If a loved one dies with assets of more than £5,000, you have to apply for what is known as a Grant of Probate, which enables you to collect in the deceased’s assets and distribute the estate.
Currently, the Probate Registry charges a fee for this service of £155 for applications through a solicitor and £215 for individuals.
To help address the financial deficit in the court system, the Ministry of Justice is proposing to scrap this flat rate regime and introduce a new banded approach that could see estates valued at £2 million or more, charged £20,000.
Under the new proposals, fees would rise progressively, with estates worth less than £50,000 benefiting, at they would be exempt. The fee would then start at £300 for estates valued up to £300,000 and so forth.
What does this mean for you?
The new scheme is being sold on the premise that, potentially, 30,000 bereaved families a year will better off, as they no longer need a Grant of Probate.
The flip side is that the majority of estates ranging from £300,000 to £2 million – and that includes a lot of homeowners – will see huge increases in the costs associated with probate administration.
Should you be worried?
The government is consulting the legal sector and other experts on its proposal and in my opinion, it will cause some lively and controversial debate.
As the application for a Grant of Probate is normally paid by solicitors and recouped in our final account, the way we practise is likely to change. We will be asking executors to stand the cost before money can be released from the estate, so where will it come from?
It is possible banks would have to agree for the fee to be paid directly from the deceased’s account, as we see already with funeral and associated expenses.
The difficulty in selling this scaled approach to the public is that the work the Probate Registry does to issue a Grant of Probate is largely the same, regardless of the estate’s size. This means that charging more to those with higher value assets is purely a money making exercise.
If these reforms are brought in, I suspect clients will find ways to avoid the Grant of Probate. We may well see a huge surge in the transfer of assets between spouses and family members when an individual is nearing the end of their life. Clearly, this will not mitigate inheritance tax, but would potentially negate a £20,000 administration fee.
For now, nothing has been determined, but we watch with interest to see how these proposals play out.
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