DIY Probate vs Solicitor: An Honest Cost Comparison

At such a difficult time we found the whole process so straight forward. From my initial call to explain how the platform works I cannot fault ‘YouCanDoProbate’. From start to finish the platform was so easy to use, the online and telephone support was excellent. Theres no need to rush and complete in a day as the platform saves your progress so it can be completed as and when you’re ready. In comparison with a solicitor the fees are very competitive! Once completed we received probate forms back within 2 weeks. Thanks again!!

So easy always called if you have a problem super helpful

A very professional company and service, so easy to use from start to finish, but always available to answer any questions quickly, no matter how trivial, saved so much money compared to traditional solicitor. Highly recommend.

When the solicitors quoted me £9,000 I decided to look for help elsewhere. I’m so glad I did as this company was brilliant and was a great help when I called them when I got a bit stuck with a question. Definitely highly recommend and this saved me a great deal of money.!

This platform is amazing! My case was a difficult one as I had to do two probates at the same time. Easy to understand and use and the communication if I became unsure was second to none! Extremely prompt and professional, thank you to the team for making a difficult time a little easier

Straightforward and easy to use, I’d recommend this to anyone. I’ve had to apply for probate on an estate with various investments, property and outstanding tax. I entered all information over a couple of days, prompted by they software. I think it would be hard to go wrong. I had questions answered very quickly either by phone or email. There was a slight glitch which resulted in incorrect tax form generation. I sent a query in on a service ticket and got a phone call over a weekend that resolved everything. My IHT400 and Probate were accepted and granted straight away. Providing you have all information about the estate to hand, this makes it very easy. Well worth the money. Thanks.

I was quoted thousands to outsource the probate process. I thus thought whether I could do it myself. After doing some research it did seem possible. I came across the YCDP website and the rest is history. The process was easy to follow and help via messaging was super fast. It cost £500 (+£301 for HM Probate department) which was £££ less than the other options. If you feel your sources of potential inheritance are fairly clear then I am happy to recommend YCDP

Timely and efficient support at a sensible cost.

Very easy to use and as they say you can contact any number of occasions as I did twice for advice. When you think I was quoted three times as much, therefore I would say they were value for money. If only the probate service was as quick.

After revisiting the IHT400 form several times and googling some of the terms used, stumbled upon You can do Probate. I was a little sceptical about signing up as it was£499 versus a minimum of £2k for a solicitor. The site breaks everything down into manageable sections. provides plain English guidance and videos to help you complete the form. it turns out I did not have to use the IHT400 as I had an excepted estate. once everything is completed, click print form, signed and sent off. I had probate granted after 7 working days and the certificate after 9. I cannot recommend the service enough

I found this service was very easy to use and straightforward. I have given it a 5 star rating and I would recommend it. I telephoned the helpline twice and was extremely happy with the help/guidence I received.

This was the first Probate I’d applied for. Initially, I assumed I’d have no choice but to go via a solicitor who would have asked me to gather all the information required yet charge thousands of pounds for the service. After carrying out further research online, I came across the YouCanDoProbate website, read their Trustpilot reviews and made some other sensible checks. I phoned them and had an initial conversation with Tom who was friendly and knowledgeable and asked several questions about the estate (it was over the individual IHT threshold but would be using the Transferable Nil Rate Band of a pre-deceased spouse) and he confirmed the platform would be able to deal with this. I was a little nervous initially about whether this was the right way forward but decided to go for it, signed up and paid the £499 fee which gave me access to the platform via my usual web browser so no special software needed. From then on, it was a relatively straightforward administrative task of putting in the information required. I loved that it saved all the information so that if I was interrupted or had to stop, I could just go back to it later and pick up where I’d left off. It went through the estate details very logically – personal info of all those involved – the deceased, pre-deceased spouse, executors, beneficiaries then assets, liabilities, expenses, gifts etc. After filling in all the required information, the platform then generated the Estate Summary (in my case showing there was no inheritance tax to pay and confirming that I didn’t have to fill in a separate form to send to HMRC). It had autofilled all the relevant information I’d input in the previous sections and made all the calculations for me with a detailed breakdown as to how the figures were arrived at. When I needed help and a bit of reassurance on 4 occasions via support ticket email, requesting a callback for a specific time or calling directly, Adam and Tom answered my queries quickly and knowledgeably and I was fully reassured that the forms had been completed correctly. Once I was satisfied with the Estate Summary details, I was able to move on and the system generated the autofilled Probate form which I could download and print off for review before signing. If anything needed to be amended, it was possible to go back and do so throughout the entire process before completing one stage and moving on to another. While I chose to complete the forms over the course of several days, I think it would be possible to complete the whole process in a few hours if there were no interruptions. On Thurs 28th May, I posted off the PA1P probate form with all the other relevant documents required including the probate fee postal orders (so no time waiting for a cheque to clear). I used the 1st class Royal Mail tracked service which was delivered the next day. I received an acknowledgement of receipt email on Mon 1 June with a reference number, another email on Tues 2 June confirming that Probate had been approved and, finally, on Thurs 4 June, I received the Grant of Probate letter in the post, 4 working days after sending off the application. I was expecting to have to wait 3 or 4 months for a response and am truly amazed at the speed of the turnaround. I cannot thank YouCanDoProbate enough. It is an amazing service, worth every penny of the £499 cost and I highly recommend it.