Charging and disbursements policy

<Back to fees & costs

Introduction

The following information is provided in accordance with SIP 9.

Time costs and staff allocation

  • All partners and staff are charged out at hourly rates which are reviewed annually.

  • Cashiers, secretarial and support staff are charged for separately as such work has not been charged for as part of the hourly rates charged by the partners and other staff.

  • Time is recorded on Sage Time and Fees in 6 minute units.

  • Time billed is subject to Value Added Tax (VAT) at the applicable rate.

Our general approach to resourcing our assignments is to allocate staff with the experience and skills to meet the specific requirements of the case.

The constitution of the case team usually consists of a partner, manager, assistant manager and case administrator. The exact constitution of the case team will depend on the anticipated complexity and size of the case and on larger, more complex cases, several managers/case administrators may be allocated to meet the demands of the cases.

Charge out rates

This firm’s current charge out rates are: 

Partners                  £210

Managers                £175-£155

Assistant Managers £125

Senior Professionals £110

Assistants                £75

Trainees                  £45

Our charge out rates are reviewed annually and since 1 January 2003 have increased by approximately 5% per annum. 

Disbursements

Category 1 disbursements - expenses and disbursements which comprise of external supplies of incidental services specifically identifiable to the estate require disclosure, but do not require approval prior to being drawn from the estate. These are known as Category 1 disbursements. These are re-charged at cost and are subject to VAT at the applicable rate. The main categories of Category 1 disbursements are statutory advertising, postage, travelling (including mileage charged at HM Revenue & Customs approved rates), and bordereau (statutory bonding of estimated asset realisations).

Category 2 disbursements -expenses and disbursements which are not capable of precise identification and calculation require approval prior to being drawn from the estate. These are known as Category 2 disbursements. This firm does not re-charge Category 2 disbursements.