How much does a probate solicitor cost?

What you can expect to pay

A probate solicitor in England and Wales will usually charge you in one of three ways: a fixed fee agreed up front, an hourly rate (typically £150 to £350 plus VAT, depending on the seniority of the person doing the work and where the firm is based), or a percentage of the estate, commonly between 1% and 5%. What that translates to in pounds depends almost entirely on two things: how much of the work you hand over, and how complicated the estate is. A grant-only service for a simple estate might cost £500 to £1,500 plus VAT. Full administration of a typical estate with a house, several accounts and an inheritance tax form often lands somewhere in the low thousands. A large, taxable or disputed estate can run well beyond that.

Before you read further, it is worth two minutes to get a number for your own situation rather than a national range: our free probate cost calculator estimates what professional help would cost for your estate, based on its size, whether inheritance tax forms are needed and how much of the work you want to do yourself. This guide then explains what sits behind that number. Note the scope here: this article covers what the solicitor charges. For the full picture including court fees and other costs of the process itself, see how much does probate cost.

The three fee models explained

Fixed fees

A fixed fee is a single agreed price for a defined piece of work. It is most common for grant-only services, where the solicitor prepares the probate application and any inheritance tax account, and you handle everything else. Fixed fees give certainty, which grieving families understandably value, but the definition of the work matters enormously. Read the engagement letter carefully: if the fixed fee covers "obtaining the grant" only, then chasing missing share certificates, dealing with a foreign bank or correcting an estate valuation may all be charged as extras.

Hourly rates

Hourly billing charges you for time actually spent. Rates of £150 to £350 plus VAT are typical, though a senior partner at a large city firm may charge more and a junior paralegal under supervision less. Hourly billing is the fairest model for genuinely unpredictable estates, because you pay for the work that turns out to be needed, but it carries the obvious risk that the total is unknown at the start. Any reputable firm will give you a written estimate and update you if it looks like being exceeded. Ask for one, and ask which fee earner (and at which rate) will do the routine work.

Percentage of the estate

Some firms, and historically most banks offering estate administration, charge a percentage of the gross estate, commonly 1% to 5%. Sometimes this appears as a "value element" added on top of hourly charges. The problem is that the fee scales with the value of the estate rather than the amount of work. An estate consisting of one mortgage-free house worth £550,000 and two bank accounts is administratively simple, yet a 2% fee would cost £11,000 for work that might come to £3,000 to £4,000 on an hourly basis. Percentage fees are not inherently wrong, and for a complex, high-value estate they can even work out cheaper, but you should always ask for the equivalent fixed or hourly quote before agreeing one.

What actually drives the price

Two estates of identical value can generate wildly different bills. The main drivers are:

• Whether a full inheritance tax account is needed. Most estates with no tax to pay qualify as excepted estates and need no separate HMRC account. Estates that owe tax, or that need to claim certain reliefs, must file the full IHT400 with its supporting schedules. That form alone can add many hours of professional time, and it is one of the strongest arguments for paying for help.
• Property. A house means valuations, insurance during the administration, possibly a sale or a transfer to beneficiaries, and conveyancing costs on top.
• The number and type of assets. Ten accounts across ten institutions take far longer than one. Shareholdings, business interests, foreign assets and trusts all add time and specialist input.
• Beneficiaries and family shape. Many beneficiaries, missing beneficiaries, minors, or gifts that fail because someone died first all add legal work.
• Any hint of a dispute. A challenge to the will, a claim against the estate or executors who disagree with each other moves the matter into contentious territory, where costs rise sharply. That is beyond the scope of this article, but it is the single biggest cost multiplier.
• Lifetime gifts. Where the person who died made significant gifts in the seven years before death, tracing and reporting them takes time.

Example scenarios

The figures below are illustrative ranges, excluding VAT and disbursements, to show how the shape of an estate changes the bill. Your quotes may differ.

Scenario	Service level	Typical fee range (excl. VAT)
Simple estate, no property, no IHT forms beyond the application	Grant only	£500 to £1,500
Simple estate, one property, excepted estate	Full administration	£2,000 to £5,000
Estate needing a full IHT400, property plus investments	Full administration	£4,000 to £10,000
Large or complex estate (business assets, trusts, foreign property)	Full administration	£10,000 upwards, often quoted as 1% to 5% of the estate

To turn these ranges into an estimate tailored to your estate, the probate cost calculator asks a handful of questions and does the arithmetic for you.

VAT and disbursements: the costs on top

Almost every solicitor's quote you receive will exclude two things, and both matter.

VAT. Legal fees attract VAT at the standard rate of 20% (see the gov.uk guide to VAT rates). A £3,000 fee is £3,600 once VAT is added. Always confirm whether a quote is inclusive or exclusive.

Disbursements. These are third-party costs the firm pays on your behalf and passes on. The main ones are:

• The probate application fee of £526 for estates over £5,000 (the fee rose on 13 July 2026), with no fee where the estate is £5,000 or less. Official details are on the gov.uk probate fees page.
• Sealed copies of the grant at £2 each when ordered with the application. Order enough for every institution you will deal with.
• Optional but common items such as statutory notices to protect executors from unknown creditors, bankruptcy searches against beneficiaries, and asset or will searches.

Disbursements apply whether or not you use a solicitor: they are costs of the process, not of the professional. They belong to the wider question of what probate costs in total, which we cover separately.

Questions to ask before instructing anyone

1. How is the fee calculated? Fixed, hourly or percentage, and if hourly, at what rate and with what estimate of hours.
2. Exactly what does the quote cover? Grant only, or full administration? Does it include the IHT forms, dealing with the property, income tax to the date of death, and final estate accounts?
3. What is excluded, and what would those extras cost? Conveyancing on the house sale is a common surprise.
4. Is the quote inclusive of VAT and disbursements? Ask for a single all-in estimate in writing.
5. Who will do the day-to-day work? A partner's rate for a paralegal's tasks is poor value.
6. Is there a value element or uplift? Some hourly quotes quietly add a percentage of the estate on top.
7. How often will you update me on costs? A good firm will warn you before an estimate is exceeded, not after.

Firms regulated in England and Wales are required to publish probate price and service information on their websites under the SRA Transparency Rules, so you can compare several firms before making a single phone call. This article covers England and Wales; fees and the process differ in Scotland, where the equivalent of probate is called confirmation.

Seven ways to keep the bill down

Whatever fee model you agree, the executor controls more of the final bill than most people realise. The savings come from reducing the hours a professional has to spend, and from choosing the right scope in the first place.

• Do the legwork yourself. Gathering date-of-death valuations, listing the assets and debts, and contacting banks is time-consuming but not technical. Every hour you do is an hour you are not billed for.
• Buy only the technical part. A grant-only or unbundled service, where the solicitor handles the application and any tax forms while you do the administration, is often a fraction of the cost of full administration.
• Get two or three quotes for the same defined scope. Firms must publish probate prices under the SRA Transparency Rules, so shortlist before you make a single call.
• Challenge percentage fees. Ask for the hourly or fixed equivalent, and query any "value element" added on top of hourly charges.
• Ask who does the routine work. Letters to banks priced at a partner's rate are poor value; a supervised paralegal rate is fine for routine correspondence.
• Be organised. One complete bundle of paperwork, and consolidated questions rather than a stream of emails, keeps time-based costs down and avoids duplicated work.
• Cap it in writing. Agree a written estimate and require the firm to warn you before it is exceeded, not after.

When paying a solicitor is worth it, and when it is not

Roughly four in five probate applications are now made digitally, and for a simple, non-taxable estate the process is genuinely manageable without professional help: the only unavoidable cost is the £526 application fee. Paying a solicitor starts to make sense when the estate is taxable (the IHT400 is unforgiving, and personal representatives are personally liable for getting the tax right), when there is property, business or foreign assets, when the family situation is complicated, or when the executor simply does not have the time or emotional bandwidth, which is a completely legitimate reason.

The full version of that decision, including the risk factors that should push you towards professional help even on a modest estate, lives in our sibling guide do you need a solicitor for probate. If you want a quick structured comparison first, the DIY versus solicitor tool weighs your estate's features and shows which route fits. And if you are unsure what you would actually be paying for, our guide to what a probate solicitor does breaks the job down task by task.

One more cost dimension worth knowing: time. A grant currently arrives in a mean of 6.4 weeks from submission, or 4.5 weeks digitally (Family Court Statistics Quarterly, January to March 2026), though waits vary. A good professional will not usually make the court move faster, but they can prevent the errors and requisitions that cause the longest delays. For the full picture on timing, see how long probate takes.

Getting a number you can trust

The single best protection against overpaying is comparing like with like: get two or three written quotes for the same defined scope, all-in with VAT and disbursements, and start from a realistic estimate of what your estate should cost. The probate cost calculator gives you that baseline, so you can walk into any conversation knowing whether a quote is in the right territory.

If you would rather talk it through, we can connect you with a vetted probate specialist who will quote transparently for exactly the level of help you want, from a one-off review of your DIY application to full estate administration. There is no obligation, and no pressure: for many simple estates the honest answer is that you do not need to pay anyone at all. This article is general information, not legal advice.