When a person dies someone has to deal with their estate. This involves dealing with a person’s money, property and possessions, paying off any debts they have left behind and distributing what’s left to the beneficiaries. It can be a time consuming and lengthy task, which comes at an emotional time when you may be feeling vulnerable. If someone dies with a will in place an application for Grant of Probate is required. If they die without a will an application for Grant of Letters of Administration is required.

PD Lawyers can provide professional assistance to deal with all matters relating to probate and the administration of an estate after the death of a person. We can deal with banks, building societies, utility providers, Inland Revenue etc on your behalf, using our wealth of experience and contacts to make what is a difficult time a lot easier to cope with.

We offer 2 types of probate services as we appreciate some estates are straightforward and some executors like to do some of the work themselves, whereas other estates are more complex:-

• Our probate only services offers you the ability to carry out all the investigation work yourselves. We will send you a pack to complete which will need you to provide personal information about the deceased, details of their accounts, shares, life policies, pensions, debts and funeral account and for details of any gifts they have made in the last 7 years. Once we receive your completed pack we will prepare the legal statement and any inheritance tax return We will send these to you for approval and signature. Once we have the signed documents we will apply for Probate / Letters of Administration. Once the grant is issued we will give it to you so you can close down all accounts, pay off any debts and share out what’s left between the beneficiaries.
• Our full administration service means you don’t need to do anything other than provide us with all the deceased’s paperwork and sign any documents required. We will do everything from advising all financial institutions the deceased dealt with, gathering the financial information required to make an application for probate, closing down all accounts, paying off any debts, providing you with a distribution account for approval and paying out the beneficiaries.

We appreciate this is a very difficult time for you and we aim to guide you through the process with care and empathy, making the legal procedure as smooth as possible. Please feel free to telephone, or pop in to, our offices if you would like to discuss matters further.

Cost information

Probate only service

Legal fees £995+VAT=

Full administration

Legal costs £150+VAT per hour (we time record to the minute) Letters in and out – £7.50 each

Telephone calls – £5.50 each

Emails charged as 3 minutes of time unless unusually lengthy

Disbursements

Electronic AML search fees – £5.60 per person

HM Land Registry Bankruptcy search fees – £3.20 per beneficiary Probate Registry fee – £300 (for estates over £5,000)

Official copy Grant of Probate / Letters of Administration £1.50 each