Wills and probate in Scotland

Last reviewed 18 August 2026

Scotland keeps its own law of succession, older and in some ways kinder to family than England’s — and an executor who assumes the two are alike will soon be corrected.

Legal rights a will cannot defeat

In Scotland, a spouse or civil partner and children have legal rights over the moveable estate (money, shares, possessions — not land or buildings) that a will cannot take away. A child can claim their legal share even where the will leaves them nothing: broadly, children take one-third of the moveable estate where there is a surviving spouse, or one-half where there is not, with the spouse’s legal rights mirroring that. This is quite unlike England, where a will can, in principle, disinherit a child.

Confirmation, not probate

Scotland’s equivalent of a grant of probate is Confirmation, granted by the sheriff court on Form C1. A small estate — gross value £36,000 or less — uses a simplified procedure in which the sheriff clerk helps prepare the inventory free and no court fee is charged. Court fees on larger estates (from April 2026) are around £0 up to £50,000, £351 to £250,000, and £705 above. Inheritance tax itself is UK-wide and unchanged. Because legal rights and intestacy differ so sharply, a Scottish will should be drawn with Scottish law in mind.

Sources. Succession (Scotland) Act 1964 and 2016; Prior Rights Order 2011; Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (Confirmation, Form C1, small-estate ≤£36,000, sheriff court fees from April 2026). Confirmed this session.