Private Client

Delays at the Probate Service are shortening in the wake of a “distinct improvement in recruitment, competency, productivity and call handling”, the government said this week.

The wills, trust and probate market could be worth over £3bn by 2027, new research has found, with “stronger demand” for powers of attorney and contentious probate.

Private client lawyers are divided over whether the rule that marriage or civil partnership automatically revokes a will should be scrapped as a way to combat ‘predatory marriages’.

MPs have launched an inquiry into probate in the wake of mounting concern about how long the process is taking, with HM Courts & Tribunals Service admitting to rising levels of complaints.

A solicitor who practised unauthorised and handled reserved probate work for a company owned by her non-solicitor son after her firm closed has been suspended for three months.

Private client lawyers believe the new online probate process is taking longer than the old paper-based system, with family solicitors and civil litigators also unhappy with digital processes.

Two solicitors who failed in their duties as attorneys under a lasting power of attorney have each been fined £11,250 by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

A new Wills Act could permit electronic wills to be introduced “immediately”, rather than enabling the Lord Chancellor to introduce them in the future, the Law Commission says today.

Law firms are losing business by failing to get back to potential clients, with as many as one in five enquiries going unanswered, new research shows.

Nearly half of consumers who have a will either wrote their own or obtained it through a cheap online service, with hardly any checking the credentials of the provider.

A solicitor failed to spot a conflict of interest when a vulnerable client’s attorneys bought five properties using her money but gave themselves a 50% ownership stake in each.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is to step up efforts to ensure compliance with continuing competence obligations, particularly among conveyancers and probate specialists.

Law firms are maintaining a good standard of service despite increased demand for lasting powers of attorney and deputyship work, an SRA review has found.

Cryptocurrency and digital assets are the assets of the future. But how can they be valued, regulated and retained? In this new online world, solicitors must understand how these assets will affect Wills and how to value them and include them in final estate accounts.

The High Court has praised the “ingenious arrangement” of witnessing a will through a car window in the early days of the pandemic.