Knowledge and experience
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Comprehensive Probate Services for Tiverton Clients
At Paul Steele Chartered Accountants, we provide friendly and professional support through the probate process to help family members and executors at a difficult time. This is a regulated legal service traditionally carried out by solicitors and banks. However, a change in the law now allows licensed chartered accountants to carry out this activity. Call us, in Tiverton, Devon, to learn more about this work.
In most situations, our probate services can be completed at a fraction of the cost usually charged by solicitors and banks.
Our services and charges
We offer a free consultation to discuss your circumstances and to give you an estimate of the
costs involved. The cost will depend upon the level of services that you wish us to carry out. These are detailed below with a guide as to cost.
We can assist the executors in obtaining the grant of probate from the information that they supply and then they would administer the estate. Administering the estate means gathering in the assets, settling the liabilities, and distributing the net estate to the beneficiaries.
Compilation of the inheritance tax forms and applying for probate for will usually cost between £1,000 plus vat and £1,500 plus vat.
In addition, there will be court fees which we will settle and then charge on to the estate. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/probate-fees-from-april-2014-pa3
We can also provide the complete service whereby we obtain the grant of probate and administer the estate on behalf of the executors.
The cost for this service will depend upon the size and complexity of the estate but we would be happy to give you an estimate of the cost before starting the assignment.
All probate work is carried out by, or under the guidance of, Paul Steele FCA, a licenced probate practitioner.
These estimates are dependent upon the executors providing all the necessary information at the start of the assignment. Late amendments will be charged at an hourly charge out rate.
How long will it take?
Once the assets and liabilities have been quantified the relevant inheritance tax forms will be completed and agreed with the executors.
The inheritance tax forms will then be submitted to HMRC. Once HMRC have acknowledged receipt of the forms (usually within 3 or 4 weeks) an application to obtain probate will be submitted. This can take up to 8 weeks and sometimes longer dependent upon the workload of the Probate Registry.
Time taken for the administration of the estate will depend upon the assets and liabilities involved and an estimate of the administration period can be given once the inheritance tax forms have been completed.
Complaints & regulatory
If you would like to talk to us about how we can improve our service to you, or if you are unhappy with the service you are receiving, please let us know by contacting the head of legal practice / probate contact partner Paul Steele. We will carefully consider any complaint that you may make about our probate services as soon as we receive it and will do all we can to resolve the issue. We will acknowledge your complaint within five business days of its receipt and endeavour to
deal with it within 8 weeks. Any complaint should be submitted to us in writing.
In the unlikely event that we cannot meet our liabilities to you, you may be able to seek a grant from ICAEW's Compensation Scheme. Generally, applications for a grant must be made to ICAEW within 12 months of the time you become aware, or reasonably ought to have been aware, of the loss. Further information about the scheme, and the circumstances in which grants may be made, is available on ICAEW's website: www.icaew.com/probate.
If you would like to talk to us about how we can improve our service to you, or if you are unhappy with the service you are receiving, please let us know by contacting the head of legal practice / probate contact partner Paul Steele. We will carefully consider any complaint that you may make about our probate services as soon as we receive it and will do all we can to resolve the issue. We will acknowledge your complaint within five business days of its receipt and endeavour to deal with it within 8 weeks. Any complainnt should be submitted to us in writing.
If we do not deal with it within this timescale or you are unhappy with our response you may of course take the matter up with our professional body, ICAEW, and the Legal Ombudsman. Complaints to the Legal Ombudsman should be made within six years of the act or omission or within three years of you becoming aware of the issue, and in either case within six months of our written response to your complaint to us.
The contact details for the Legal Ombudsman are:
Letter: Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ,
Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Telephone: 0300 555 0333.