The government has temporarily shelved plans to allow banks and insurance companies to provide probate services after lobbying from the Law Society.

Chancery Lane had expressed fears over consumer protection if the market was opened to non-lawyers without adequate safeguards.


The government had been considering implementing section 54 of the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990 with regard to non-lawyers ahead of the completion of Sir David Clementi’s report on the legal sector at the end of the year.


A key issue behind the postponement was the lack of an agreed regulator to oversee the conduct of legal services by non-lawyers.


In September, the Gazette revealed that the Department for Constitutional Affairs was intending officially to open probate to all non-lawyers in November, (see [2004] Gazette, 23 September, 1).


Adrian O’Loughlin, chairman of the Law Society’s probate law committee, added: ‘A regulatory framework [for non-lawyers] is key. Effectively the [right to advise on probate] has been put on ice pending Clementi.’


Richard Tromans