Services

Our work covers:
• Wills
• Probate and estate administration in the U.K. and Italy
• Inheritance tax planning

Stages

Essentially, the probate process falls into four stages:
• assessing the assets and liabilities
• applying for probate
• collecting in the assets and paying liabilities
• distributing the estate in accordance with the terms of the will or the intestacy rules.

Assessing the assets and liabilities is required, because for all probate applications, the rules provide that an inheritance tax (IHT) return must be completed, regardless as to the value of the estate.

Once the assets and liabilities are assessed, the application is then made to the probate registry, they are the Court responsible for the issue of the grant of probate.

Timescale

Typically, obtaining the grant of probate is currently taking up to 6 weeks.
Collecting assets then follows, which can take between 2-4 weeks.
Once this has been done, we can distribute the assets, which normally takes 2-4 weeks.

Fees

Our fees for dealing with the administration of an estate tend to be in the region of 1.0% – 2.5% of the total value of the estate exclusive of VAT. The exact cost will depend on the individual circumstances of the matter. For example, if there is one beneficiary and no property, costs will be at the lower end of the range. If there are multiple beneficiaries, a property and multiple estate assets, costs will be at the higher end.
We can handle the full process for you and the above fee estimate is based on estates where:
• There is a valid will
• There is no more than one property
• There are only a small number of bank or building society accounts and other monetary assets
• There are no other intangible assets
• There are only a small number of beneficiaries
• There are no disputes between beneficiaries on division of assets. If disputes arise this is likely to lead to an increase in costs
• There are no claims made against the estate
• There are no complex Inheritance Tax considerations.

Disbursements

Disbursements will be payable in addition to our fees both for the full administration of the estate and if we just obtain the Grant of Probate for you:
• Probate application fee – £155
• Swear fee – £7.00 (per executor)
• Bankruptcy Search £2.00 (per beneficiary)
• Publication of Statutory Notices £150 (Protects executors against unexpected claims from unknown creditors)
Disbursements are costs related to your matter that are payable to third parties. We handle the payment of the disbursements on your behalf if we are acting in the full administration.

Potential additional costs:
• If there is no will or the estate consists of any share holdings (stocks and bonds) there is likely to be additional costs that could range significantly depending on the estate and how it is to be dealt with. We can give you a more accurate quote once we have more information.
• If any additional copies of the grant are required, they will cost £0.50 (1 per asset usually).
• Dealing with the sale or transfer of any property in the estate is not included.

Our Team

Our team is made up of Solicitors, some of whom are both qualified in Italy and in the United Kingdom, a Registered Foreign Lawyer, Chartered Accountants, trainee solicitors and paralegals.
We also collaborate with independent solicitors expert in different legal fields