What is Probate and Estate Administration?
In England & Wales, Probate is the word normally used to describe the legal processes involved in dealing with the assets (property, money, possessions) of the person who has passed away. If there is a property in the estate or if the bank / investments are over a certain limit, before the Next of Kin or Executor of the Will can distribute the assets, they must apply and obtain ‘Probate’ from the courts.
Once Probate has been granted, the funds can be collected from the banks, share companies, investment holders and properties can be transferred or sold. Then the collected money will be distributed as per the Will of the person who has passed away, or the next of kin if there is no Will.
Why use Sequacity instead of a bank or solicitor?
We are professional probate practitioners and specialise solely in Wills and Probate meaning one hundred percent of what we know is what we do.
We have very affordable fixed fees in comparison with many banks and solicitors who charge a higher basic rate and percentage of the estate.
We are authorised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) to offer probate services for non-contentious estates. In 2014, the ICAEW became an approved regulator and licensing authority for probate services – which means that you do not have to use a solicitor for probate.
If an estate is or becomes contentious it needs to be handled by a solicitor and we can recommend you a good one.
How can we help you?
There is a simple 5 phase approach to our Probate process which you can see below, this will let you know exactly how we can administer an estate for you.
At our initial visit, be this at your home or over the telephone, we will provide you with a fee quote dependant on the size and complexity of the estate which we aim to be less than 1.5% of the estate plus an admin fee. This fee quote will be a fixed fee and will only change in the unlikely event that more assets appear increasing the complexity of the estate.
If you do not need the full estate administration service, we also provide a Grant only service where you can use us purely to extract the Grant of Probate/Representation from the courts and you as executor/personal representative can deal with the estate administration on your own. This Grant only process has a set fixed fee.