Are you looking for DIY Probate UK?
You’re in the right place, and you’re definitely not alone – hundreds and hundreds of people are now opting to complete probate themselves, for one reason:
Cost.
Solicitors have long overcharged for probate, usually charging a minimum of £5,000 for the service, which is vastly overpriced, and doesn’t reflect how simple probate usually is to obtain.
The truth is that probate is – usually – fairly simple.
You do need to understand the forms that need completing, but that’s about as far as it goes – with a simple guide to help you, most people can complete probate themselves without needing to use a solicitor.
But here’s the problem: even obtaining probate for a simple estate can be a stressful experience, mostly because you’re trying to obtain it during a difficult, emotional period of time – basically the complete opposite of the conditions you’d like to be able to sit down and complete paperwork.
And that – in a nutshell – is how solicitors have managed to keep overcharging for probate for so long, by preying on your emotional mindset, and giving you the nagging feeling that you’re best off leaving this to the professionals.
To add insult to injury, using a solicitor usually takes a lot longer (they often bill by the hour, so it’s hardly surprising), so it elongates the process and costs you more money.
But enough of the doom and gloom – more people are doing DIY probate than ever before, and that’s something that needs to be celebrated.
Should you look to obtain probate yourself?
Probably. As long as the estate you’re looking to obtain probate for is straightforward, you should have no problems completing probate yourself.
In terms of what you need to when obtaining probate, there are three main things to consider:
- Pre-preparation: what you need to do before you start your application.
- Application: the forms themselves.
- Finalisation: what you need to do to finalise the estate after being awarded probate
That’s it – three things. Break it down like that, and all of a sudden it looks a lot less daunting. Yes, there are a few legal terms you’ll need to look up, and you might need a small amount of help on the forms, but nothing you’d need a solicitor for.
But before you start attempting to obtain probate yourself, it’s worth reading this:
Yes, doing probate yourself is an option open to many people.
But we won’t pretend that there are some tough elements – this isn’t just “homework” that could be completed by anyone over the age of 10.
You’ll need to focus on it, you’ll need to fill in the right forms, in the right order, and what most people find is that although they don’t need a solicitor, they do benefit from a framework that helps them to get through the process quickly, and without fuss or stress.
And with that in mind, I can recommend our free Essential Probate Checklist.
The Essential Probate Checklist provides you with the framework you need to obtain probate yourself, helping you:
- Understand what probate is, how it works, and the key things you need be thinking about when obtaining it
- Understand whether you need to complete it or not
- The 16 things you need to do to obtain probate
- What the Executor needs to do
- How to identify everyone that needs to be told about the deceased’s death
As a framework to help you obtain probate yourself, the Essential Probate Checklist is very useful, and as I mentioned, it’s completely free – you can get instant access to it by clicking here now.