FAQs

Reclaiming VAT on overseas expenses or cross-border trade can be complex. Our specialists can advise on the correct treatment, eligibility for reclaims, and help ensure compliance with VAT rules.

It’s important to attract buyers without showing your hand or advertising your plans. Working with us, you won’t get a scatter-gun approach. Unlike business brokers, we personally vet and contact each company and have sensible conversations with senior teams under a confidentiality agreement.

Our team can be as involved as you like. Whether that’s leading the discussion or coaching you, we’ll arm you with facts, figures and clear goals and help assess offers.

Our charity team is highly experienced, with key team members holding the ICAEW Diploma in Charity Accounting and Financial Management (DChA) and an MSc in Charity Accounting and Financial Management. We publish a quarterly sector newsletter covering accounting, tax and regulatory developments, and we also speak at non-profit events. It’s something clients tell us they value, both as a practical resource and as a sign of how seriously we take this work.

Life science demands specialist accounts knowledge. The funding requirements are more demanding, the development timelines are longer, and the stakes at each funding stage are higher. Achieve your goal of accelerating medical breakthroughs with the support of a team of expert accountants who can work this through with you.

We first meet with you to learn more about your business and guide you through your options for bank or equity financing. For complete investor readiness, tell us about your goals, and we’ll make sensible suggestions, outlining the risks and benefits of each option, and how to protect shareholder value.

We can also introduce you to financiers and help you prepare a convincing business plan and funding proposal. If needed, this can be supported with a business valuation and financial projections. With our coaching and support, you’ll ace the presentation and hold your own in any negotiation.

We’ll manage the fundraising process to completion, including the loan application, and we can bring in trusted partners to handle any legal and tax work.

Our support doesn’t stop there, though. We’ll keep touching base to ensure things are running smoothly with your new partner, whether it’s a private equity firm, bank, or alternative funder.

Two major changes affected educational institutions educational institutions: lease changes moving onto the balance sheet and new tiered reporting requirements for trustees’ reports based on organisation size. We’ve prepared detailed checklists for each tier, which have been recognised and published by the ICAEW.

It’s natural to want to know how your firm is performing compared to your competitors. The use of hybrid structures or operating vehicles which do not have to publish their results can make it difficult to get an accurate picture of how your competitors are doing. PEM, as part of the Kreston network, participates in an annual benchmarking exercise giving you the ability to assess your firm’s performance against similar size firms both nationally and locally. The benchmarking survey provides comparatives for lots of criteria including fees (both by Partner and by fee earner), salary and admin costs and Profit per Equity Partner.

It’s natural to want to know how you’re performing compared to your competitors. But hybrid structures or operating vehicles that don’t publish results can make it difficult to get an accurate picture.

As part of the Kreston Global accounting network, we participate in an annual benchmarking exercise, giving you the ability to assess your firm’s performance against your competitors. The survey provides comparisons for criteria including fees, salary costs, admin costs and profit per equity partner.

Generally, timescales are determined by the estate’s complexity. A simple estate with minimal assets can take around six months. A moderately complex estate can take at least 18 months. A more complex estate can take up to two to three years. This can occur if there’s a foreign element, with assets in another country, or if there is a dispute over the estate. The estate administration services can involve:

• Registering the death and obtaining the will
• Acting as executors, where appointed
• Identifying and protecting all assets and liabilities during the administration process
• Advertising the death to notify creditors and carry out bankruptcy searches
• Establishing lifetime gifts made by the deceased
• Completing inheritance tax returns and arranging payment
• Obtaining a grant of probate or letters of administration
• Collecting assets and preparing estate accounts
• Preparing estate tax returns and repayment claims for beneficiaries
• Advising on the most tax-efficient distributions and making payments to beneficiaries in line with the will, including income certificates where required.

Sometimes the process can face delays due to collating information and HMRC’s application processing.

Your initial consultation is free. We then complete a review of the estate to understand the different assets and requirements and provide a fixed fee. Depending on the complexity, this ranges from £5,000 to £10,000 plus VAT. If you’re the executor and only require us to apply for the grant of probate, this costs from £2,500 plus VAT.

We’ll advise you of disbursements or payments to other parties, such as valuers, which are not included in the fee quoted.

Additional expenses

The majority of estates would incur additional third-party fees. The following are general but not exhaustive*:

• Probate fees – £526.00
• Copy of the Grant – £2.00 (if requested with probate application)
• Statutory notice advertisement fees – From £96.55
• Bankruptcy-only Land Charges searches – £7.00 (per beneficiary)
• Search of Wills registers – £140.00 (incl. VAT)
• Land Registry search fees (per property) – £7.00 (per property)

*These fees are correct as of 25/06/2026

Our hourly rates

We prefer to charge a fixed fee for the administration of a deceased’s estate but there are times when we would charge our hourly rates if we are instructed to attend to additional probate work.

Hourly Rates(exclusive of VAT):

• Trainees – from £85
• Managers and Assistant Directors – from £275
• Directors and Partners – from £400

Each year’s Budget and Autumn Statement can bring adjustments to rates, reliefs and reporting requirements that will affect your business directly. As your tax adviser, it’s our job to stay on top of all that on your behalf. So, we’ll flag anything relevant to you, explain what it means in practice and make sure you’re never caught off guard.

Under MTD for Income Tax, you must submit summary updates of your income and expenses at least quarterly (every three months), rather than just once a year.

The quarterly filing deadlines are as follows: