STOP PRESS – 46% price rise (or 1066% if you want to be sensationalist!)

Sneaky 50% increase in probate fees, disproportionately affecting small estates.

As from 17th November 2025, additional or subsequent copies of Grants of Probate will go up more than TEN FOLD – from £1.50 to £16.  With a typical estate needing 10 copies, which now costs £315, is 46% more expensive at £460. Watch out for many more sneaky tax rises in and after the budget.

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Click HERE for your LOCAL Probate & Registration & Funeral information.

Incidentally, a recent survey showed that just 1% of executors found the process easier than expected, and 99% did not. 

How can we help now:

If you do need economical professional help to apply for probate, please get in touch!  If I can point you in the right direction (free), I will do it, but I cannot give advice. I can find high-powered help for complex estates (still at sensible fees) or even lower fees for normal estates. Contact me   But if you can do it yourself, go for it! (Though we do have access to the Assisted Probate Service.) If there are or may be arguments, contact me!

Probate Quotes: How much can we save you? It costs nothing to find out.

Professional help is desirable if

1) You have no significant admin skills or don’t want the responsibility.

2) Inheritance Tax or Trusts may be involved.

3) Where there may be family arguments or other disputes. Pay out a few pounds to save the family from imploding as so many do.

4) Where the beneficiaries do not need their inheritance and would prefer to pass it on without increasing their own tax liabilities through a Deed of Variation.

5) The deceased made gifts exceeding around £3,000 in any of the previous seven years (see IHT gifts). For more details – it is possible to give away far more than that if it is done correctly. They may have to be added back in full or in part for IHT calculations.

6) If the Will is going to be unpopular, the Executor will be blamed – so there is no need to take the flak – let the professional be the unpopular one!7) If the deceased’s home has previously been transferred to anyone else, but they continued living in it. If they have given away their home, you almost certainly need help or at least a check-up. Remember, the estate pays for professional advice to protect the executors from getting it wrong and being sued.

But in the meantime, the first step

is to ensure any property is fully protected and STILL insured, or the executor could be personally liable! 

The Probate Department (brokers) job is to ensure you do NOT pay through the nose when applying for probate!

QUICK ENQUIRY: How can we help? There is NO obligation in any way.

Or ignore the form – we’re just trying to make it easy – and keep reading below. Not all fields are needed – the form addresses many needs.

Probate Help Options – all with our Savings

If you want to do it yourself when you apply for probate, perhaps we can warn you if it may be more complex than you think (bear in mind we don’t give advice) and point you in the right direction. (A reminder that we cut an £8,800 quote by 94% with a little help from the clients and saved 55% – £66,000 – on a £23m estate.) Result: Happy Beneficiaries!

• A little help – £150 for an hour’s help! Better than half price with most firms.
• Straightforward estates: if you need a little professional reassurance, The Probate Department has developed the Assisted Probate Service with an outside firm – as much or as little help as you need at reasonable rates.
• If you don’t want too much involvement, we have contacts with tried and tested professionals who charge low fees for normal estates. And over 95% of cases fall within that category. Why pay full rates to a firm that may not have the right expertise in applying for probate? Being a solicitor doesn’t necessarily mean understanding probate; many specialities exist.
• For more complex cases, we have a panel of experienced solicitors and others whom we have recommended in the past and never had a poor report. And they are far from expensive (relatively).
• A comprehensive service for those with no time or living far away – despite the extra work involved, you may still pay less than many firm’s standard services, but you can forget about insurance, lawn mowing, estate agents, chasing utility providers, house clearance (after checking for valuables!) and much more.
• Probate Disputes – a free initial review to ensure you have a valid claim or defence and understand the risks and costs involved.
• Inheritance Tax – Handle with Care and just SIX months to pay! HM Treasury has confirmed receipts from inheritance tax (IHT) during the 2022-23 tax year hit a record high of £7.1 billion. This figure represents a 14% year-on-year rise – the biggest annual increase since 2014-15 when IHT receipts soared 22% on the previous year.

Inheritance Tax investigations – nearly 1 in 4 applications are investigated.

The number of official probes into families’ financial affairs has jumped in the 2024/25 tax year to 3,961. This is up from just 2,807 in the previous year – a 41% increase..  Experts have stated the increase could be due to the complexities of the current IHT system. Penalties of up to 100% of the tax avoided can be levied on the Estate and/or the Executor PERSONALLY. So maybe a little advice might be prudent. With the substantial rise in house prices over the last couple of years, the tax take will rise substantially as so few people actually keep their legal affairs up to date as the Law, Tax and family circumstances change.   

But maybe it will turn out you don’t need any help, just a nudge in the right direction. 

Either way, The Probate Department can help – ask!

CONTACT

I am happy to have a brief informal chat or to send you some information to see if you really need help with probate.  Not everyone does. (Just in case you are after the Principal Probate Registry – no longer at High Holborn, it has apparently CEASED TO EXIST, so click the link for what are laughingly called contact details. They are a Government Registry, unlike us.)

First things to do:

Find out about Registering the Death, Funerals, etc, on our Local Pages.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I use a solicitor to apply?

Do I have to use a solicitor? No. And don’t automatically let a bank or solicitor named as executor in the will carry out probate. You are normally under no obligation to use the probate services of the firm that stored the Will or even the one appointed as an executor, though if they start work, you may not have the choice. The majority of solicitors have no serious probate experience. Get a quote.

How much does it cost? (Or how much can we save you?)

How much does professional help with the process of applying for a grant cost? The fees for probate and estate administration can vary widely depending on who does it, whether that be a solicitor, probate specialist or a bank. The cost for these normally ranges between 2.5 to 5% of the estate’s value.  But not if you come to us for a recommendation.  We also have access to the Assisted Probate Service, which can save even more.

Can money be released before applying for probate?

Banks usually release money up to a certain amount without requiring a Grant of Probate. Still, each financial institution has its own limit that determines whether or not Probate is needed. You’ll need to add up the total amount held in the deceased’s accounts for each bank group – some banks have several trading names that count toward their limit. Both executors and beneficiaries can apply for probate loans – provided a suitable professional is managing the probate. An especially useful tip is that many institutions will pay the funeral director DIRECTLY, but ONLY if this is arranged in advance and they hold enough funds, of course! To check if there was a prepaid funeral plan, go here.NB Money released in this way must still be accounted for in any probate application.

Please bear in mind that there are almost infinite combinations of the Law and circumstances where you might need probate help. Often, we can point you in the right direction, but be aware that everything on this site is for general probate help and guidance only and should not be relied on without detailed advice – which we do NOT give. Our mission is to provide guidance on Probate and point you toward professional advice sources.

Contact The Probate Department (brokers)

Connecting you to the right professional to help you apply for probate. 

But only if professional help is needed.

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