2023 probate fees consultation

Recognising inflationary pressures and to continue to deliver our ongoing programme of activity to fulfil these objectives and those of the Legal Services Act, we propose to increase probate registration fees by 7% for 2023.

This consultation is now closed

Please review the information on this page including the 2023 budget, business plan and the 2023 fee scale which sets out the impact of the change.
This consultation ran from Friday 22 July to 16 September 2022.

Responding to the consultation

This consultation is now closed, the responses are being reviewed and a summary of the results will be published here shortly.
The consultation was open for eight weeks from Friday 22 July to 16 September 2022.

How we set the probate registration fees

The review of probate registration fees begins in June each year. The strategic and operational priorities are discussed with the ICAEW Regulatory Board and a business plan and budget to deliver these are developed.

ICAEW operates a self-financing principle (also known as the "user pays approach"), which ensures all probate registration income is used for probate specific "permitted purposes". Permitted purposes are prescribed regulatory activities as listed in Rule 6 of the Legal Services Board’s Practising Fee Rules. These permitted purposes are described in detail in the document What your fee pays for and include for example application and registration, policy and education, monitoring and conduct.

The detailed budget estimates and analyses costs to deliver the plan including for example, staff, insurance, legal, project, office and overhead costs, and contributions required to fund other activities such as the Legal Services Board and Legal Choices website. The total cost of operations is then compared to our registered population of firms to ensure that income then matches expected expenditure.

The proposed new levels of registration fees are agreed by the ICAEW Regulatory Board.

We consult with probate registered firm representatives for feedback on the proposed fee increase and level. The fees are adjusted as appropriate in response to feedback received. (In 2021 there was no fee increase, and for 2022 there was a 5% fee increase.)

The fee increase proposal must then be approved by the Legal Services Board under its Practising Fee Rules. This involves a detailed application process including sharing the strategy and priorities, budget and details of any fee changes. This application is published by the Legal Services Board.

In November the full probate registration fee scale is published at icaew.com/regulatoryfees and registration renewals are then sent by email to firms.

We continue to carefully consider strategic, operational and oversight needs and associated funding and set the level of registration fees and levies as cost effectively as possible and on a year-to-year basis. 

Fees may need to continue to rise in future years particularly considering inflation and the requirements placed on our organisation by the LSB. This will ensure that costs of regulatory operations, ‘permitted purposes’, are funded by an appropriate level of registration fees. We will, of course, consult about any such changes each year.

Annual firm levy

The annual levy funds the operation and building of a reserved legal services compensation scheme fund. The levy for 2023 is unchanged from 2022.

Reserves

As part of its financial strategy, ICAEW holds reserves to provide financial strength, and as mitigation against unexpected events.

The level of probate reserves is specifically targeted as not to be too high or too low. The policy is therefore ‘reserves should be set at a level equivalent to between three and six months of expenditure through the income statement; and cash and investment balances should be at least sufficient to cover between three and six months of annual budgeted/forecast gross cash expenditure’.

Current reserves are in line with policy and therefore there is no requirement or element of 2023 fees which plans to draw on reserves or increase reserves.

• View the ICAEW 2021 operating and financial results

Business plan and feedback to firms on 2022 activities

Building on the firm foundation of our work in previous years, our probate activities in 2022 have been busy and focused on the following key areas which the fees, and the 2022 increase has also helped facilitate:

Ensuring that the Professional Standards Department is best set up to deliver legal services regulation

• Ensuring regulated firms deliver a good service and investigation of complaints
• Improvements in firms' transparency
• Development of policy
• Development of systems including the launch and ongoing operation of the disciplinary and regulatory penalties searchable online database alongside the probate register of firms.
• Support in terms of both resource and financial contribution in relation to Legal Choices website development and future plans.
• Maintenance of the compensation scheme arrangements.
• Updates to the disciplinary by-laws and regulatory handbook. 
• Updates to the firm Annual Return related to eg, PII
• Consultations issued and responded to
• Probate News, Regulatory and Conduct News and our LinkedIn channel keeps our firms and wider community informed. 
• Initiation of the ‘Future of reserved legal services regulation’ research 

• Download the business plan
• See also this actions and benefits summary regarding 2022 activity

Budget 2023

The budget for 2023 is targeted to self-finance and make a small surplus of £14k to return, over time, the start-up costs of becoming a regulator and licensing authority. Cost have largely increased due to inflation and salary increases, and also costs in relation to policy and governance have increased due to Legal Services Board requests for further administrative processes, consultations, and information returns.

£ including comp scheme	2023 Budget
Income: Registration fees Income: Regulatory penalties	636,853 6,031	642,884
Income: Levy Cost: Levy	107,242 (107,242)	0
Cost: Staff Cost: Strategic projects Cost: Insurance (or scheme top up) Cost: Committee and board Cost: Travel Cost: Design, surveys, consultations Cost: Office	(417,042) (95,000) (68,000) (39,333) (4,460) (2,340) (2,252)	(628,427)
Surplus: Return in investment		14,457

Budgeted income is largely related to firm registration and licensing annual registration fees. All income is raised specifically for reserved legal services permitted purposes only. The levy income flows through the income statement to build the compensation scheme. Committee and board costs relate to the ICAEW Regulatory Board and the Probate Committee. Operational costs are in the main related to registration, regulatory, policy, quality assurance and conduct staff. Projects includes a contribution to fund the Legal Choices website.

£cost of operations analysis	2023 Budget
Staff Committee Comp scheme insurance / tfr Projects incl. Legal Choices Design and surveys QAD review travel Office	(417,042) (39,333) (68,000) (95,000) (2,340) (4,460) (2,252)	(628,427)
Regulatory, policy and engagement Registration and supervision Discipline and conduct Governance and insurance Education, research and projects	Activity 30% 24% 6% 22% 18%	(188,528) (150,822) (37,706) (138,254) (113,117)

The analysis above provides further details on expenditure analysed by cost type and by function. 

Also provided is an estimate of anticipated cost related to key activity types. As staff, committee and projects costs make up a significant proportion of the cost base, this is largely based on a ‘time spent’ basis.

Each of the legal services regulators is required to make contributions on behalf of those they regulate and supervise. In 2023, ICAEW is planning to contribute:

• £11k to the Legal Services Board (1.75% of total expenditure)
• £5k to the Legal Ombudsman (0.8% of total expenditure)
• £35k to Legal Choices (5.5% of total expenditure)

Return on investment	£k	£k
Application and set-up costs	(170)	(170)
P&L surplus 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 forecast 2023 budgeted	23 15 15 17 12 14 14	110
Outstanding to be returned in future years		(60)

£14,457 is targeted as a surplus in 2023 as a contribution to return the start-up costs of becoming a regulator and licensing authority. It is estimated that the outstanding balance will be cleared in four years (December 2027).

Registration fees

The tables below compare the 2022 registration fees to the proposed 2023 registrations fees and show the impact of a 7% increase in each category.

2022 registration fees

Authorised firm

Principals	Offices
	1	2 - 10	11+
Sole	375	653	1,147
2 - 5	653	1,147	2,014
6 - 9	1,147	2,014	3,534
10 - 50	2,014	3,534	6,201
51+	4,028	7,070	12,404

Licensed firm

Principals	Offices
	1	2 - 10	11+
Sole	375	653	1,147
2 - 5	1,306	3,438	8,055
6 - 9	2,292	6,041	14,138
10 - 50	4,028	10,604	24,807
51+	8,055	21,208	49,614

2023 registration fees

Authorised firm

Principals	Offices
	1	2 - 10	11+
Sole	401	699	1,227
2 - 5	699	1,227	2,155
6 - 9	1,227	2,155	3,781
10 - 50	2,155	3,781	6,635
51+	4,310	7,565	13,272

Licensed firm

Principals	Offices
	1	2 - 10	11+
Sole	401	699	1,227
2 - 5	1,397	3,679	8,619
6 - 9	2,452	6,464	15,128
10 - 50	4,310	11,346	26,543
51+	8,619	22,693	53,087

2023: impact of 7% change

Authorised firm

Principals	Offices
	1	2 - 10	11+
Sole	+26	+46	+80
2 - 5	+46	+80	+141
6 - 9	+80	+141	+247
10 - 50	+141	+247	+434
51+	+282	+495	+868

Licensed firm

Principals	Offices
	1	2 - 10	11+
Sole	+26	+46	+80
2 - 5	+91	+241	+564
6 - 9	+160	+423	+990
10 - 50	+282	+742	+1,736
51+	+564	+1,485	+3,473

The levies for 2023 are unchanged from 2022:

Authorised firm

Principals	Offices
	1	2 - 10	10+
Sole	99	135	183
2 - 5	135	183	250
6 - 9	183	250	340
10 - 50	250	340	463
50+	499	677	924

Licensed firm

Principals	Offices
	1	2 - 10	10+
Sole	99	135	183
2 - 5	269	547	997
6 - 9	364	748	1,354
10 - 50	499	1,017	1,847
50+	997	2,031	3,692