To wonder if i could do this myself

[Namechange839]

Desperately i need of advise from some proper grown ups and posting here for traffic.

My beloved Grandma passed away last week. We were incredibly close, best friend aswell as grandmother and granddaughter.
5 years ago she broke her hip and while she did make a reasonable recovery, she was 86 at the time and so a full recovery was unlikely and she was no longer able to go out on her own. Around the same time she was diagnosed with Vascular Dementia.
Since that time i gradually took on more and more caring responsibilities for her in order to keep her at home as were her wishes but around Christmas time last year i was finding it more and more difficult to cope with her needs (we didnt live together and im a single mum to a 4 year old) and felt she was suffering as a result so i contacted adult care services who, at a f2f meeting agreed it would be best if she was taken into a nursing home immediately.
In the meantime i have continued to manage her finances and healthcare (LPA for both) as she no longer had capacity.
So fast forward to now, ive managed to pull myself together and im doing what needs to be done, arranging the funeral and such.
So here the important part, her will is held by a solicitor who is named as executor. I have contacted them and they have quoted £4500+vat to act as executor and have sent me a very long list of information they need me to gather including details of all her assets, 3 seperate valuations of her house and a list of it entire contents and its value. This will all need to be done by me as the only competent member of a small family. Very estate isnt huge and will be under the threshold for inheritance tax.
The solicitors have given me the option to act as executor myself. Ive done a lot of research and it seems all the solicitor would be doing is applying for probate, collecting the assets that i have detailed, paying any debts and the distributing whats left as detailed in the will while ill be doing all the back breaking.
So the question is, should i become the executor? What problems might i face? Is there anything i need to be aware of? An important note is i have 0 finances available to me currently so wont be able to cover the cost of anything before probate is granted.
Sorry for such a long post but wanted to include as much detail as possible

I have done both. It depends on the value of the estate, whether she had any debts (you'd become liable) and how complex the will was. And whether you have the time and emotional resilience to take it on. Not sure if this is relevant but as executor/trix, you could also charge the estate for your time. So sorry for your loss

Sorry that should have said you'd become liable for making sure debts were paid from her estate

What is you family like? If they is any risk that they’ll start arguing over how much they get I would never do it.

Yes, you can OP. It's really not that hard, even for a larger estate (I've done it for a larger estate). £4,500 is an awful lot of money for what is most probably not that much work. You can do it - truly. Try it and see how you get on. If for some reason you hit a problem, you can pay for legal advice just for that particular problem ... it will be less than £4,500.

Sorry for your loss.
That's a lot of money the solicitors want!
I've acted as executor before and had to do exactly as you described. It was easy to do and was as you described. I think i bought a book about it at the time to help inform myself as there's certain records to be kept when distributing the funds etc. There was nothing complicated about it, although if anyone was going to contest the will, then I think it could become very difficult.
I was able to pay for the funeral upfront though and then reimburse myself from the estate once probate came through.The bank freeze any money in the account until probate. I don't know whether they will release (or possibly lend?) any money for this specific reason, but it may be worth asking the bank or the solicitor about it.

I have had to do it for both my parents. My dad's wasn't too difficult as everything went to Mum. Her's was a nightmare as it was over the inheritance tax threshold and there were issues with gifts given within the last 7 years. I was still getting letters from HMRC asking for more information 18 months later. f your Nan's 'estate' is over the inheritance tax threshold I would let the solicitors do it - they won't need paying until after probate has been granted. If it is less and uncomplicated then do it yourself, but be aware that it can be stressful.

And the bank is allowed to disperse any funds required for the funeral from the deceased person's account before probate. You just have to show them the bills.

If it was me I'd try to do it myself as £4500 is a lot of money
I sent off the application for my mother's estate 2 days ago but hers was very simple, no property etc

I would attempt it and if it gets too much then consider a solicitor later on maybe?

We did this after the deaths of two elderly parents. It isnt difficult but needs quite a lot of concentration and time.
The Which? Guides to wills and Probate were very helpful. It was satisfying to have done it ourselves.
I would advice keeping paper records of everything for a good long time... Twice we were rung up ages later by debt-collecting ahencies who said that gas/electicity bills hadn't been paid.. Luckily we were able to prove that they had been.

Probate can be done online for around £216.

Just did it for my step mum with an estate under the inheritance tax threshold. It took about 4 weeks from applying online to getting the probate certificate. Very easy.

I would only involve a solicitor of the estate was likely to be complicated as the fees are horrendous and it can take so much longer.