What is the current sentiment across the profession around wills, probate, client experience, speed of administration, attitude toward financial services... that is the topic of the latest Today's Wills and Probate which delves into the recently published "Bereavement Index"; an annual report tracking the key issues facing individuals and firms dealing with the administration of death.It is a "state of the nation" says Aleks Tomczyk, the report's author and co-Founder and Managing of Exizent,...

Legal Services Director at Kings Court Trust Charlotte Toogood joins the latest Today's Wills and Probate podcast to impart her experience of working in estate administration over the last 16 years. With contentious probate on the rise Charlotte shares her thoughts on what we can do as practitioners, and how we can better advise families to either avoid disputes, or deal with them constructively and to the benefit of all. "There is a lot of information in the national press about estate...

Today's Wills and Probate Host David Opie is joined by Birketts' Head of the Private Wealth Dispute Team Bernadette Baker and Partner in the team Kate Harris to discuss the case of Leonard v Leonard; a convoluted and disputed probate case concerning the estate of Jack Leonard and the validity of two separate Wills. Bernadette leads with a comprehensive outline of the case, including considerations for Jack's blended families, his extensive business interests and in later life, failing he...

As one of the disruptors in the wake of the Legal Services Act 2007 QualitySolicitors (QS) was launched in 2009 with the ambition to help the high street fight back against the anticipated onslaught of major brands entering the legal market - so-called 'Tesco Law.'QS grew rapidly, with firms up and down the country adopting the familiar black and pink branding, adding the name "QualitySolicitors" to their firm name to create greater brand recognition. In 2011 an investment of c.£100m saw Pala...

Free and low cost will schemes are an established part of the wills and probate sector, providing charities with valuable legacy income streams, and practitioners with their largest source of lead generation. The latest Today's Wills and Probate Podcast welcomes Richard Millar of Capacity Marketing on to discuss the value of free and low cost will networks. Capacity Marketing is probably one of those companies you've never heard of, but have almost certainly come across in some way. The...

Dean Morgan is the Managing Director of a franchise of Grey Matters Consultancy; a business founded with the aim of meeting the needs of those in retirement at the point they need additional assistance, and for offering guidance to those who have the responsibility for their care. Dean is himself a franchisee based in Cardiff with a background in social care and through Grey Matters provides a range of services focused on identifying financial support for the elderly and vulnerable; anything ...

Helen Stewart, Partner and Head of Probate at Thomson, Snell & Passmore joins the latest Today's Wills and Probate Podcast to discuss the launch of a new association to support collaboration and best practice amongst independent administrators (IAs) and estates in conflict. The National Association of Independent Administrators (NAIA) brings together contentious and non-contentious practitioners in disputed estate administration work. The work of IAs is important, says Helen, citing...

Tim Hewson joins the Today's Wills and Probate podcast to discuss LegalWills - his Canadian-based technology company providing will writing and estate planning services in Canada and North America. The business started in a bar in Ottawa where Tim and his colleagues were discussing whether any of them, all successful tech high-flyers, had a will or had considered any form of later life and succession planning. Somewhat serendipitously none of them had and it sparked the idea to launch the bus...

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has recently requested law firms complete an anti-money laundering and sanctions data collection exercise. The SRA is required by Office for Professional Body Anti-Money Laundering Supervision (OPBAS) to take a risk-based approach to supervision and is requesting firms complete the requested information as full as possible.It will, they say enable them to "see the distribution of risk across the legal profession, which in turn informs our programme of...

Behaviour change campaign Remember a Charity is a consortium of around 200 charities dedicated to growing the legacy market; helping charities develop what is an increasingly vital long term revenue stream.In the latest Today's Wills and Probate Podcast, host David Opie is joined by Lucinda Frostick, Director at Remember a Charity and Chris Millward Head of Legacies at Princess Alice Hospice and part of the consortium of charities.Remember a Charity Week is coming up from 9th to 15th Septembe...

Ashley Rowthorn, CEO and Kath Horsley, Senior Consultant at Legacy Futures join the Today's Wills and Probate podcast to discuss their latest piece of research on the investment charities make in their marketing.The Legacy Marketing Benchmarks report provides insight into helping charities understand what legacy marketing isenable charities to benchmark their spendhelping charities make a business case for securing investment into legacy marketingLegacy Futures is on a mission to help ch...

Regulation, collaboration and the response to the Competition and Markets Authority review of will writing services all form part of the latest Today's Wills and Probate Podcast. Host David Opie is joined by Antony Brinkman; CEO of the Willwriting Partnership and Chair of the Professional Standards Board (PSB). At the outset Antony explains the role of the PSB, a separate function from the Society of Will Writers, which is to enhance the skills and develop the competence and abilities of SWW ...

The five most expensive words in the English language - "it's a matter of principle." Because principles cost money. And this increasingly plays out across contentious private client matters, in inheritance and probate disputes. joining host David Opie on the latest Today's Wills and Probate Podcast is Hayley Gaffney, an associate at Coodes Solicitors and member of the firm's contentious probate team. She discusses the increasing number of claims she is seeing, reflective of the wider sector;...

People who were born between 1946 and 1964, the so called Baby Boomer Generation, is a cohort of 16.8 million people; and due to favourable financial conditions in that time are the wealthiest generation in human history, holding somewhere in the region on 80% of the UK's wealth. With the older baby boomer now 78 years old, and against a backdrop of an average age of death of 80.7 in the UK, we are about to see the largest transition of wealth from one generation to another ever; in what has ...

In this specially recorded podcast, the Today's Wills and Probate podcast joins forces with its sister podcasts from the Today's Conveyancer and Today's Family Lawyer online news publications to discuss the topic of mental health and wellbeing ahead of Mental Health Awareness Week, from 13th May 2024. Podcast host David Opie welcomes Managing Director of Culver Law Michael Culver, Marc Etherington (Rayden Solicitors) and Laura Burkinshaw (Convey Law) to discuss the mental health and wel...

Dylan O'Brien, the founder of BePrepared, joins the latest Today's Wills and Probate podcast to discuss his take on the increasingly challenging issue of managing digital assets in estate planning, and what role technology has to play in supporting practitioners. BePrepared was launched in Australia and has expanded into the USA and UK in the time since. Dylan explores the differences they have encountered in the various jurisdictions and the issues with platforms like Google and Apple when...

Joining the latest Today's Wills and Probate Podcast is Dan Temple, an expert in acknowledging and understanding the human impact of working, and managing employees and businesses. The discussion centres on creating effective and high performing teams, and what steps law firms can, and should, be taking to enable this in their business.   Dan leads Cobalt Human Solutions, a training consultancy which focuses on creating effective teams, drawn from his own experiences in the Royal Air Force...

The Today's Wills and Probate Podcast welcomes Andrew Buchan, Managing Director of James McKenzie Wills, to discuss the ups and downs of running an estate planning business. Andrew has been with the business for 14 years and has seen the development of the sector first hand. He explains his role and responsibility both to his staff but also to his clients; it's been said many times but customer service really is king and ensuring that staff have the tools to do their jobs effectively is...

The Today's Wills and Probate podcast welcome Dan Warburton on to discuss the topic of leadership. Dan works with law firms leaders and partners to elevate their leadership skills to enable them empower staff to be more efficient and effective.  Dan describes his work as "the skill of profitable delegation;" to create leaders who can deliver high levels of performance across their team.  He cites the structure of many law firms in which lawyers are targeted on clients and the number of...

Hamza Hafesji, Group Product Manager at Advanced Legal, joins the latest Today's Wills and Probate podcast to discuss the importance of implementing a culture of performance management in a business.  For years the only time most employees receive any sort of constructive feedback has been in an annual appraisal. For Hamza, something has to fundamentally change and feedback must be much more of an ongoing process He cites research from PWC, LexisNexis, Thomson Reuters and their own client...

The first Today's Wills and Probate podcast on 2024, and the start of series 3, explores the perennial question on the minds and lips of most businesses... what do clients really want? A report from Law Firm Marketing Club does just that. Now in it's 4th year, "What Clients Want" is an extensive piece of research which asks consumers of legal services what they want from their law firm; from first introduction through to matter completion. With 4 years' worth of data behind them, the report...

"Two nations divided by a common language" is a phrase often connected to the relationship between the UK and the USA; but it could be just as easily applied to England and Scotland at times, especially when it comes to legal matters like the probate process. Joining Today's Wills and Probate Podcast host David Opie to de-mystify Scottish probate is Mike Davis, Managing Director of My Probate Partner, a Edinburgh based service described as helping "navigate all the challenges and pitfalls...

Recorded in the week before the British Wills and Probate Awards 2023, this latest podcast explores the role faith plays in Yasmin Hoque's legal career. A practicing Muslim, Yasmin explores the way her faith has shaped her career to date firstly as a lawyer based in London, and later as the founder or AL-HQ Law & More, based in Southampton. The discussion explores the importance her faith plays in her work; both in her local community and in the wider legal community where she has spent...

The latest Today's Wills and Probate podcast welcomes Simon McCrum to discuss the contents of his latest book "The Perfect Lawyer" with host David Opie. There isn't much Simon McCrum doesn't know about running a law firm having been there, done it, and got the t-Shirt. In this discussion Simon shares a little about his background and how he came to run the fastest growing law firms in the country before its acquisition. He now shares his experience with other law firms as a management...