How CalmProbate works
CalmProbate is a self-help tool. It helps you complete your own probate forms. You stay the applicant from beginning to end: you enter the figures, you check them, you sign, and you send the application in your own name.
The tool is still being built. This page describes what it will do, so you can decide now whether it will be any use to you. This site covers probate in England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland have different processes.
The six steps
Check whether you need probate at all
Not every estate needs a grant. If everything was held jointly, or there were only modest savings, the organisations holding the money may release it without one. GOV.UK advises contacting the bank and mortgage company to find out, because each organisation sets its own rules. Nobody should pay for software they do not need, so this comes first.
Answer plain-English questions
Instead of a 28-page government form written in legal language, you answer ordinary questions, one screen at a time, and only the ones that apply to your situation. You can stop and come back. There is no timer and no pressure.
See the arithmetic done on your figures
The tool adds up what you enter and shows the working back to you, so you can check it against the paperwork in front of you. The figures remain yours: the calculation is based on the values you provide.
Review your own completed forms
You see the finished application before you commit to anything, with a plain-English summary of everything you entered next to it. If something looks wrong, you go back and change it.
Print, sign and send it yourself
You print the pack, sign it, and post it with the original will and the death certificate. You pay the court fee directly to HMCTS. Your name is on the application because it is your application.
Know what happens next
You get a plain guide to the waiting part: what the court does, how long it usually takes (GOV.UK says you will usually get probate within 12 weeks of applying), what a routine query from the registry looks like, and what to do when the grant arrives.
What it will not do
This list matters as much as the one above, and it is not modesty. Some of these are legal bright lines.
- It will not apply on your behalf. Preparing probate papers for another person in expectation of a fee is a reserved legal activity under the Legal Services Act 2007. We are not a law firm, so you remain the person preparing and submitting your own application.
- It will not give you advice. It explains how the process works. It will never tell you what to do about your particular estate, and it will never claim to be a substitute for a solicitor.
- It will not guess at a complicated estate. Where an estate needs a full Inheritance Tax account, or involves trusts, business or agricultural property, or tax to pay, the tool will stop and tell you to see a solicitor. Refusing is safer than guessing.
- It will not promise a perfect outcome. The arithmetic is done on the figures you enter. Nobody can promise an application is correct when the values in it came from you, and anyone who does is overselling.
- It will not rush you. No countdowns, no “offer ends”, no pressure of any kind. You are dealing with enough.
What CalmProbate will cost
There is one product. What it costs depends on what the estate turns out to need, and that is something we work out and explain rather than something you have to pick.
Nothing is for sale yet, so there is nothing to pay and no card to enter. The prices are here because you deserve to know them before you spend any time on us.
Excepted estate
£199
When this applies: the estate is an excepted estate, so HMRC does not need full details and you certify the values on the probate application itself.
What it covers: your PA1P or PA1A completed from the figures you enter, with a checklist of what to send with it.
Not available yet. This is the part being built now, and it is the nearer of the two. We will not name a date we cannot keep.
Estate needing full Inheritance Tax details
£449
When this applies: HMRC needs full details of the estate, so an IHT400 and its schedules are required as well as the probate application.
What it covers: everything above, plus the IHT400 and whichever schedules the estate actually needs.
Not available yet, and it will be the later of the two. Nothing that touches Inheritance Tax will be sold until a probate specialist has reviewed it, because a wrong figure in a tax account carries a penalty. That review is arranged before this is built, not after.
You can see the same figures, and the four answers an estate can have, on what your estate needs.
What you will pay the court
Whatever you use, and even if you use nothing, you pay the court application fee to HMCTS yourself. It is a government fee and it never passes through us. As at 2026-09-17, GOV.UK states:
| What | Fee |
|---|---|
| Application, estate over £5,000 | £526 |
| Application, estate £5,000 or less | No fee |
| Extra copies ordered with the application | £2 each |
| Extra copies ordered afterwards | £16 each |
Source: GOV.UK — Applying for probate: Fees, checked 2026-09-17. If you are on a low income or certain benefits you may be able to get Help with Fees.
Questions
- Does CalmProbate fill in the forms for me?
- No, and it is important that it does not. CalmProbate helps you complete your own forms from answers you give. You are the applicant and the author of your application: you check every figure, you sign it, and you submit it in your own name.
- Why will CalmProbate not just do it all for me?
- Preparing probate papers for someone else in expectation of a fee is a reserved legal activity under the Legal Services Act 2007, and doing it without authorisation is a criminal offence. A genuine self-help tool, where you remain the applicant, is lawful and is what we are building.
- Will CalmProbate tell me what to do with the estate?
- No. CalmProbate explains how the process works and helps you record what you decide. It does not advise you on your particular estate. Where an estate is complicated or contested, the right answer is a solicitor and the tool will say so.
- What will CalmProbate cost?
- There is one product, and what it costs depends on what the estate turns out to need rather than on a package you choose. Where HMRC does not need full details of the estate it will be £199; where it does, and an IHT400 is needed too, £449. Nothing is for sale yet. Separately, you will always pay the court fee directly to HMCTS: that is a government fee and it never passes through us.
- Do I have to choose which version I need?
- No, and you should not have to. Working out which one applies means knowing whether the estate is an excepted estate, which is one of the things people come here to find out. The tool works it out, tells you which applies and why, and quotes that price. A pricing table that asks a grieving person to classify their own estate would be both worse to use and worse ethics.
- What kinds of estate will it handle at first?
- The first version is aimed at straightforward estates where no full Inheritance Tax account is needed. Where an estate falls outside that, for example because it involves trusts, business or agricultural relief, or tax to pay, the tool will say so and point you to a solicitor rather than guess.
- Can I use it if the person died in Scotland or Northern Ireland?
- No. CalmProbate covers England and Wales. Scotland uses a different process called confirmation, and Northern Ireland has its own rules and forms.
We'll tell you when it's ready
The tool is still being built, so there is nothing to sign up to yet. If you would like to hear when it is finished, email us and we will keep your address for that one purpose and nothing else.
When it is ready it will be £199 where HMRC does not need full details of the estate, and £449 where it does and an IHT400 is needed too. One product: which price applies is a fact about the estate, not something you pick. There is nothing to pay now and no card to enter.
Email hello@calmprobate.co.ukWe cannot tell you a launch date yet, because we do not know one. We would rather say that than invent one.
In the meantime, the guides are free and cover the whole process.