I'm a beneficiary in a NSW estate that is worth around $950k. The executor is in QLD and used a QLD lawyer who has dragged things out for a year. It's a fairly simple case (a house, 2 bank accounts, a superannuation account, and an insurance account). They were going for Letters of Administration, but changed to Probate with Copy of Will, then Probate with Will after the will was found. Probate has been granted, and the executor emailed the following estimate of costs so far. Are these costs typical? The QLD lawyer fee seems very high to me given that the NSW lawyer did the application:
- QLD lawyer: $28,000 so far
- NSW lawyer for the application: $8,000