Will, Probate and Fees

C

cord

Registered User
Messages
40
Hello all! First post so be gentle! I am acting as the executor for my parent's estate and I have just found out, to my horror, that the solicitor is charging 3% of the total estate to carry out the paper work Not sure if I can reduce this bill, but I don't want to pass on such a bill to my family. My question is if I get a solicitor, as I have done, to write up a will for me, can my survivors take the will from the solicitors and carry out a DIY probate etc,.
Regards
Cord
 
Yes, provided that the solicitor is not the executor. There are sometimes good reason for a solicitor being an executor (though my own policy is to always refuse a request to be a client's executor) but this does leave the solicitor in rather more control of the situation.
 
cord said:
Not sure if I can reduce this bill, but I don't want to pass on such a bill to my family.
Click to expand...

Does anyone know if this 3% is negotiable?

If the estate consisted of a single life assurance policy for €1m, would the Solicitor be 'entitled' to €30K?.
 
All solicitor's fees are negotiable - preferably before you entrust them with the work.
If you change solicitor now, they presumably can charge you for the time already spent on the case.
 
jpd said:
All solicitor's fees are negotiable - preferably before you entrust them with the work.
Click to expand...

Does this mean that the person making the will has to negotiate what the solicitor is going to charge, maybe 30 years from now?

How does this work? Does it form part of a written agreement between the client and solicitor?
 
No, that wouldn't work - the solicitor might not be around in 30 years. You could negotiate before drawing up the will for the cost of drawing up the will and then the executor/next of kin/... could negotiate again when dealing with the estate.
 
You have no obligation to use any particular solicitor.
Even if a solicitor holds the will, and are the deceased solicitor, you shoudl treat it as any other transaction - get personal recommendations, ask a number of recommended solicitors to give a written quote and choose who you think will give the best service and value.
 
huskerdu said:
You have no obligation to use any particular solicitor.
Even if a solicitor holds the will, and are the deceased solicitor, you shoudl treat it as any other transaction - get personal recommendations, ask a number of recommended solicitors to give a written quote and choose who you think will give the best service and value.
Click to expand...

I wonder what percentage of Executors are informed of this by the Solicitor that 'holds' the will? 0% I would guess.

When a will is drafted and an Executor is nominated, the solicitor should inform the Executor and also include information on what their rights are regarding the execution of the will ie that if they are to act in the best interest of the beneficiaries then they should be obliged to get a number of quotes for the business.
 
When my hubby died I did a a personal application for probate. The fees depend on the value of the estate.

[broken link removed]

The staff in the Probate Office were very helpful and it only cost a few hundred euro instead of the thousands I was quoted by some solicitors.

Hope this helps
 
i did this a few times myself applied for letters of administration ,saved thousands in solicitors fees
 
This depends on the circonstances - if it is straight-forward then go ahead, but if there are any complications, then any money spent on a solicitor could well be money well spent.
 
Lost will, lost deeds, imprecise/ambiguous instructions, weak signature, ...
 
Complications?

CGT, CAT, RPT, Probate Tax, failure to include assets in schedule.............the list of things that can go wrong is endless. Because the Probate Office don't offer legal advice, a lay person extracting a Grant can miss important issues.

Obviously, many cases are simple and can be dealt with by a lay person. But in my 20 years of dealing with estates I have never failed to be astonished by the capacity of people to screw things up.

mf
 
mf,

My issue is with the invoicing for 3% of the value of the estate irrespective of how complicated the transaction might be. It is only when the bill is seriously questioned that discounting begins.

Again I would ask 'If the estate consisted of a single life assurance policy for €1m, would the Solicitor be 'entitled' to €30K?.'
​
 
Have a search of this forum in relation to probate fees- your questions have been asked and answered before. Competition in the profession means that all fees can be negotiated- if you are not happy with a fee, you are free to leave and find another solicitor who's fee you are happy with. It is impossible to say if 3% is too much in relation to the OP, since we do not know the details of the estate. HOwever in the instance you refer to, it is unlikely that any solicitor would charge a fee of 30k- although of course even where an estate consists of a single asset does not meant there are no other complications.
 
It was a very simple estate, house and land and a credit union acc', nothing else. I found out about the fee when I got the bill. I was NOT informed before hand of the costs. Thanks to everybody for replying.
 
I posted this question almost 2 years ago. I now have a new question on the same topic. When my parent died the property was valued and the solicitor sent us a bill for 3% of the estate, including property valuation. Two years on and lands have not been registered, not solicitor's fault, but the property value has dropped substantially. As accounts have not been settled, is the 3% fee calculated on property valuation at the time of probate or when the property is being sold?
 
I am not a solicitor, so what I say is purely my understanding....I did probate for my dads estate (after I realised how much the solicitor wanted to charge....and he wanted me to do all the donkey work! - saved about €40k!)

I understand that the solicitor will charge their % based on what the official probate figure was. This is recorded on the final docs you would have got from the probate office.

I also believe that if the property has dropped in value, you and the other's who have inheritated will effectively have a capital loss which you can carry forward in relation to CGT.

I suppose the way to look at it is would it be fair if the property had a probate value of €1m but was now worth €.5m, would you be happy to pay the extra €15k?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top