The greatly increased fees charged by the government for probate next year could adversely affect the amount of money left for charities, it is feared.

The new fees will see charges rise from the current fixed £215 to a sliding scale based on the value of the estate. Estates of up to £50,000 are exempt from any charges but estates of £500,001 will pay a £2,500 fee and those of £2,000,000 a fee of £6,000.

According to the Institute of Legacy Management the loss to charities could be as much as £10 million, though this equates to around a third of one per cent of the £2.9 billion left to charities in wills last year, with health and cancer groups being the largest beneficiaries.