Reserved legal services work offers your firm a real business opportunity to provide a cradle-to-grave service to your clients. Combining estate administration, probate and oaths administration enables you to provide a one-stop-shop for your business advisory services as reserved legal services are a natural adjunct to your private client work. ICAEW firms that are accredited for legal services are also authorised to offer the legal service of oaths administration.
Why offer reserved legal services?
Many firms already carry out estate administration and offer inheritance tax planning and are often asked by legal professionals to produce estate accounts and inheritance tax calculations for their clients. Being able to apply for probate is usually the missing link in the client process; therefore accreditation enables you to give clients a complete one-stop-shop experience.
Clients who know that their accountant can offer probate are often more comfortable about engaging with them for this work as well, rather than approaching a different adviser. Administering oaths enables you to meet a range of legal needs. Offering this service can help introduce new clients to your firm and may encourage them to use your other legal or accountancy services in the future. It also prevents you from having to refer existing clients to other firms.
Most accountancy firms charge on a time-basis or a fixed fee, depending on the complexity of the estate and services offered. This usually represents a substantial saving to clients when compared with the more usual percentage-of-estate basis used by other providers, while still providing a solid fee income to the practice.
Clients appreciate having the same professional overseeing all their business and private matters, both for personal reasons and because they know this results in a more efficient service. Practitioners note that probate can be the bridge that paves the way to becoming a multi-generational trusted adviser for families.
Within the accountancy profession, ICAEW-accredited legal services firms are uniquely placed to offer clients probate services and the administration of oaths. Offering these services can help differentiate your firm in a competitive market, showcasing both the breadth of your expertise and your ability to meet a wider range of client needs.
ICAEW accredited firms can also offer a range of other unreserved legal activities in addition to authorised legal services. For example, will writing, lasting powers of attorney, estate planning, alternative dispute resolution and tax advice provided relevant employees are appropriately trained and competent to offer these services. Expanding your services in this way can help your firm offer a more complete service to clients and strengthen long-term relationships. Firms wishing to combine legal and non-legal ownership or management can be licensed as an alternative business structure, allowing lawyers and non-lawyers to operate together within one regulated entity.
What should you consider before applying to provide reserved legal services?
Appraising whether offering legal services is right for your firm is very much an individual decision based on your client base, your staff and the other services you provide. Initial factors to consider include existing work, client profiles and staffing capabilities. Preparing properly is the key to extending your business in any new direction, and providing reserved legal services such as probate and oaths administration is no exception. Thorough research is essential, as is putting together a solid business plan.
The circumstances of providing reserved legal services make it very different from the types of services accountancy practices are used to. As you will be dealing with families at a very emotional and difficult time, empathy is essential, as is the ability to deal with vulnerable clients. But while being empathetic you will also need to maintain professional scepticism, as a death can bring unscrupulous suppliers and spurious claimants to your door. If you decide to proceed, work out beforehand how you plan to promote and market your legal services. Use our marketing guide for guidance on how to do this.
Some of the specific areas you should consider before deciding whether or not to offer reserved legal services include:
- Training and licensing
Firms will need to make an upfront investment of time and money in getting individuals trained and applying for accreditation. Once the firm is accredited, accredited individuals will need regular and ongoing training and updates.
- Professional indemnity insurance
There is a minimum PII requirement of £500,000 per claim for probate and estate management work. You should discuss your cover with your insurers to ensure these activities are covered by existing policies; if not it may be possible to arrange an extension of cover at this limit in connection with probate or estate administration work.
- Building up a client base Ensure your current clients are aware of how you can help them. A number of practitioners have found advising on inheritance tax or a client’s will are good ways of extending client relationships and generating probate work.
- Investigate potential third-party relationships If you intend to provide a service in which you will be responsible for storing, valuing and selling assets you will need to associate yourself with third parties you might not have used before. These can include valuers, storage facilities for high-value and high-risk items, antique dealers and insurance agents.
FAQs
Will offering probate services impact on my current relationships with solicitors?
The ongoing blurring in distinction between services that can be provided by accountants and solicitors means both sets of professionals are undertaking services that the other used to provide exclusively. It is important to continue to maintain good relationships with local firms of solicitors as there will be occasions when both parties will need to refer work to the other.
Can ICAEW firms conduct contentious probate?
No, ICAEW-regulated practices are not allowed to conduct contentious probate. If there is a dispute in a probate assignment you have taken on, then that assignment must be passed on to a specialist probate lawyer. Once the point of contention is settled then the probate application can revert to your practice.
Further resources
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