Have you recently lost a loved one ?
Wondering how to tackle the legal minefield ?
Need to obtain a grant of probate ?
No Will ? Or a Will you don't understand ?
Struggling to calculate inheritance tax ?
At such a difficult time professional advice is essential to ensure that the estate is dealt with properly and efficiently. But you are not alone. Whether or not we wrote the deceased's Will we can obtain a Grant on behalf of the Executors. If there was no Will then the next of kin will usually need to obtain Letters of Administration (the equivalent court order in cases of intestacy) before assets can be released and we can also do this on your behalf.
Kathy McIntyre of Just Inheritance will complete all the necessary Probate and Inheritance Tax forms for you and attend the Probate Appointment as your representative (as we are not solicitors there is no charge for time spent doing this). We will then proceed to deal with the banks, building societies, insurance and utility companies to arrange for the assets to be collected, bills paid and the estate distributed to the beneficiaries as soon as possible, and of course to deal with the Inland Revenue to finalise the deceased's and the estate's tax affairs. Where the estate is local to our West Norfolk, Ely and Wisbech area we are also prepared to arrange the clearance and sale of the home if required.
UNLIKE MANY SOLICITORS AND BANKS
WE DO NOT CHARGE A % OF THE ESTATE
Our fee is simply a very competitive rate of £40 per hour for work done
As a very approximate guide:
A "simple" estate : arises where the deceased was a non-taxpayer with no property and a couple of bank and building society accounts and everything passes to one or two beneficiaries - this type of estate is likely to take about 15-20 hours and incur costs around £600-£800 plus expenses.
An "average" estate :may involve the sale or transfer of a house, claiming an income tax refund, dealing with several bank accounts and perhaps some shareholdings and our fees in such cases usually amount to £1,200 - £2,000 plus expenses.
A "complex" estate :arises when the estate is a bit more complicated than the above examples, for example if assets exceed the inheritance tax threshold (£325,000 from April 2009) or when the estate is unusually complicated due to eg large quantities of shareholdings or many different investments or has to be divided between a large number of beneficiaries. In such cases our fees may amount to £2,500 - £4,000 depending on the time taken, but will very rarely exceed 1% of the value of the estate.
We believe this to be a highly competitive and reasonable way of charging for our services.
Every estate is different and every family is different. Our most important aim is to offer a caring professional and personal service to the bereaved. If there is anything you need that is not suggested in this short article - please ask - we will do all we can to help.
To discuss the administration of an estate and get an estimate of the likely costs in your particular circumstances please telephone us on FREEPHONE 0800 0435542 for an informal discussion with no obligation