Probate or heir advance finance is a specialist loan provided to beneficiaries or executors of an estate, secured against a property awaiting probate. In the UK, property development finance professionals may use this structure to acquire or unlock value from inherited assets before legal ownership is formalised. These loans are short-term and repayable from the eventual sale, refinance, or distribution of the estate. They offer liquidity during probate delays and are particularly useful in time-sensitive development opportunities or urgent financial situations linked to inherited property.
Within the broader framework of Special Situation Lending, probate or heir advance finance is deployed where timing mismatches between legal ownership and commercial opportunity create a funding gap. Developers or beneficiaries may leverage this structure to secure early control or liquidity against estate property, often enabling acquisition, planning progression, or disposal ahead of formal probate completion. Transactions must carefully align with estate administration processes, typically overseen by an Administrator, with lenders focusing on exit certainty. As a result, underwriting scrutiny often centres on repayment visibility, including metrics such as Take-Out Coverage at DSCR ≥x, to ensure the eventual realisation of estate value supports full loan recovery.
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