Solicitors could lose their monopoly on applications for grants of probate this year as licensed conveyancers and accountants prepare to muscle in on the market.

The Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) is planning to apply for accreditation to regulate probate services this summer, it confirmed this week.


A spokesman for the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales admitted it is an area the institute is also exploring. He added: 'We have had preliminary discussions with the Department for Constitutional Affairs, but these conversations are at a very early stage.'


While licensed conveyancers and other professionals can already conduct the administration of estates, only solicitors are currently authorised to apply for or oppose grants of probate. However, since November 2004, other professional regulators have had the right to apply to regulate these services under section 53 of the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990, which would then enable their members to carry out this work.


Probate services is one of the areas earmarked for further liberalisation by the Lord Chancellor. In its White Paper on legal services reform, the government said that it intends to allow 'new providers such as financial institutions' to enter the market ahead of the introduction of the legal services board and its wider reforms package.


But Meg Andrews, chairwoman of the Law Society's wills and equity committee, warned: 'Probate is not as easy as it looks... In a high street solicitors' practice, you can see the same firm about conveyancing, probate, divorce, adoption, and partnership agreements. The broader training means you can identify where there is a problem in one of these areas, and there is someone in the office who can deal with it. If you just do conveyancing and probate, how do you deal with this?'


Simon Blandy, solicitor to the CLC, said: 'Since 2001 we have made it clear that we would like to regulate probate services. A number of our members already provide extensive probate services, including the administration of estates, as they are entitled to do. This would ensure they could be involved in the whole process.'


Law Society President Kevin Martin said all probate practitioners should adhere to consumer protection standards comparable to solicitors in relation to issues such as training, handling of client money, ethics and complaints. He said the CLC could be an appropriate regulator 'providing that an appropriate regulatory regime is in place'.


The Institute of Legal Executives said it has not yet decided whether to make an application.