On the 5th of November 2018, an update on probate fees was provided by Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Ministry of Justice, Lucy Frazer QC MP. It was announced that new legislation to implement a new, banded structure of fees for a Grant of Probate (also known as Grant of Representation) has been presented before Parliament.

Probate Registry fees are set to rise from 22 April 2014. All Grant applications received from this date onwards will be subject to the new fees.

A funeral director in the northwest of London has said that more people in the area are now choosing a basic funeral, as dying has become much more expensive in the capital.

In his March 2012 report “Costs and customer service in a changing legal services market”, Adam Sampson, the Chief Ombudsman at the Legal Ombudsman (LeO), emphasises that customers are at the centre of what every legal services provider does. The report contains a number of stories in which he identifies that the uncertainty surrounding the cost of legal services generally, law firms’ lack of clear pricing policies and poor customer communication, as being the source of most complaints to LeO. He singles out the traditional practice of charging open-ended hourly rates for special criticism, saying that customers have the right to know in advance what the cost of buying legal services will be.

William Feeny, Chartered Accountant, discusses the various practices that have evolved for pricing estate administration services. Most advisers working in the financial services market will understand the concepts of “credence goods” and “asymmetry of information”. But there are many consumers who purchase these services everyday and do not recognise the words or the dangers.