How much does estate administration cost?
Last reviewed 18 August 2026
Administration is the whole business of settling an estate: gathering assets, paying debts and tax, and distributing what remains. Its cost turns on how much of that labour you carry yourself, and how much you entrust to others.
“…a partnership between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born.”Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, 1790
What drives the cost
The government fee is fixed at £526 (nothing below £5,000). Everything else is professional labour, priced by fixed fee, hourly rate, or — commonly where a bank acts as executor — a percentage of the estate, often 1–4%. On a large estate the percentage model can cost many times a fixed fee for the same work.
Keeping it in check
Executors may do much of the administration themselves and instruct a solicitor only for the difficult parts. Comparing firms’ published fixed fees, and avoiding percentage-based professional executors where the estate is large, are the two surest economies.
Questions
What is the difference between probate and estate administration?+
Do banks charge to act as executor?+
Sources. GOV.UK, Applying for probate: fees; SRA transparency rules; industry fee ranges.