Most people visit a wills and probate firm's website at a difficult time. Someone close to them has died and they have been named as executor, or they have just realised they need to put their affairs in order. They are not comparing awards or reading about the firm's history. They want to know three things: what happens next, who they will deal with and what it will cost.
Many law firm websites answer none of these on the first screen. They lead with a photo of a building, a list of accreditations and a contact form. A probate solicitor website that answers the three questions first is more useful to the person visiting and more likely to turn that visit into an instruction.
Who is visiting and what they need
A private client firm usually serves a few groups, each with a different state of mind:
- Executors and families after a death. Often anxious and unfamiliar with the process. They need to know what to do this week and whether they need a solicitor at all.
- People making or updating a will. Usually calmer, but often putting it off. They want to know how long it takes, what it costs and what they need to bring.
- Families arranging a lasting power of attorney. Often prompted by a parent's illness. They want to understand the process and the timeline.
- People setting up trusts or planning for inheritance tax. More likely to want detail and to compare firms.
A good site speaks to each group in plain language and points them to the right page quickly.
Start with the week after a death
For many firms, probate enquiries are the most urgent. A visitor who has just lost someone is looking for steps. A short section near the top of the home page can help:
- Registering the death and getting copies of the death certificate
- Finding the will, if there is one
- Securing the property and informing banks and other organisations
- Understanding whether probate is needed and who can apply
- When to speak to a solicitor and what to bring
Keep it plain and kind. You are not giving full legal advice on the home page. You are giving people enough to feel less lost and showing them that your firm understands what they are going through. Link each step to a fuller article where it helps.
Put the fees on the page
Price is a real concern for families dealing with an estate, and it is often the reason they hesitate to call. In England and Wales, the Solicitors Regulation Authority's Transparency Rules require firms offering certain services to publish price and service information on their websites. Uncontested probate is one of the services covered. Check the current rules and how they apply to your firm.
Even where the rules do not require it, showing fees for wills, lasting powers of attorney and estate administration helps clients. A good fees page includes:
- A fixed fee or a fee range for each common service
- What is included and what is not
- What might make the fee higher, such as property abroad, disputes or a large number of beneficiaries
- Third-party costs such as court fees, which are separate from your fees
- Typical timescales
- Who will do the work and their level of experience
Write it for a non-lawyer. Avoid jargon, or explain it when you use it.
People, not credentials
A family dealing with an estate will be working with your team for months. They want to know who those people are. Give each person who will handle client work a short profile:
- Name, photo and role
- What they work on, in plain words
- Their qualifications and how long they have practised
- A sentence about how they work with clients
Real photos of real people matter more here than in most sectors. Avoid stock images. A client who has seen the face of the person who will call them is more likely to pick up the phone.
A process timeline
Probate and estate administration can take many months. Clients feel better when they know what stage they are at and what comes next. A simple timeline on the probate page helps set expectations:
1. First meeting and gathering information
2. Valuing the estate and reporting to HMRC where needed
3. Applying for the grant of probate
4. Collecting assets and paying debts
5. Preparing estate accounts
6. Distributing the estate to beneficiaries
Add a typical timescale for each stage, with a clear note that every estate is different. Use the same structure in your client letters so the website and your service match.
Articles that answer real questions
Write down the questions clients ask in first meetings and answer each one in a short article. For example:
- Do I need a solicitor to deal with probate?
- What does an executor actually have to do?
- How long does probate take?
- What happens if there is no will?
- What is a lasting power of attorney and when do I need one?
These articles help families who are not ready to call yet, and they bring in people searching those exact questions. Keep them accurate, date them, and review them when the law or the fees change.
Setting up Ashcombe
Ashcombe is a Framer template for a private client law firm covering probate, wills, trusts and lasting power of attorney. It opens with the week after someone dies, not the firm's credentials, and it puts fees on the page. It answers what happens next, who the client will deal with and what it costs before it asks for anything.
It includes a home page, services with fees, the people, a process timeline, seven sample articles on the CMS, a contact form, a setup guide and a branded 404. Desktop, tablet and phone layouts are hand-tuned. It costs $49, and one licence covers unlimited sites, including client work.
To set it up, replace the demo fees with your own, add your team with real photos, adjust the timeline to match how you work, rewrite or replace the sample articles, add your regulatory information and connect the contact form to your firm's email.
See our list of Framer templates for law firms for other options.
The test
Open your current website on a phone and pretend you are an executor who has just lost a parent. Can you find out, within a minute, what to do next, who you would speak to and roughly what it would cost? If not, those are the three things to fix first.