Probate & Estate Administration

When someone dies, the process of sorting out their affairs is called estate administration – or more commonly, ‘probate’.  Probate generally involves: the executor/administrator (who has the legal responsibility for managing the probate process); the beneficiaries (who will receive a legacy or gift from the estate) and everyone else (wider family and friends of the person that’s died).

Generally probate is a straightforward process, which is completed without any problems.  But for some estates, there are significant issues between people involved, including:

• Disagreements between the executors and beneficiaries on how the probate is being managed. This might include: executors not talking to everyone involved; excessive costs; how long probate is taking, disagreements with executor’s decisions and executors finding beneficiaries to be unrealistic.
• Differences of opinion between beneficiaries, which might include: what they are entitled to; how the Will should be interpreted, who else should be included as a beneficiary (but was left out of the Will).
• The deceased’s wider group of family and friends, who feel: they should be entitled to an inheritance as they were dependent on the person who died; a promise was made to them by the deceased person or probate is not progressing as it should.

Through mediation we offer a cost effective, efficient and private way of resolving probate disputes.  These disputes can bring probate to a stop, cost thousands of pounds in legal costs and can be an unnecessarily distressing for those involved. 

Our fees for probate mediation are £200.00 per hour.   There may be addtional charges for joint meeting venues.