Websites for wills and probate solicitors
Websites for wills and probate solicitors: clear enough for an executor with a folder, gentle enough for the family
Private client work is bought by two people at once: the client and the family member helping them. Both want the same things from the website, plainly: what the fee is, what the process is, who they will deal with, and a way to make contact that does not require a form on a tiny screen. We build that, with the probate fee information the Transparency Rules require written as a page a grieving executor can read, and the wills and LPA pages in language that respects the reader.
The readers
Four people, four ways of reading, one site
Each arrives with a different question and a different device. The pages are written for all four.
- The executor
- Often a son or daughter, grieving, with a folder of paperwork and no idea what a grant of probate is. Searches 'probate solicitor <town>' and 'how much does probate cost'. Wants the process and the fee, gently.
- The older client
- Wants a will or a lasting power of attorney, prefers a person to a portal, reads on a tablet with larger text, and rings rather than fills a form. The site must work for them: contrast, size, a number that answers.
- The adult child organising for a parent
- Searches 'LPA solicitor near me' in a lunch break, compares three firms on the phone, books the one with a clear fee and an appointment link.
- The professional referrer
- Accountants, financial advisers, care homes. They check the firm's page before recommending; the accreditations and the people matter more than the prose.
The answers
What the site answers before anyone has to ring
The first call to a private client department is nearly always about cost and process. Answered on the page, plainly, it turns into a call about instructing.
- Probate fees in the format the SRA Transparency Rules require: fixed fee or hourly basis, the likely range, disbursements, VAT, what is and is not included, the stages, the timescale, who does the work
- Wills and LPA fees where you offer fixed prices, and what a home visit costs
- The process for a grant of probate in plain steps, with what the executor does and what the firm does
- The people: STEP or SFE membership, years admitted, the matters they take, a photograph
- A way to contact the firm that works for an eighty-year-old: a telephone number that is answered, and a form that asks three things
Built for an older reader
- Type that is large by default and still clean when enlarged
- Contrast that passes with room to spare, no grey-on-grey
- The telephone number at the top of every page, one tap
- A form of three fields, and a promise of a call back the same day
- No pop-ups, no chat widgets, nothing that moves
- A home-visit option stated plainly, with the area it covers
Search
Probate and LPA searches are real, and often less crowded than conveyancing
“Probate solicitor” with a town, “how much does probate cost”, “lasting power of attorney solicitor near me”: steady searches, mostly answered by directories and firms with one page for everything. A proper page per service with the fee and the process tends to move in months. The profile and the pages are kept moving by the monthly work.
Questions firms ask us
Does a firm have to publish probate fees?
For uncontested probate where all assets are in the UK, yes, under the SRA Transparency Rules: the cost or its basis, the range, disbursements, VAT, what is included and excluded, the stages, the timescale and the experience of the people doing the work. Firms that publish it as a readable page win the executor who has been quoted a percentage elsewhere.
Our clients are older. Do they use websites?
Their children do, on their behalf, and increasingly so do they, on a tablet with the text enlarged. A site that passes accessibility checks, with large clear type and a telephone number in the header, serves both. The stock photograph of a smiling grey-haired couple serves neither.
Should the site push online will-writing?
If you offer it, show it, with its limits. If you do not, say plainly why a solicitor-drafted will is different, without disparaging anyone. Most private client firms win on the home visit and the conversation, and the page should say so.
Can the site take appointment bookings?
Yes, for will appointments and LPA meetings, with a calendar for each fee earner and a home-visit option. The adult child organising for a parent books at lunchtime without a phone call.
Get the executors and the families who are searching tonight
Send your site, or say you have none, and your town. You get a review of what an executor and an older client each see, and a quote.