Mandatory publication of price and service transparency information
The Legal Services Board approved ICAEW’s application to update its Probate Regulations to mandate the publication of price and service information in November 2021,
Monitoring compliance
Compliance with the updated Probate Regulations will be assessed by our Quality Assurance team as part of all probate monitoring reviews.
What information must your firm publish?
Your website, engagement letters and other communication materials should include the required price and service information.
Probate firms must publish:
- Total fees or estimates of the likely fees for services that you provide.
- The basis fees are charged on.
- A description of services you provide with key stages.
- Likely timescales for different services.
- Details of your firm’s complaints procedure and how and when clients can complain to ICAEW and/or the Legal Ombudsman.
- ICAEW accreditation. Download the ICAEW probate accredited logo.
- Arrangements of ICAEW's compensation fund (ie, the consumer’s ability to claim from the ICAEW compensation fund) and your firm’s professional indemnity insurance.
The Probate Regulations
The relevant section of the regulations which mandates price and service transparency is 2.7t onwards.
Compliance with the updated Probate Regulations will be assessed by our Quality Assurance team as part of all probate monitoring reviews.
Transparency of pricing and services can bring significant benefits:
- Potential clients will compare the transparency and quality of information provided by firms. Firms that adopt the transparency requirements will have a commercial advantage over those that do not.
- Complaints caused by a lack of information on pricing and services at the outset of the engagement can be avoided.
- Transparency of pricing will highlight the lower costs a multi-disciplinary firm can offer its clients.
- It will support and encourage a culture change regarding how transparency is viewed.
Resources
Background
Further information regarding the background to the changes can be found by reading ICAEW’s 2021 consultation on the issue.
Following the results of the consultation, ICAEW applied to the Legal Services Board (LSB) to update the Probate Regulations. The LSB provided its approval for the changes in November 2021.