We’re pleased to welcome Ian Bond, Director and Head of Wills and Estates at Thursfields Solicitors who will be presenting our last Certainty Expert Webinar of the year, titled ‘2020: A year in review’ on Thursday 3 December 2020.
As a result of the Coronavirus pandemic it is fair to say that professional life for most private client practitioners was a bit different in 2020. There has been a need to adjust many of our day-to-day working practices to cope with the new demands of social distancing, isolating and lockdown. Our traditional office based face-to-face practices gave way to the remote delivery of services as we got used to working from home. Solicitors involved with the execution of Wills were designated key workers by the government. We had new legislation to assist in the execution of Wills, and the way we extract grants of representation from the Probate Registry has changed. This session looks at the key changes for Wills and probate practitioners from the last 12 months.
Agenda:
The first part of this session deals with the new Wills legislation:
- Explaining the background, impact and risks to consider related to the introduction of the witnessing of the execution of Wills by means of video conferencing technology;
- Looking at what good practice would be in remotely taking instructions for Wills;
- Setting out the requirements for the remote execution of Wills using video conferencing technology;
- Considering future changes to come in the execution of Wills; and
- Exploring the impact of changing Wills execution will have on the execution of Lasting Powers of Attorney.
The second part of this session will grant applications:
- looking at changes to the procedure for obtaining grants of representation;
- recapping the changes made by HMCTS to date; and
- setting out the expectations of the new online application processes.