Solicitor for probate

[Ilovearcticroll]

My dad has recently died and I am one of the executors of his will.
The solicitor who drew up his will is there if we need her and has done all Dad's legal stuff for years. She is also relatively expensive at £300 per hour.

If we choose to instruct a solicitor, is there a huge value in having a very experienced solicitor, and/or one that knew my father well? It is a fairly simple will, 10 percent to specified charities, one particular bequest (slight valuation headache but not a solicitor thing) and then a four way, not even but sensible and amicably received split of his assets. They are fairly straightforward too, a house and bonds, shares and policies. He kept his filing in good order and had financial advisor. Apart from the specific bequest, we don't believe he had valuable items but will get house contents valued anyway.

Thanks for any wisdom that you might have on this.

Having recently done my mother’s which was very simple and straightforward, if I had to do it again I would hand it over to the solicitor. It isn’t particularly difficult but it was so emotionally draining. If they are good and know the finances already it shouldn’t take a huge amount of hours

And yes - I would stick to the one he’s been using - will be so much easier

Use the solicitor. Saves anguish and errors.

We just did my dad's and whilst my sister did the bulk of it (and a very straightforward estate, with all his assets liquidised), there was nothing that was too complicated to manage without googling for advice on line or from the CAB.
Some solicitors charge up to 5% if the estate to manage!! Whether £300 an hour is a lot depends on how many hours it takes in the end.

The job is mostly administrative so if you can be sure that it is simple, by all means DIY.

The issue of course is how someone who is not training and experienced would know if there were any pitfalls?

We decided to do all the obvious admin work, such as to gather the basic information for the solicitor to review and sign off. This means that you are making most efficient use of their time. Once that is done, they may as well apply for probate but you could if you wanted to.

Good luck.

If you're paying them by the hour, then yes, it makes sense to do some of the leg work yourself. But if they're charging a flat-out fee or percentage of the estate, then they may as well earn that fee.

Hey @ilovearcticroll, £300 an hour is scary. I don't want to promote but couldn't not say anything here. I work for a company who have a free phoneline where you can talk openly (not having to worry about running up fees) about the pros and cons of DIY Probate and answer any questions about being an Executor.

I'm biased but the team are lush and so helpful, probs worth giving them a call if it would help www.trustinheritance.com/contact/
0800 840 1665

I would recommend using a solicitor for these reasons alone: a house and bonds, shares and policies.

By all means save yourself some money by doing the initial contacting but then I'd hand it over to the professionals when it comes to tax forms and applying for probate.

Good luck and sorry about your dad

I did my father’s which was relatively simple because everything was left to my mother and the house was jointly owned. My mother’s was more complicated, but I had been managing all her affairs for the previous two years under a LPA so knew precisely where and what her assets were worth. The tax office were very helpful, as was the Probate Office when I had a query.

It wasn’t difficult at all.

Thanks all. After a lot of thought, we are going to go with the experienced solicitor who knows the family. We all feel confident with her and the last thing we all need just now is to shop around in an area we don't know too well. We will also make use of dad's well ordered filing cabinet and financial advisor!