Just because the value of your estate is bigger, doesn’t mean it should cost more!

When someone dies, the executors of their estate may need to apply for Probate. Probate is the Supreme Court ratifying the will of the deceased is the current and last version of the will. This confirms what are the assets & liabilities of the estate and granting formal consent for the executors to administer the estate to the beneficiaries.

However, the costs related to an estate are based on “ad valorem” scale (meaning “with value”); the greater the value of the estate, the more is charged. The Supreme Court charges more, the NSW Trustee & Guardian charges more & solicitors tend to charge relative to the law society scale.

We don’t believe this is fair. Why should the estate be charged more? Just because the assets of the estate are worth more, especially seeing real estate & share values have risen so significantly. The amount of work involved to get the grant of Probate and to finalise the estate is not greater because the value of the assets are greater, so why charge more?

This is why we started Balance Estate Management & Planning, to help our clients apply for the Grant of Probate and attend to the distribution of the estate for a flat fee (we can’t force the supreme court to charge a flat fee) but our costs to you will not be driven by the value of the estate. We believe that you deserve a better deal, which results in the beneficiaries of the estate receiving more from the estate. We primarily offer this service to our clients, so why not have chat to us about how we can save you money. We prefer to get the details ahead of time, so there is less to attend to at the time when you are grieving the loss of your family member.