FEATURED COMPANIES
- Blake Morgan LLP
- Boodle Hatfield LLP
- Hugh James LLP
- Kings Court Trust
- Mills & Reeve LLP
- Redstone Wills
- MORE
The UK Wills & Probate Market Briefing 2017 is the fourth edition of an annual Legal Market Briefing from the author and provides an overview of the UK wills, probate & trusts market.
Each year around 4 million adults make a will and 3.6 million handle probate/estate administration matters. Despite this relatively large market size, it remains a largely unregulated market relative to other sectors of the law, and remains very fragmented, primarily made up of small and medium-sized solicitors and unregulated will and probate firms.
The wills, probate and trusts market is expected to see modest but steady growth in the future, supported by a rising number of deaths each year and the continuing aging of the UK population. There are a number of possible developments in the pipeline which could radically change the market.
Among these are:
- Potentially making will writing a regulated activity.
- Enforcing solicitors to publish on their websites their prices (and their complaints data).
- Changing the legal forms of wills, allowing electronic wills, video wills and audio wills, which opens the prospect for the electronic storage of wills.
- The greater introduction of new technology into the market such as automation of legal forms and precedents, cloud-based practice management solutions, digital submission of forms to the HMRC and an online probate service.
- In England and Wales, the lowering of the minimum age of testators from 18 to 16 and applying the test of capacity in the Mental Capacity Act 2005 to wills.
- The introduction of the Code of Professional Conduct in Relation to Taxation, meaning law firms must be more careful when handling wills, trusts ad inheritance tax issues.
- The introduction of a new UK Trust Register, which might make trusts less attractive to those wanting anonymity.
40 practitioners in the sector responded to an survey on workload and revenues: 63% are expecting an increase in workload in the next 12 months (compared to 60% in last year’s survey).
The UK Wills, Probate & Trusts Market Briefing is one of a series of briefings produced each year with others covering B2B Legal Services, Conveyancing, Family Law, and Personal Injury. Briefings provide details of: historical market size and trends; future trends and forecasts; industry opinion surveys; market drivers; key players; commentary on key issues impacting on the market.
FEATURED COMPANIES
- Blake Morgan LLP
- Boodle Hatfield LLP
- Hugh James LLP
- Kings Court Trust
- Mills & Reeve LLP
- Redstone Wills
- MORE
1. Executive Summary
- Introduction
- It’s a large but very fragmented market
- It’s a market driven by age and death
- A market held back by consumers adopting an ostrich approach to the future
- Price transparency and regulation are possible future scenarios
2. Introduction
- Wills and Probate
- Trusts
- Legal Guardianship
- Abbreviations
3. Market Structure
- Official Regulation
- Professional Regulation
- A Fragmented Market
- Law Firms and Solicitors
- Unregulated Companies
- Other Probate Providers
4. Market Drivers
- Ageing population could aid the market
- Number of deaths rising but the incidence of death in decline
- Growth of dementia
- Ignorance is holding the market back…
- Because many consumers don’t want to think about the future…
- A fact compounded by the lack of big brands
- Changing patterns of family life
- Rise of probate fees cancelled
- Growing pressure for price transparency
- Potential regulation of will writing in England and Wales…
- And new regulations could also come into force in Scotland
- The law on wills could also be changed in England and Wales
- Changes in tax rules make trusts less attractive….
- And new inheritance tax changes mean trust holder could lose out
- Law firms need to be careful not to assist tax avoidance when giving advice
- The New UK Trust Register
5. Key Players
- Overview
- Co-op Legal Services
- Blake Morgan LLP
- Bond Dickinson LLP
- Boodle Hatfield LLP
- Clarke Willmott LLP
- Charles Russell Speechlys LLP
- Estate Planning Group (Holdings) Ltd
- Hugh James LLP
- Kings Court Trust
- Lawpack Publishing Ltd
- Irwin Mitchell Solicitors
- Mills & Reeve LLP
- Penningtons Manches LLP
- Redstone Wills
- Shoosmiths LLP
- Simplify Group/Chorus Law Group
- Simpson Millar Solicitors LLP
- Slater & Gordon
- Thompsons Solicitors
- Trust Inheritance Ltd
- Which? Legal
6. Market Size and Trends
- A market valued at around £1.3 billion
- The will writing market is valued at £300 million
- Probate
- Guardianships
- 162,000 Trusts in existence
- Court proceedings
7. The Future
- Market Forecasts
- An ageing population should make will and probate services more relevant
- Market to reach £1.6 billion by 2022
- A low priced offer could open the mass market
- New technology could change the market
- Wills & Probate Practitioner Survey
8. Associations
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- Blake Morgan LLP
- Bond Dickinson LLP
- Boodle Hatfield LLP
- Charles Russell Speechlys LLP
- Clarke Willmott LLP
- Estate Planning Group (Holdings) Ltd
- Hugh James LLP
- Irwin Mitchell Solicitors
- Kings Court Trust
- Lawpack Publishing Ltd
- Mills & Reeve LLP
- Penningtons Manches LLP
- Redstone Wills
- Shoosmiths LLP
- Simplify Group/Chorus Law Group
- Simpson Millar Solicitors LLP
- Slater & Gordon
- Thompsons Solicitors
- Trust Inheritance Ltd