The executors of a Will, or the administrators under a Grant of Probate, can do the work themselves — but some find the paperwork too daunting, and some estates do need a lawyer.
I was involved in one case where the executor finally took over the administration herself, after the solicitors’ bill went over £120,000.
And see this case, where a solicitor tried to charge an estate £53,000 for acting as a professional executor — and the court held that the firm had no right to charge anything for it at all.
Royal Holloway and Bedford New College v QLaw Legal Services Ltd [2026] EWHC 2090 (SCCO). Mrs Selby’s will appointed her friend, and “the directors… of Quantick Daley Solicitors” (a trading name of QLaw Legal Services Ltd), as her executors — but the will contained no “charging clause”. Between January and July 2024 the firm billed the estate £53,187.60 for its director’s services as professional executor.
Under section 29(2) of the Trustee Act 2000, a professional executor can only charge for their services if every other executor has agreed in writing that they may be paid. The co-executor here had simply received the bills without objecting to them — and the Senior Courts Costs Office held that this was not enough. The firm was found to have no right to charge the estate anything for those services.
And solicitors are not always competent, either — I was involved in another case where the Legal Ombudsman made a firm repay £14,000 of interest, which the estate had incurred through the firm’s own delay.
However, solicitors are insured, and are a safe place for client money.
If they are not actually scammers, they are not safe. See the warning on my Advisor Types page, about a director sent to prison for contempt after failing to account for £432,000 of client money.
I do not employ staff — though I do have incredibly efficient AI computer systems. I do not hold client money myself: I make arrangements for the executor, or a safe third-party trustee, to hold it instead. So I do not carry the costs a solicitors’ firm bears running an office, or paying — through its professional indemnity insurance and Practising Certificate fee — for the fraud or negligence of other firms.
So I can offer an economical Probate Administration service. You still get top legal advice — see the tip below.
If you have inherited money you do not need, and would hand it on to your children or grandchildren anyway, you may be able to cut out the middleman. You can vary a Will, or the intestacy rules, so that the inheritance passes direct to your children or grandchildren instead of to you first — this is not treated as a gift for Capital Gains Tax or Inheritance Tax purposes. You will need a lawyer to draft this — a Deed of Variation.