300.00 to £500.00 in costs plus VAT per tax return.
Registering the death and arranging the funeral. On occasions, Executors are not able to travel to the area where they are required to deal with this process. We can assist by dealing with the registration and signing funeral forms if required. Typically this will cost £300.00 plus VAT.
The process can vary but it is typical to be able to obtain Probate within three months of the date of death, if no inheritance tax is due, or within six months if tax is payable. It should then be possible to gather in the assets after that, which can take between three and four months (unless a property needs to be sold), and then the distribution takes place within one to two months of that.
The conveyancing costs of any related property sale or transfer of title; or disposal of stocks, shares and investments are not included within the above costs estimates and timescales. If our services are required in relation to these then individual estimates will be provided.
Obtain probate and provide advice with regard to the legal issues that arise during the course of the administration.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email or contact one of our team.
Our Matrimonial and Family Department offers a free 30 minute appointment to discuss your case generally and to give you preliminary legal advice. We also offer a free half hour meeting under the Lawyers for your Business scheme to discuss business issues.
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