A probate solicitor takes on the legal and administrative work of winding up someone's estate after they die. In a full-service instruction that means valuing everything the person owned, preparing the inheritance tax paperwork for HMRC, applying to the Probate Registry for the grant of probate, collecting in the money and property, paying the debts, distributing what is left to the beneficiaries under the will (or the intestacy rules if there is no will), and producing estate accounts that show where every pound went.
Executors stay legally in charge throughout: the solicitor acts on their instructions rather than replacing them. This guide walks through each task in turn, explains what executors still do themselves, covers the wills side of the job, compares full-service with grant-only help, and looks at what this protection is worth. It describes the position in England and Wales. If your real question is whether to hire one at all, that decision has its own guide on whether you need a solicitor for probate, and you can work out in two minutes whether your estate justifies professional help with our free DIY versus solicitor calculator.
The full task list, start to finish
Estate administration follows a broadly fixed sequence. Here is what a probate specialist actually does at each stage.
1. Registering the position and securing the estate
The solicitor starts by confirming who has authority to act (the executors named in the will, or the closest relatives if there is no will), locating the original will, and notifying banks, insurers, pension providers and HMRC of the death. They will also check the practical basics: is the property insured now that it is empty, are direct debits stopped, is post being redirected. Small things, but an executor is responsible for preserving the estate from day one.
2. Valuing the estate
Every asset and every debt must be valued at the date of death: bank and savings accounts, the home, other property, investments, pensions, life policies, business interests, vehicles and personal possessions, minus the mortgage, loans, bills and funeral costs. The solicitor writes to each institution for date-of-death figures, instructs surveyors or estate agents for property valuations where needed, and assembles the whole picture in the format HMRC expects. Valuing the estate is a legal requirement even where no inheritance tax is due, and getting it wrong at this stage causes problems at every later one.
3. Inheritance tax forms and payment
Using the valuation, the solicitor works out whether inheritance tax is due. The standard rate is 40% on the value above the £325,000 nil-rate band (frozen until 5 April 2031), with up to £175,000 more available as the residence nil-rate band where a home passes to direct descendants, and a combined threshold of up to £1,000,000 for married couples and civil partners. Where tax is due they prepare the IHT400 account and its supporting schedules, claim any transferable allowances from a late spouse, apply reliefs, and arrange payment, including the instalment option for property and the direct payment scheme that lets banks pay HMRC straight from the deceased's accounts. Inheritance tax must normally start being paid before the grant is issued, which is one of the trickiest sequencing problems in probate and a common reason executors bring in help. The thresholds themselves are covered in our separate guide to the inheritance tax threshold.
4. Applying for the grant
The grant of probate (or letters of administration where there is no will) is the court document that proves the executor's authority. The solicitor prepares and submits the application to the Probate Registry, pays the £526 application fee for estates over £5,000 (nothing at or below £5,000, plus £2 per sealed copy ordered alongside), and deals with any stops, requisitions or queries the registry raises. Once submitted, a digital application typically reached grant in 4.5 weeks in the January to March 2026 official statistics, against 16.5 weeks on paper. What the timeline looks like end to end is a separate question, covered in how long probate takes.
5. Collecting in the assets
Armed with the grant, the solicitor closes accounts, encashes or transfers investments, claims life policies and pension lump sums, and handles the sale or transfer of property. Everything is paid into a designated executor's or client account, kept entirely separate from anyone's personal money, with a running record of each receipt.
6. Paying debts, taxes and expenses
Debts come before beneficiaries, always. The solicitor settles the funeral account, mortgage, loans, utilities and care fees, finalises the deceased's income tax position to the date of death, deals with any tax the estate itself owes during administration (such as income on estate assets or capital gains on a property that rose in value before sale), and often places statutory advertisements for unknown creditors, which protect executors from claims that surface later.
7. Distributing the estate
Only once debts and taxes are cleared does the solicitor pay the legacies and distribute the residue in the shares the will sets out, or under the intestacy rules where there is no will (in England and Wales a surviving spouse takes the first £322,000 as a statutory legacy where the deceased left children). They verify beneficiaries' identities, trace any who have moved, and take receipts for each payment.
8. Estate accounts
Finally, the solicitor prepares estate accounts: a formal summary showing the value at death, everything received, everything paid out and the final distribution. Executors and residuary beneficiaries approve them, which draws a line under the administration and gives everyone a clear record if questions arise years later.
What the solicitor does, and what executors keep doing
| Task | Solicitor | Executor |
|---|---|---|
| Valuing assets and debts | Gathers figures, instructs valuers | Supplies documents, identifies assets |
| Inheritance tax forms | Prepares and submits | Signs and remains legally responsible |
| Grant application | Drafts and submits | Signs the statement of truth |
| Selling the house | Handles legal work | Decides whether, when and at what price |
| Paying debts and legacies | Makes the payments | Approves them |
| Clearing and sorting possessions | Rarely involved | Almost always the family |
| Family communication | Formal notifications only | The human side stays with you |
The pattern is consistent: the solicitor executes, the executor decides. Instructing a specialist does not hand over control of the estate, and it does not remove the executor's underlying legal duty. It changes who does the paperwork and who carries the technical risk of doing it wrong. Our executors hub covers the role itself in more depth.
The wills side of the job
Most firms that administer estates also work at the other end of the process, which is why the phrase wills and probate solicitor is so common. On the wills side, solicitors in this field typically draft new wills, advise on updating them after marriage, divorce, children or house moves, arrange proper signing and witnessing, and store the original safely. A clearly drafted, properly executed and easily located will is the single biggest thing that makes the later probate work faster and cheaper, so the two disciplines feed each other directly. We describe this work neutrally because we do not draft wills ourselves: we are an information and calculator service, and our wills section explains what good drafting involves and how to prepare for it.
Full-service or grant-only?
Probate help comes in two main shapes, and knowing which you are buying matters more than the brand on the letterhead.
- Full estate administration. The solicitor does everything on the task list above, from first valuation letters to final estate accounts. This suits taxable estates, estates with property to sell, business or foreign assets, many beneficiaries, or executors who simply do not have the time or the stomach for it.
- Grant-only (sometimes called probate-only). The solicitor prepares the inheritance tax forms and the grant application and secures the grant, then hands the estate back. You do the collecting, paying and distributing yourself. It is a genuine middle path: the technical, mistake-prone legal paperwork is done professionally, and the legwork stays with you at a fraction of the full-service price.
On charging, firms typically quote a fixed fee for grant-only work and either a fixed fee, hourly rates or (less commonly now) a percentage of the estate for full administration. We keep this deliberately brief here because pricing has its own detailed guide: see what probate solicitors cost for real ranges and what drives them.
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When the estate is disputed
Alongside the routine administration, probate solicitors also act where an estate is contested. That includes defending or challenging the validity of a will (for example over capacity, undue influence or improper signing), responding to claims from people left out of the will under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, dealing with creditor claims against the estate, and resolving deadlock between executors or between executors and beneficiaries. Where a caveat has been entered at the Probate Registry to block a grant, the solicitor handles the warning-off procedure or negotiates its removal. Most disputes settle by correspondence or mediation; court is the last resort. If any of this is in play, the case for professional handling stops being a cost-benefit question and becomes close to essential, because a disputing executor who puts a foot wrong can be personally exposed.
The value that is easy to miss: executor protection
An executor is personally liable for the estate they administer. Pay the beneficiaries and then discover an unpaid debt, and the creditor can pursue the executor's own money. Miss an asset, undervalue the house, get an inheritance tax figure wrong or file late, and HMRC looks to the personal representatives, not the beneficiaries, for interest and penalties. Distribute to the wrong people under a badly read will and the executor may have to make good the difference.
This is where professional handling earns money that never shows up on an invoice. A specialist carries professional indemnity insurance, knows the statutory protections (such as advertising for creditors before distributing), sequences tax payments correctly, and documents every step so the executor can demonstrate they acted properly. For a straightforward estate the risk is small and DIY is often sensible. For a taxable, disputed or complicated estate, the fee is partly an insurance premium against personal liability, and it is worth weighing on that basis rather than on paperwork convenience alone.
Speak to a specialist
If the task list above looks manageable, you may not need help at all, and our guide on whether you need a solicitor for probate will help you decide. If it looks like more than you want to carry while grieving, we can connect you with vetted probate specialists, and our guide to finding a wills and probate solicitor near you explains what to look for. Either way, start with two minutes on the numbers: the DIY versus solicitor calculator compares the likely cost of professional help against doing it yourself for an estate like yours.