How easy is DIY Probate?
If you’re asking ‘How easy is DIY Probate?’, you’re probably one of the thousands of people considering obtaining probate yourself, rather than forking out a five-figure sum to a solicitor.
The legal world has long overcharged for probate. The reality is that the process is pretty simple really – there are several forms to fill in, and you need to know how to fill them in, but that’s where it ends.
Solicitors have been known to charge upwards £10,000 and £20,000 for the process, and when you realise how simple it is, you realise just how extortionate those fees are.
And cost is not the only issue. It’s time too.
It’s not unusual for a solicitor to take six months to complete the process, far longer than necessary, and way longer than you’ll want when you’re grieving, coping with bereavement and wanting to get the process done as quickly and seamlessly as possible.
It’s for those two reasons that many more people are asking the question ‘How easy is DIY Probate?’ and researching how they can do it themselves.
So, let’s answer the question then: how easy IS DIY Probate?
The honest truth is that probate is easy enough to complete by yourself, as long as you get to grips with three key things:
- The groundwork you need to put in place before applying for probate.
- How to correctly fill in all the relevant forms and probate application paperwork.
- What you need to do to finalise the estate after probate has been obtained.
Get clarity on these three things and it really is surprisingly straightforward to obtain probate yourself.
And this fact is borne out by the stats – official figures show that the trend is moving away from using expensive solicitors to get the job done, with the majority of probate applications now coming from individuals opting for a “DIY” solution.
In the past five years, the amount of people using a solicitor to obtain probate has reduced by over 30%, and that trend looks set to continue as more and more people are waking up to the fact that they’re able to get it done themselves.
Clearly the legal profession don’t want you to know this. Their model is predicated on hourly billing models and dragging the process out so they can charge the maximum fees.
But if you’re looking for a DIY option, it’s important to know that you’re not alone – in fact you’re in the majority.
Here’s the “problem” with the DIY option (and how to counteract it):
So far, so good. DIY probate is an option for almost all estates, but that doesn’t stop people being slightly apprehensive about going through the process alone.
And often, there are very good reasons why:
- “What if I make a mistake?”
- “What if I get stuck on something?”
- What if I don’t understand a legal term?”
These are all good questions, and clearly there’ll be others on a similar theme.
But the important thing to understand is that just because you opt for a DIY option, it doesn’t mean that you have to do it without any advice, support or guidance.
Over a decade ago now, we recognised that the number of people opting for DIY was growing, but lots of them still needed help and support throughout the process.
And that’s why we created the DIY Probate Checklist and let me show you how easy it is to do DIY Probate yourself.
