Walter Dawson & Son Is Licensed by The Institute of Chartered Accountants In England And Wales To Carry Out Non-Contentious Probate In England And Wales.

Our specialists Richard Hall & Julie Young are experienced in dealing with applications for probate and the full administration of an estate. Our aim is to take away the stress and worry of performing such tasks at a difficult time for family members following the loss of a loved one or to assist non-family members appointed as executors to a will to meet their statutory duties.

The probate process is the financial and legal process of dealing with a deceased’s estate.

This includes

• Applying for Grant of Probate
• Calculation of Inheritance Tax payable and preparation of all tax returns
• Estate administration
• Collection of the assets, discharging liabilities and expenses
• Preparation of estate accounts
• Allocating the estate to the beneficiaries
• General advice and support on the role of executor/administrator

We primarily work with existing clients and their families as we already have a strong knowledge of their financial and tax affairs which makes the whole process efficient and cost effective.

Fees for Probate service work

Applying for probate can be a lengthy process for more complicated estates where there is a lot of information to be gathered in valuing the Estate, therefore already having some of this information to hand helps keep this to a minimum. It is estimated that obtaining a Grant of Probate/Letters of Administration will usually take 6-12 months.

All our fees are based on time spent, unlike some banks and solicitors we do not charge a percentage of the value of the estate. We generally find this works out cheaper for our clients. Our charge-out rates are £120 per hour for probate practitioners and £40 per hour for administrative support. We do not charge any fees until the process has been completed. All fees are +VAT at the standard rate and exclude any court fees applicable to the application which are recharged at cost.

We are keen for our potential clients to obtain the best value for money & to be able to budget when they are looking for Probate accountant services.

Types of Probate

At Walter Dawson & Son we offer two types of Probate:

Regulatory Information

We are licensed for the reserved legal activity of non-contentious probate, in the unlikely event that we cannot meet our liabilities to you, you may be able to seek a grant from ICAEW’s Probate Compensation Scheme. Generally, applications for a grant must be made to ICAEW within twelve 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 Richard Hall, Head of Legal Practice. We will consider carefully 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 eight weeks. Any complaint should be submitted to us by letter.

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, the 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

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Telephone: 0300 555 0333