Probate is the legal process that gives someone authority to deal with a dead person’s estate. Banks will not hand a stranger the contents of an account because they claim to be the executor; the Land Registry will not transfer a house on someone’s say-so. Probate is how the law solves that: a court document, issued by the Probate Registry, that proves who is entitled to act.
One process, three documents
- Grant of probate: issued when there is a valid will naming executors. The executors apply.
- Letters of administration (with will annexed): there is a will, but no executor able or willing to act; usually the main beneficiary applies.
- Letters of administration: no will at all. The intestacy rules decide both who inherits and who may apply, in strict order of kinship.
Collectively these are "grants of representation", and people use "probate" loosely for all three. Whoever holds the grant is the personal representative, with the same core job either way: collect the estate, pay its debts, distribute the rest. What that involves day to day is covered in what an executor actually does.
When probate is needed, and when it is not
Not every estate needs a grant. Two big categories pass outside probate entirely: assets owned as joint tenants (the family home, joint accounts), which pass automatically to the surviving owner, and pensions or life policies paid under a nomination direct to the named beneficiary.
For everything else it depends on size and type. Each bank sets its own threshold, typically between £5,000 and £50,000, below which it will release funds against a signed declaration without a grant. Property in the sole name of the person who died always needs a grant. So, in practice, does any estate of real substance: shares, larger balances, or anything an institution will not release informally.
What applying involves
- Value the estate at date-of-death figures: assets, debts, and gifts made in the previous seven years
- Report to HMRC: most estates with no tax to pay are "excepted" and report through the probate application itself; taxable estates file the full IHT400 account first
- Pay any inheritance tax due (at least the first instalment on property) before the grant issues
- Apply to the Probate Registry, almost always online now, with the original will and the application fee: £300 for estates over £5,000, nothing below that
- Receive the grant and use official copies to unlock each asset
Our free probate checklist lays all of this out phase by phase, in a printable form your family can tick off as they go.
Do you need a solicitor for probate?
No; personal applications are routine, and for a simple estate an organised executor manages perfectly well. Professional help earns its fee where the estate is taxable, includes a business or foreign assets, looks insolvent, or where a dispute is brewing. It is a job-by-job call, and mixing the two (doing the routine yourself, buying advice for the hard parts) is often the sensible pattern. Timescales are their own subject: see how long probate takes.
What a good will changes
Probate exists whether or not there is a will, but a will decides who holds the pen, and a well-organised estate halves the work. A Willful will names your executors and substitutes, is registered with the National Will Register so it can be found, and sits alongside an encrypted vault and a probate pack designed for the person who will one day sit down with this list.