Cost is driven by the work an estate needs, not value alone. These shape the estimate.
Asset values, accounts and contacts change. The records update in one place — so the estate picture is right when probate is actually opened.
On day one, an executor sees what to do first — the schedule, the institutions to notify, the documents already prepared.
Your executor finds it in one place. No password hunt, no “where are the documents.”
The fixed fees and the typical professional cost for an estate of each size. Open one to adjust the detail.
What a typical, straightforward estate — one property, organised records, no added complexity — costs at each size: doing it yourself versus full professional help. The calculator above adjusts for your specifics.
Typical figures, not a quote — grant-only help sits between these two. Full-help fees vary by firm and rise with Inheritance Tax, multiple properties, trusts or disputes.
Probate is largely administrative and digital. A London-based executor can instruct a firm in South Wales and pay National 2 rates. The solicitor's office location drives the cost — not the estate's location, not yours.
Probate is mostly remote paperwork, so you can instruct a firm anywhere. A senior solicitor's hour ranges roughly from £288 outside the cities to £579 in central London — the official guideline rates below:
Some central-London private-client firms bill partners above these GHR benchmarks; published rates vary widely by firm. Always ask for the rate in writing.
Some firms charge by the hour and add a percentage of the estate's value on top. It's allowed, but easy to miss — and on a big estate it adds up:
On a £500,000 estate, a 1% liquid + 0.5% property element can add £3,000–£4,000 on top of the hourly fee. Always ask, in writing, what the firm charges and how.
The sealed-copy uplift falls hardest on estates with many institutional asset holders — each bank, broker, registrar, and foreign authority typically requires its own sealed copy. The bankruptcy-search figure is the online rate per name searched; postal searches are £7.
Sources: HMCTS Civil Justice Council Guideline Hourly Rates 2024/2025/2026; Non-Contentious Probate Fees (Amendment) Order 2025; SRA Price Transparency Rules; sampled fee disclosures across England & Wales SRA-regulated firms. All figures ex-VAT, ex-third-party disbursements. Informational only.
A common early misstep is notifying the bank before listing the direct debits that still need to clear — the Pack walks the right order. The Audit sequences your own records before the moment arrives, so the order is already set.
Twelve matters for the newly-appointed executor: the bank-notification timing, the 30-minute direct-debit audit, the solicitor appointment, the tax position, the 12-month timeline. An operational checklist — it does not replace professional advice where the estate needs it.
For the parent who has everything in order — except where it all is. Ten questions across planning, registry, situation, and event-brief quadrants. Output: a sequenced 12-month remediation schedule.
Two honest routes. Signum is Valoren's own service and we say so plainly; the three directories beneath it are the regulated UK bodies whose members do this work independently — searchable by postcode, and none of them pays Valoren a referral fee.
In England and Wales the probate application fee is £526 where the estate is valued over £5,000.
It is the same whether you apply yourself or through a solicitor. The fee is set by GOV.UK and paid to HM Courts & Tribunals Service.
No. Estates valued at £5,000 or less pay no probate application fee.
You may still choose to order sealed copies of the grant, which are charged separately.
Extra sealed copies of the grant are £2 each.
Most estates need several, because banks, share registrars and other institutions each ask for their own original sealed copy rather than a photocopy.
Probate is obtaining the grant — the court document confirming who may deal with the estate. Estate administration is everything after: valuing and collecting assets, settling debts and tax, and distributing to the beneficiaries.
You can obtain the grant only (a smaller piece of work) or have a professional handle the full administration.
Because the work varies. A simple estate with one property, organised records and no Inheritance Tax is a fraction of the work of a complex estate with a business, trusts, foreign assets or a dispute.
Firms also charge on different bases — a set fee, an hourly rate, or a percentage of the estate — so always ask, in writing, what a firm charges and how.
SRA Transparency Rules require firms to publish their basis.
No. This tool estimates the cost of obtaining probate and administering the estate — not any Inheritance Tax that may be due.
Inheritance Tax is a separate calculation based on the estate's value and the available allowances; use the IHT Calculator for that.
Yes. A personal applicant can apply for the grant directly, online or by post, paying only the £526 court fee plus any sealed copies — no professional fee.
It suits simpler estates with organised records, no Inheritance Tax to pay and no contested issues.
The work is real, so allow time for it.
Complexity rises with a full Inheritance Tax account, more than one property, foreign assets, business interests or trusts, many financial institutions, untraced or numerous beneficiaries, missing records, or any dispute.
Each adds work — and cost. This calculator scales the estimate to those factors.
HMCTS publishes an average of about 4–5 weeks for a clean digital application, around 12–13 weeks on paper, and roughly 15 weeks where an application is 'stopped' for errors or missing documents.
The wider estate administration — valuing assets, settling debts and tax, distributing to beneficiaries — typically takes 6 to 12 months on top, longer for complex or contested estates.
Not always. Assets held jointly — a joint bank account, or a home owned as 'joint tenants' — usually pass automatically to the surviving owner by survivorship and may not need a grant.
Some banks release modest sole-name balances against the death certificate alone.
Probate is normally needed where the deceased held assets in their sole name above an institution's limit, or owned property as sole owner or tenant-in-common.
The biggest lever is who does the work: a personal applicant with organised records can obtain the grant for the £526 court fee plus sealed copies, with no professional fee.
Where you do want help, grant-only support (a professional gets the grant, you administer the rest) costs far less than full administration. Arriving organised keeps professional time — and cost — down, and you can instruct a firm in a lower-cost region since probate is largely remote.
Always ask, in writing, how a firm charges (fixed fee, hourly, or a percentage).
The government fee is the same whatever the estate is worth: £526 to apply (estates over £5,000) plus £2 per sealed copy — and a personal applicant can obtain the grant for that alone.
Where a professional is instructed on a genuinely straightforward estate, published examples of full-administration fees commonly fall within a broad range of approximately £3,000–£8,000 including VAT, and grant-only help approximately £1,080–£4,200 including VAT, based on published examples from the firms reviewed.
These are indicative, not a tariff or a quote: the final fee depends on the work required and what the quotation includes, and court fees, statutory notices, valuations, conveyancing and other third-party costs are additional. Enter your figures in the calculator above to see the three routes for your estate.
Every figure in this calculator derives from a published statutory provision, HMCTS rate table, or industry benchmark. The provisions relied upon, current at the audit date below, are:
Library
These free institutional briefs cover the probate process, grant applications, executor obligations, and estate administration — what the cost breakdown here is built on.
The Executor's First Hour includes instructions for opening the estate account — with the executor's authority reference and the required documentation.
Read the guideThe Executor's First Hour includes the creditor priority checklist — so the estate is distributed in the correct statutory order and the executor is protected.
Read the guideThe Executor's First Hour product contains these checklists personalised to the estate — pre-filled with your specific asset references.
Read the guideThe Executor's First Hour personalises this companion around your estate — your contacts, your accounts, your location codes, printed and ready.
Read the guideThe executor pack includes the probate application evidence list — so the PA1P goes in with the right supporting documents from the first submission.
Read the guideAll guides are available free from the Valoren library — no account required.
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