Wills & Probate

Making a Will is one of the most important things you can do to protect your family. It does not matter whether you have a large estate on not, a Will can help to ensure that your wishes are carried out when you die.

Longfords Solicitors can help you to include all necessary provisions in your Will and make sure it is legal and valid so no challenges can be made once you’ve died.

Considerations When Making A Will

When putting together your Will, think about:

• Naming a guardian for your children who are under 18
• Leaving property in trust for when they reach 18 years old
• Outline who you want to receive specific gifts
• Decide on any charity donations and list their charity commission number. These donations can help with inheritance tax
• If you are not married and living with your partner it is vital that you make a Will to reflect your wishes as they hold no rights in the eyes of the law

We will draw out all of the important information for you and ensure that your Will is professionally drafted and correctly witnessed and signed so there can be no legal challenges to it.

How Can Longfords Solicitors Help You?

Longfords Solicitors has been helping clients in Oldham and Greater Manchester make their Wills for over 20 years and we can help you too.

We provide you with excellent service and we offer a free initial consultation so we can discuss the Will writing process and advise you about the costs involved. Our fees for Will writing commence at £600.00 plus vat. Final costs will depend on the value of the estate and assets of the testator and the arrangements he wishes to make.

Probate Services – Non contentious

We provide probate application services for individuals on death or intestacy. This includes where a person dies with a will in place and also where they die without a will. Below is our typical range of prices for our services and details of what is included.

Cost of probate

Charges for probate services vary greatly depending on the nature of the matter. As an indication here are some examples of how we may help you:

A grant only application this will depend on what information is available and whether there is any inheritance tax to pay. A typical range of costs would be between £1000-£5000 plus VAT, excluding any disbursements i.e. payments to any third parties.

Estate administration – Again this will depend on how quickly and easily the deceased’s assets can be collected and how easily the beneficiaries can be traced. Typically the costs will start from £5000 plus VAT.

Method of charging

We usually charge for our work on an hourly basis. All our fees are subject to VAT at the current prevailing rate of 20%.

Other charging arrangements

We do not charge by reference to the value of the estate. Nor do we offer a no win no fee arrangements for this type of work. Our work is based on the time spent as per the agreed hourly rate of the solicitor dealing with the matter plus VAT.

Disbursements/expenses or other costs related to your matter that are payable to third parties

• Court application fee. Presently this sum is £273.00. Vat is not payable on this.

There are also likely to be the following additional expenses/ disbursements. The actual cost of the expense will vary depending on the case and circumstances.

• Trustee Act advertising fees to find out creditors and debtors etc and to protect the personal representatives. These depend on the publication.

• House clearance fees and insurance fees

• Surveyors fees for property valuations if required as part of the estate management

• Expert fees for valuation of the deceased personal items or chattels

• Oath fees in order to apply for the grant of probate

• Death certificate fees

• Genealogy or other tracing fees

Services and key stages included in our typical retainer for a probate matter will be as follows

• Discovery of assets and liabilities
• preparation of any necessary application or court papers
• advertisements
• assessing and paying any inheritance tax due
• applying for the grant of probate or the letters of administration where there is no will
• obtaining release of funds from the relevant institution
• dealing with any other requirements of the testator including any trust requirements
• preparation of final estate and trustee accounts
• distributing the relevant legacies and payments
• liaising with executors or administrators beneficiaries, the court, HMRC and any other relevant third parties
• obtaining property insurance where necessary
• including tracing of beneficiaries etc

Exclusions

Should the matter become contested then of course it will not be covered by the retainer in respect of the probate matter. We can at that point refer you for specialist advice to discuss contested matters.

How long will it take?

It is difficult to give precise estimates. Many factors determine how quickly matters can be dealt with. The deceased’s estate may be very complex and there may be many organisations involved in the process, such as banks, beneficiaries, insurers, accountants HMRC and estate agents. We are of course dependent on those third parties and how quickly they deal with matters. In addition, it is advisable not to finalise an estate until all claims have been received. Anyone wishing to make a claim on the estate has six months from the date probate is granted to make such a claim against the estate. Accordingly, we would always recommend expecting the process to take at least eight months to a year, sometimes longer.
And of course, if the deceased did not leave a will and the estate has to be administered under the intestacy rules, then the process may take longer. This is due to the extra work involved in establishing the deceased’s estate and tracing as well as identifying the beneficiaries. The most common factors that increase timescales and also therefore increase costs are

• checking the validity of the will
• the willingness of family members and beneficiaries to cooperate with us
• extensive enquiries with beneficiaries
• obtaining the death certificate especially if the death was abroad
• dealing with the deceased’s property, to include house clearance, insurance claims etc
• where the deceased had a complicated estate with multiple accounts and properties with complex financial planning
• If the deceased had foreign assets or estates that can immediately lead to lengthy delays as foreign organisations usually take longer to deal with and to respond
• If there are business interests which need to be valued or dealt with or if there are trust matters
• Preparing deeds for trusts or variation documents
• locating missing beneficiaries and obtaining missing beneficiaries insurance if required

Your lawyer
Your probate matter will be dealt with by Mr Ashraful Alam,  partner of the firm. He has over 25 years post qualification experience.  He will be assisted by support staff who can give you regular updates and deal with day-to-day and routine updates on your case.

Our experienced team of solicitors have many years’ of experience in Wills, probate and estate planning and we can provide a detailed quote to make your Will.

Contact Us Today

If you would like to discuss making a Will, please arrange a free initial consultation with us. Call us on 0161 665 4400 or complete our Free Online Enquiry and we’ll be in touch.