Paying a Professional to Deal With an Estate

When someone dies, their estate, meaning everything they owned, from bank accounts and property to personal belongings, has to be valued, their debts settled, and what remains shared out. The person legally responsible for doing that is called the executor if they were named in the will, or the administrator if there was no will¹. Many people do this themselves, but you can pay a professional, such as a solicitor, a probate specialist or a bank's estate service, to handle some or all of the work.

The key thing to understand about cost is that these fees are normally paid out of the estate itself, not out of your own pocket. The estate's money is used first for the funeral, then for official application fees and professional charges, then for any debts, and only what is left is passed on to the people who inherit². The official application fee for probate is £300 if the estate is valued at over £5,000, and there is no fee at all if the estate is valued at £5,000 or less³, though another source puts the England and Wales application fee at £526 for estates over £5,000⁴, so check the current fee when you apply.

What a professional estate administration service does

After someone dies, their estate is managed by one or more executors¹. The executor or administrator is responsible for managing the deceased person's affairs, and they can use the deceased person's assets, such as bank accounts or property, to cover funeral costs². If the estate is worth above a certain amount, the executor or administrator will need special permission, called probate, to deal with it¹. A professional estate administration service takes on this work for you: valuing the estate, applying for the grant of probate or letters of administration, paying debts and funeral costs, and distributing what remains according to the will or, if there is no will, the intestacy rules.

The grant of letters of administration makes the applicant the administrator of the estate and allows them to value the estate, pay any debts and distribute the estate according to the intestacy rules⁸. A professional service will typically handle the paperwork, the correspondence with banks and other institutions, and the legal responsibility of getting the application right.

That legal responsibility matters. If you make a mistake and miss out some details about the property, money and belongings owned by the person who died, you could be held liable and have to pay a financial penalty, particularly if you act alone without legal help on a large estate⁵. This is one of the main reasons people give for paying a professional: the service carries the burden of getting the details right, and its fee comes from the estate rather than from the executor's savings.

Doing it yourself or paying for help

Dealing with an estate yourself is free apart from the official application fee, and many estates are straightforward enough that people manage without a professional. There is no fee to apply for probate if the estate is valued at £5,000 or less³, and small estates may not need a grant at all. In England and Wales, you may not need letters of administration if the value of the estate is small, if property is held jointly, or if the estate is insolvent⁴.

The case for paying for help is strongest where the estate is large, complicated or disputed. All estates need an executor, and if there is not one, the court will appoint one; an executor is usually named in the will, and there can be more than one, who have to agree about how to deal with the estate⁵. Where the estate includes property to sell, unpaid taxes to calculate, or beneficiaries who do not agree, a professional can take over the coordination and the liability.

The trade-off is cost. A professional's fee reduces what the beneficiaries eventually receive, because it is paid from the estate before distribution. Against that, doing it yourself carries personal risk: mistakes about the property, money and belongings owned by the person who died can leave the executor liable for a financial penalty⁵. Neither route is right for everyone: the choice tends to come down to the size and complexity of the estate, how much time you have, and how comfortable you are with legal paperwork.

Fees come out of the estate, not the executor's own pocket

The costs of dealing with an estate are paid from the estate itself, in a set order. Funeral expenses should always be paid from the deceased's moveable estate first⁹. Moveable estate means money and belongings, as opposed to land and buildings. After the funeral, official application fees and professional charges are paid, then any debts, and only what remains is shared under the will or the intestacy rules.

This ordering has practical consequences. If the estate's money runs out early, the people who inherit may receive less than expected, or nothing at all, but the executor is not expected to pay the costs personally out of their own savings. One exception to watch: life insurance money that is written in trust is not counted as part of the estate and does not go towards funeral expenses⁹, so it passes directly to the named beneficiaries rather than through the estate.

Where the estate includes a property with an equity release plan, the sale costs also come from the estate: you or your estate will be responsible for paying all the costs of the sale, including solicitors' fees, and some providers may also charge an administration fee for removing their charge against the property, which is registered at the Land Registry¹⁰.

Official application fees across the UK

The fee to apply for the legal authority to deal with an estate depends on where the person lived and how much the estate is worth. The sources in this area give different figures for England and Wales, so both are set out here.

In Northern Ireland, you might not need letters of administration at all if the estate is worth less than £10,000 and does not contain land, property or shares, or if the whole estate is held in joint names⁴. In England and Wales, the exemptions are similar: you may not need the grant if the estate is small, if property is held jointly, or if the estate is insolvent⁴.

The £300 figure³ and the £526 figure⁴ for England and Wales differ, and fees can change over time. Before applying, check the current fee on the official GOV.UK probate application service, and treat the figures here as a guide to the scale of the cost rather than a quote. The dedicated page on the probate application fee covers the current position in more detail.

Other professionals an estate may pay: selling a home

Many estates include a home that has to be sold, and the sale generates its own professional costs, all paid from the estate. Estate agent fees can vary from less than 1% to as much as 3.5% of the sale price, depending on a number of factors, including how many estate agents are instructed¹¹. In 2025, Rightmove reported that the average seller paid roughly 1.3%, including VAT¹¹.

The average estate agent fee in 2026 in the UK is 1.42% including VAT¹², which on a £292,000 house would mean estate agent fees of around £4,150¹². Another source puts the average cost of an estate agent in England at £4,615 as of November 2025¹³. The type of contract matters too: the typical estate agent fee for sole agency is 1 to 2%, while under a sole selling agreement the estate agent is entitled to claim a fee, typically 1 to 2%, even if you find the buyer yourself¹¹.

An Energy Performance Certificate is needed when selling a house, and costs between £60 and £120 depending on your local assessor's prices¹²; another source puts the typical cost at around £65, though some firms charge up to £120¹³. All of these costs come out of the estate's proceeds before the beneficiaries are paid, so an executor selling a home should gather quotes for estate agents and conveyancing in the same way they would for their own property sale.

Free help and routes with no charge

Not everything connected with an estate costs money. The Financial Ombudsman Service, which handles complaints about financial businesses, is free to use: as the service itself puts it, "Our service is free and easy to use"⁷. If a bank, insurer or pension provider has mishandled part of the estate, complaining to the ombudsman costs the estate nothing.

Some routes through debt and money problems also carry no upfront fee. There are no fees to apply for an administration order in England, Wales and Northern Ireland¹⁴, and advice charities do not charge for the advice itself, though their solutions may involve ongoing costs once in place. The Money and Pensions Service works across the UK, with partnership managers in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales and regions across England¹⁵, and provides free guidance on money matters including what to do after a death.

For the estate itself, the main free routes are doing the administration without a professional and applying where no fee is due: there is no probate application fee if the estate is valued at £5,000 or less³. Free bereavement support and helplines are listed separately on the support after a death page, and the checklist of what to do when someone dies sets out the first steps, most of which cost nothing.

Banks, the deceased person's accounts and funeral bills

Banks play a practical role in the early days after a death, even when no professional is involved. Many banks will release the money directly to the funeral director, if you are using one, from the deceased person's account². The executor or administrator of the estate, who is responsible for managing the deceased person's affairs, can use the deceased person's assets, such as bank accounts or property, to cover funeral costs². This can mean the funeral is paid for before probate is granted, which matters because families are often worried about paying upfront.

The person managing the estate of the person who died is known as the executor or administrator¹⁶, and banks will deal with them once they have shown the death certificate and, where needed, the grant of probate or letters of administration. Banks and building societies holding a deceased person's account will typically freeze the account on notification of the death, then release funds for funeral costs and close the account once the grant is produced².

Where the estate cannot cover the funeral, help may be available from the state. In Northern Ireland, if the person who died lived in Northern Ireland, they can find out more information at nidirect.gov.uk¹⁷. If the person who died lived in Northern Ireland, you may also be able to claim a Funeral Expenses Payment for a funeral in the Republic of Ireland¹⁸. The pages on paying for a funeral and on the Funeral Expenses Payment cover these routes in detail.

The rules differ in Scotland and Northern Ireland

Dealing with an estate is not the same process across the UK. Scotland uses confirmation rather than probate. If you think the total value of the estate is more than £36,000, there are specific forms to fill in to apply for confirmation: form C1, also called the confirmation form or the inventory form, and form IHT400 if there is inheritance tax to pay or if the estate does not qualify as an excepted estate⁵. It is also the role of the executor to confirm whether policies, such as life insurance, form part of the estate⁹.

The executor's position in Scotland has its own features. All estates need an executor, and if there is not one, the court will appoint one; an executor is usually named in the will, and there can be more than one, who have to agree about how to deal with the estate⁵. The warning about personal liability applies with force: if you make a mistake and miss out some details about the property, money and belongings owned by the person who died, you could be held liable and have to pay a financial penalty, especially acting alone without legal help on a large estate⁵.

Northern Ireland has its own fees, as set out above: £326 plus an £81 personal applicant fee if you apply without a solicitor, for estates worth more than £10,000⁴. One further difference worth knowing: if you pass away while you are bankrupt in Scotland, the process continues and your estate, the things you owned, will be used to pay trustee fees and outlays¹⁹. The pages on confirmation in Scotland and probate in Northern Ireland cover each nation's process in full.

Unused pensions come into the estate from 6 April 2027

A significant change affects how estates are valued and administered. From 6 April 2027, most unused pension funds and death benefits will be included within the value of a person's estate for inheritance tax purposes⁶. The government's policy statement confirms the plan to bring unused pension funds and death benefits payable from a pension into a person's estate for inheritance tax purposes²⁰, with changes made by Finance Act 2026 bringing unused pension benefits and death benefits into a deceased person's estate for inheritance tax purposes²¹.

The scale of the change is set out in official estimates. The government estimates that around 213,000 estates will include pension wealth in 2027 to 2028²². Of those, more than three quarters of the estimated 213,000 estates annually with inherited pension wealth have no inheritance tax liability⁶. For taxpaying estates affected by the reforms in that tax year, the pension component makes up less than 5% of the net value of the estate in more than half of cases, and less than 60% of the estate in almost all cases⁶.

Not everything is caught. All death in service benefits payable from a registered pension scheme will be excluded from the value of an individual's estate for inheritance tax purposes from 6 April 2027²⁰. The maximum possible charge on unused funds or death benefits is 40% of their value⁶. Independent reporting of the estimates adds that around 10,500 estates will face an inheritance tax bill when they would not have done so under the current rules, a further 38,500 estates are expected to pay more tax than they would have otherwise, and for those affected the average additional bill is expected to be £34,000²².

For an executor or administrator, this change means estates that include a pension may need extra valuation and reporting work from April 2027, which is one of the circumstances where paying a professional can make the administration simpler. The pages on paying inheritance tax and tax after a death cover the tax side in detail.

Checking terms and complaining if things go wrong

Before signing up with any professional estate administration service, check the terms carefully. Ask what the fee is, how it is calculated, whether it is a fixed amount or a percentage of the estate, and what happens if the estate turns out to be more complicated than expected. Get the answers in writing, and check whether the first conversation carries any charge or obligation. Compare more than one provider before committing, and ask each what the total cost would be on an estate of the size you are dealing with.

If something goes wrong with a financial business involved in the estate, such as a bank, insurer or pension provider, you can complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service, which is free to use⁷. The ombudsman expects you to complain to the business first and give it a chance to put things right, and its service costs the complainant nothing regardless of the outcome⁷. For complaints about a solicitor, the route is the solicitor's own complaints process and then the legal complaints scheme, which is separate from the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Free, impartial guidance is available while you weigh up your options, including from the Money and Pensions Service, which works across all four nations of the UK¹⁵. The wider life events guide covers the money side of every stage, from making a will to being an executor and applying for probate.