How to deal with an estate in Scotland

Dealing with someone’s estate after they die can be daunting, but there’s usually no rush and most of the work is practical admin that anyone can do. You need to gather details of what they owned, settle any debts, and pass what is left to the people entitled to inherit.

Where this guide fits

This guide picks up where the Scottish Government’s What to do after a death in Scotland guide ends. The Government guide covers the first weeks: registering the death, arranging the funeral, sorting out benefits. This guide takes you from there into the estate itself: the practical work of administering it, whether Confirmation is needed, and how to get help with the process if you want it.

You can also find out more on Money Saving Expert’s Guide to Probate in Scotland.

What you’ll find on this page

• an online tool to check whether Confirmation is needed
• an online tool to find out who inherits when there is no Will
• a free First Week Pack with checklists and templates
• a detailed comparison of the different routes Executors can choose
• links to useful resources to go into more detail

If you would rather not do any of this yourself

Some people would prefer to hire a professional to handle the whole estate. A solicitor can run everything for you. This is a more expensive route, but can be helpful when you have a complicated estate or don’t have the time, capacity, or support to handle things alone.

If you definitely want to use a solicitor, there are still ways to keep solicitor fees under control.

You can search for a solicitor via the Law Society of Scotland, or get a trusted referral from My Probate Partner.

• My Probate Partner’s vetted solicitor referral
• The Law Society of Scotland’s solicitor directory

You can start yourself, then decide

Most Executors do not need to decide whether to use a solicitor right away. Doing some initial investigation yourself is usually straightforward, and it tells you what kind of estate you are dealing with. From there, the decision about what support you need is informed by what you have actually found, rather than what you fear you might find.

Will or no Will

An Executor is the person legally responsible for dealing with someone’s estate after they die. A Will usually names the Executor. Where there is no Will, and you need to apply for Confirmation, the Sheriff Court appoints an Executor. There are more steps involved in administering an estate which has no valid Will.

When there is a Will

The Will names the Executor or Executors. If the Will is valid for the Sheriff Court, any named Executor can apply for Confirmation once the estate has been valued. Only one Executor needs to sign the application.

When there is no Will

Scottish ‘intestacy’ legislation decides who inherits when there is no Will. Normally, only people who stand to inherit can apply to be Executor.

The rules can be complex, and there aren’t many helpful tools for Scotland. Even HMRC’s own tool does not handle Scottish intestacy reliably.

The intestacy checker below has been specially designed for Scotland, and shows who is entitled to inherit.

There are some differences to dealing with an estate without a valid Will.

The first week

Once you have registered someone’s death, there is a short list of practical things to handle in the first week or two. The Scottish Government guide covers the registration itself, and Tell Us Once handles the bulk of notifying government departments in one go.

For the estate, the next step is getting organised: locating accounts, gathering documents, and working out who needs to be told.

Free First Week Pack

You can download a free first week checklist from probate support company My Probate Partner. It includes a practical checklist as well as templates for writing to banks, pension providers, and other organisations to request values of accounts and assets. You don’t need to buy any of their services.

Valuing the estate

Valuing the estate means working out what the person owned on the day they died, and what each of those things was worth on that date. Until you have an idea of the estate value, it might not be obvious whether you need Confirmation, or the correct way to apply.

In most cases this involves admin work rather than being legally complex. The First Week Pack templates are designed to make the requests to banks, pension providers, and share registrars easier.

Property: the biggest signal for Confirmation

If the person owned property, you will probably need to apply for Confirmation. If there is a surviving co-owner, it depends on what it says in the title deeds. You can find out more about this by using the Confirmation Checker tool on this page.

Other assets

For bank accounts, investments, pensions, business interests, and personal possessions, you need to know the value on the day the person died.

Check whether you need Confirmation

Once you have valued the estate, the next question is whether you need Confirmation. This free Confirmation Checker usually takes less than a minute.

If Confirmation is not needed

There is still work to do if you don’t need to apply for Confirmation: settling debts, closing accounts, and distributing what is left to the people entitled to inherit. The routes in the next section can still help with this work, even though you can skip the Confirmation application step.

If Confirmation is needed

If you do need Confirmation, you might qualify for free help to handle that part. Otherwise, you can hire a solicitor, go it alone, or use a support service.

Each of these four routes to handle an estate in Scotland suits different situations. Many people use more than one as the estate moves through different stages.

The cards below give an at-a-glance view. The sections below add detail on each.

At a glance

Free Sheriff Court help

If the estate is valued at less than £36,000, it’s known as a ‘small estate’. To get free help from the Sheriff Court for a small estate, you usually need to speak to them directly. They will go through the C1 form and the inventory with you.

This is application help only. The Court does not help with the rest of estate administration: valuing the estate, writing to banks, settling debts, or distributing the inheritance. That work still falls to you.

This route fits if:

• the person died in Scotland
• the estate is under £36,000 in total value, with no property or land
• you are happy to handle the rest of estate administration themselves
• you are comfortable working with the Court directly

Pros:

• the application help is free
• the Sheriff Clerk knows the forms and the local Court’s expectations

Cons:

• it only covers the Confirmation application, not the wider administration
• appointment availability varies by Court
• the Sheriff Court is not allowed to help with estates over £36,000 (SCTS guidance)

DIY

DIY keeps the whole process in your hands. It can work well where the estate is simple and you are comfortable checking detail carefully.

This route fits if:

• the estate is simple, with a small number of accounts and no property or land
• you are very confident with forms and detail
• you are not in a hurry for Confirmation and have time to go back and forth with the Court if you need to resubmit your application

Pros:

• the only cost is the Court’s own fees
• you stay in full control of the process

Cons:

• where Confirmation is needed, the first-attempt success rate is under 5% (based on feedback from Sheriff Court clerks across Scotland)
• online information is often based on English probate rules, and forum advice can be misleading because there can be many nuances between estates
• general-purpose AI tools (including ChatGPT and Claude) often present confident answers that miss nuance, and may confuse Scottish Confirmation with English Probate
• the biggest DIY risk is that you might miss issues you don’t know to look for

Support service

A support service is a fixed-fee specialist that prepares Confirmation applications and supports Executors through the wider estate administration. You stay in control but benefit from expert guidance.

This route fits if:

• you want expert help without paying for a full solicitor service
• you are content to do the legwork (writing to banks, gathering values etc)
• you would rather pay a fixed, predictable fee than a percentage of the estate or high hourly rate

Pros:

• fixed fee that is much less than what you’d pay a solicitor
• a 95%+ first-attempt success rate on Confirmation applications
• dedicated support throughout the process
• Court-ready Confirmation forms, with the local Court’s expectations built in

Cons:

• you still do the estate admin yourself
• it is not a legal representation service, so it cannot resolve disputes or advise on complex tax arrangements, like trusts
• it is not suitable for estates that genuinely need a solicitor (see Solicitor route below)

If you want to check whether a support service is right for your situation, use My Probate Partner’s free online tool to check.

Solicitor

Using a solicitor usually means you give instructions and information while the solicitor handles the legal work and wider administration. It is the right route for estates with genuine legal complexity, or disputes, that tip the work beyond what other routes can handle.

This route fits if:

• there is no valid Will, the estate is worth more than £250,000, and there is no surviving spouse who inherits the entire estate
• the Executors are in dispute, or family relationships are very fractured
• the validity of the Will is being challenged through a solicitor
• the estate involves trusts or other complex tax arrangements
• the estate is insolvent
• you would rather pay a professional to handle everything

Pros:

• the solicitor does the work; you provide information and instructions
• legal advice is available where the situation genuinely needs it

Cons:

• usually charged as a percentage of the estate, often 2–5% plus VAT and other costs. On a typical estate, this can run to several thousand pounds.
• where Confirmation is needed, the first-attempt success rate is around 70%
• fees, response times, and communication standards vary widely between firms

If a solicitor is the right route, My Probate Partner has a vetted referral and the Law Society of Scotland’s directory is the official register of solicitors in Scotland.

What the Confirmation step involves

The Confirmation step is broadly the same for all routes — the difference is how much support you have.

To apply, you need to complete the C1 form, giving details of who has died, what they owned, what it was worth on the date of death, and who has authority to deal with the estate.

The application goes to the local Sheriff Court covering the area where the person lived.

Some estates need extra steps before you can send the Confirmation application:

• if there is no Will, the Executor needs to be appointed by the Sheriff Court first, and you might need a Bond of Caution
• if the estate values are over certain limits, you need to submit an application to HMRC before you can apply for Confirmation. Around 1 in 10 estates need to do this.

After Confirmation

Once Confirmation is granted, you can use it to access accounts, sell or transfer property, and pay out the inheritance. This stage is sometimes called closing down the estate.

Not sure where to start?

You do not need to do everything at once. The estate can be worked through one step at a time — there’s usually no rush. If you get stuck, you can always bring in more help at any stage.

For most people, the first few practical steps are the same:

• register the death
• find the original Will, if there is one
• get the date-of-death balances and values of all the accounts and assets from the relevant organisations

From there, the rest of the guide above walks you through working out what needs doing and choosing how you want to handle it.

This free guide is brought to you by My Probate Partner, Scotland’s dedicated Confirmation support service. My Probate Partner offers free orientation calls if you would like to talk things through, which you can book on their website.

Last updated: 3 June 2026