Even after their customers have passed away banks and solicitors manage to make considerable earnings from their estates.
Despite the availability of cost effective services it is estimated that 88% of probate fees are managed by either high street banks or solicitors, picking up a staggering £1.
25bn in the process.
Much of this money could be saved but there is a combination of a lack of understanding by those who are paying and what is widely regarded as some over-pricing in the services on offer.
One person who has some reasonably recent first-hand experience in dealing with a law firm is Adam Walker a management consultant whose father died in 2009.
He describes the fees that the firm outlined as, "blatant overcharging".
In fact he went on to give a damning description of those involved in probate services as nationally staging "a £600m a year rip-off.
" He added, "Banks and solicitors are charging large fortunes to sort out small estates.
It's worse because they prey on grief-stricken families who are not in a mood to argue, or shop around.
" When Mr Walker's father passed away he left his entire £550,000 estate to his widow.
With no other inheritance tax to pay, or bequests, this was a simple estate which consisted of a family home (valued at £300,000) a holding in Alliance (worth £200,000) and trust/savings accounts (worth £50,000).
As the executors Adam and his brother expected that the legal bill would be no more than a few thousand pounds.
On average bills for a small estate usually come to between £3,000 and £5,000.
Their father had named a third executor in his will.
This was a firm of solicitors from London and they were intent on charging 'professional fees' for their involvement.
Adam requested the costs be outlined at the beginning of the process.
He explained "I thought it essential to know, upfront, what their fees would be - after all, whatever they charged would come out of the money left to my mother.
" The firm were not forthcoming with the information, but after he persisted he was astounded by the price tag.
"The firm refused to give a quote, basically using the 'how long is a piece of string?' line.
But eventually the lawyer said she would charge 1.
5% of the estate, plus £325 an hour, plus £20 a letter, plus disbursements such as court fees plus VAT - the likely total would be £25,850.
We were shocked - it was more than twice as much as they paid for their house, and this was a very simple estate.
" When he challenged the firm and requested permission to look for an alternative Mr Walker was met with some resistance.
He explained, "The lawyer said that as the firm had been appointed, it had to act for us.
In any case, it claimed a bank would have been even costlier.
" It is true that banks are generally costlier than solicitors, but it is not true that once they have been appointed that they 'have' to act.
Mr Walker continued, "I discovered anyone - solicitor or otherwise - can renounce an executor appointment.
" Mr Walker did manage to get the law firm to resign as executors in the end after offering them a much lower amount than he was originally quoted for the service.
He highlights what he believes are the main problems at the core of the issue.
"Lawyers and banks make you feel guilty even if you have the strength to challenge them after a death in the family," adding, "The problem is, so many lawyers and banks offer will-writing as a loss leader and put themselves in as executors so they can make a fortune from the probate process after the death when the family is vulnerable.
"