Probate Calculator
Probate costs in the UK come in two separate layers that are easy to conflate but genuinely distinct. The first is the HMCTS court fee — a fixed charge for the court to formally grant probate (or, if there's no will, letters of administration), which is the same whether you apply yourself or use a professional. The second, optional, layer is professional fees — what a solicitor, will-writer, or probate specialist charges for handling some or all of the estate administration on your behalf, which you can avoid entirely by doing the work yourself.
Total cost therefore ranges enormously: from just the court fee if you handle everything yourself, up to several thousand pounds or more in professional fees on top of the court fee for a larger or more complex estate handled entirely by a solicitor. There's no single "probate cost" figure that applies to everyone — it genuinely depends on the estate's size, complexity, and how much of the work you choose to do yourself.
From 13 July 2026, the standard HMCTS probate application fee in England and Wales is a flat £526 for any estate worth more than £5,000 — a significant increase from the previous £300 fee, which the Ministry of Justice says reflects the actual cost of running the probate service and ongoing investment in it. If the net estate is £5,000 or less, there's no court fee at all.
Crucially, this fee is flat, not a percentage — unlike Inheritance Tax or Stamp Duty. A £250,000 estate and a £2 million estate both pay exactly the same £526 court fee. Additional sealed copies of the grant of probate cost £2 each if ordered alongside the original application, or a higher fee if ordered separately afterwards — useful to know if you'll need several copies to send to different banks, pension providers, or share registrars, since ordering them all together with the original application is the cheaper route.
Solicitors and probate specialists typically charge in one of three ways. A percentage fee, commonly 1-4% of the gross estate value (with many charging 1.5-2.5% for a straightforward estate), scales the fee to the estate size — which can become disproportionately expensive on a large but genuinely simple estate. A fixed fee, typically £3,000-£6,000 plus VAT for a standard estate administration and rising to £15,000 or more for genuinely complex cases, gives cost certainty regardless of the exact estate value. An hourly rate, generally £300-£350 per hour depending on the seniority of the person doing the work, suits situations where the amount of work genuinely isn't known upfront.
None of these methods is universally "best" — the right choice depends on the specific estate. A percentage fee on a large, simple estate (say, one property and a few savings accounts) can easily cost far more than the actual work involved would justify under a fixed fee, while a fixed fee on a genuinely complex estate (disputed will, business assets, assets abroad, multiple beneficiaries) might undercharge for the real time required, which is partly why complex-case fixed fees are set considerably higher.
Take a straightforward £400,000 estate — a house, some savings, and a small share portfolio, no disputes, one clear set of beneficiaries. Doing probate DIY, the only cost is the £526 court fee — a saving of potentially several thousand pounds, but requiring the executor to personally handle valuations, HMRC forms, the probate application itself, and distributing the estate.
Using a solicitor on a 2% percentage fee, the professional fee is £400,000 × 2% = £8,000, plus 20% VAT of £1,600, giving £9,600 in professional fees, plus the £526 court fee — a total of £10,126. Using the same solicitor on a £4,500 fixed fee instead, plus 20% VAT of £900, gives £5,400 in professional fees, plus the £526 court fee — a total of £5,926, roughly £4,200 less than the percentage-fee route for what could well be the same actual amount of work on a straightforward estate like this one.
This comparison is exactly why it's worth asking a solicitor whether they'll quote a fixed fee rather than defaulting to their standard percentage rate, particularly for an estate that's larger in value but not especially complicated in practice — the percentage model can quietly cost thousands more than the work genuinely requires.
The single biggest cost-saving option is doing some or all of the administration yourself rather than paying a solicitor for the full service — many solicitors also offer a "grant only" service, where they simply prepare and submit the probate application for a modest fixed fee, leaving the executor to handle collecting in assets and distributing the estate themselves. This middle-ground option can capture much of the professional reassurance around the legally sensitive application itself, at a fraction of the cost of full estate administration.
When a solicitor is genuinely needed — for a complex estate, disputed will, or simply peace of mind — always ask for a fixed-fee quote rather than accepting a default percentage rate, and get quotes from at least two or three firms, since fixed-fee quotes for the same estate can vary considerably between firms. Confirm explicitly whether any quote includes VAT, since a headline figure that looks lower can end up costing more once 20% VAT is added on top of a competitor's VAT-inclusive quote.
"Probate" refers to the legal process of proving a will is valid and giving the named executor (or, if there's no will, an appointed administrator) the authority to deal with the deceased's estate — collecting in bank balances, property, investments and other assets, paying off any debts and Inheritance Tax due, and then distributing what's left to the beneficiaries named in the will or, without a will, according to the rules of intestacy. The court fee and any solicitor fee cover the legal and administrative side of this; it doesn't include the Inheritance Tax itself, which is a separate calculation and payment (see the linked IHT calculator for that figure).
Timescales vary considerably depending on the estate's complexity, but a straightforward estate typically takes somewhere between 6 and 12 months from death to final distribution, factoring in the time to value assets, submit Inheritance Tax paperwork if any is due, wait for the grant of probate itself, and then collect in and distribute the estate. More complex estates — those involving property sales, business interests, disputed wills, or beneficiaries who are difficult to trace — can take considerably longer, sometimes well over a year, regardless of whether a solicitor or a DIY applicant is handling it.
Scotland and Northern Ireland use their own separate processes — confirmation in Scotland and a slightly different probate procedure in Northern Ireland — each with its own court fee structure, distinct from the £526 HMCTS fee that applies in England and Wales. Anyone dealing with an estate in Scotland or Northern Ireland should check the relevant local court fee rather than assuming the England and Wales figure applies.