Administration of an Estate where Deceased has Died Intestate - A Taxable Estate

Type of Application: Administration of an Estate where the Deceased has died intestate i.e. not leaving a Will in a taxable estate

Type of fee: Fixed fee (estimate based on the work involved in conducting the matter).

Costs: Costs can be between £3,500- £10,000. Average price £5,000 plus VAT.

Plus 0.75% of property value and 1% of liquid asset value in line with Law Society Guidelines.

Hourly Rates:

• Director - £373 plus VAT
• Solicitor - £244 plus VAT 
• Paralegal - £139 plus VAT 

On average, this type of work entails 30 hours of work.

The exact number of hours it will take depends on the circumstances in your case. Such as:

• The amount of supporting evidence that we need to consider
• Failure to cooperate with advice
• Disagreements between family members as to who should be the personal representative
• Difficulties establishing whether a will was made
• Disagreements between personal representatives with respect to satisfying the tax bill
• Unforeseen complexities that may arise

Costs are likely to be at the lower end range if the case is a straightforward Letters of Administration matter which deals with a taxable estate where the deceased has died intestate.

Who will carry out the work?

• Director; or
• Paralegal supervised by a Director

All work carried out by a Paralegal is supervised by a Director, who retains ultimate responsibility of conduct of matters.

What services are included in this?

• Initial attendance and consideration of the options and assessing most appropriate way forward based on client’s circumstances;
• Determining who is entitled to be personal representative of the estate;
• Determining who are the beneficiaries to the estate by reference to intestacy law;
• Determining the assets;
• Informing all organisations with whom the deceased had assets;
• Obtaining valuations for property and contents;
• Assisting in arranging for the property to be placed on the market;
• Completing the IHT 400 and supplemental documentation;
• Satisfying the IHT bill by arranging either arranging for the personal representatives to make payment on an instalment basis or for arranging for release of sums from the deceased's assets to make a lump sum payment;
• Preparing the oath and submitting the application for Letters of Administration;
• Preparing a final estate account;
• Distributing the assets.

The costs quoted here do not include:

• Any court fees such as probate court fee and fees for additional copies of grant of probate. Find updated list of court fees.
• Other expenses where applicable such as swearing of oath fee of £5.00 per executor.
• Law Society Gazette Wills & Whereabouts advertisement of £300-£500.
• London Gazette advertisement to protect against creditors £185 plus VAT (Approx.)

We will let you know at the earliest opportunity and before any such fees are incurred by yourself, if any of these are applicable.

Time scale:

• On average estates that fall within this range are dealt with in between 5 months to 18 months from initial instructions.
• Typically obtaining the Letters of Administration takes 7-27 weeks from initial instructions.
• Collecting assets then follows which can take between 6-15 weeks from obtaining the Letters of Administration.
• Once this has been done, we can distribute the assets which normally take 2-4 weeks from collecting assets.

Please note the anticipated number of hours and fees are an estimate based on the facts above. All applications are likely to vary and of course, we can give you a more accurate estimate once we have more information about your specific case.