Blue skies ahead
by Patricia Wass
I am writing this article immediately before the executive committee meeting at which we will follow up on the “Blue Skies” strategy day that we had in November 2008. The day was very interesting and generated many new ideas, and it will now be a matter of prioritising which projects the committee will work on, based on which we believe will be of most value to our members.
We acknowledge that, as a Section, we need to strengthen our relationships with external stakeholders (such as Solicitors for the Elderly, the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners, the Chartered Institute of Taxation, and the Association of Contentious Trust and Probate Specialists), as well as ensure that we are involved with the consultations that affect our area of work. We already have members of the committee involved with the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG), HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and the Probate Registry working party, among others.
The committee has also recognised, through the responses to our recent member survey, that we have an “ageing practitioner population”, and we are keen to market and to communicate to the wider legal community that private client work is a profitable and extremely interesting area of the law. It is imperative that we encourage and educate the younger members of the profession about the wide ambit of our work – it is certainly not all about “death and destruction”!
Closer links
With this in mind, we are hoping to forge closer links with the Junior Lawyers Division of the Law Society, and will be looking for ways to encourage those newly qualified solicitors who are seeking to further a career in private client work. I have also asked a sub-committee of the Section to look at how we can get our message to law students at universities and law schools so that we can raise awareness of the important work that we do. So often, I think our discipline is treated as the poor relation, and yet we cover so many different areas of law, and, with the national demographics showing the elderly population increasing in size, we will have many opportunities to extend the work that we do.An important project for the Section is to improve the functionality of the website, and to use technology in a way that will assist our members and promote the Section. We wish to expand the range of products and services that we can offer through the website. We already provide online seminars and we are looking to see how we can use technology to further our aims. Fortunately, the committee has a couple of members who really understand the technological issues, and I am sure they will seek real improvements to our website offering in conjunction with the Law Society. I have been encouraged to see our members use the website, particularly through the discussion forum, to raise concerns which we can then take up on their behalf.
Disappointing reply
The most recent concern tackled by the committee was the statement produced by HM Courts Service (HMCS) regarding the submission of probate applications from 1 January 2009. I wrote to Helen Smith, the probate services director at the Royal Courts of Justice Group, and, as members will know through updates on the website and in the Probate e-alert, we had a disappointing reply from her in response to the concerns that I raised, particularly about the taking apart of wills for copying when necessary.First of all, we had to accept our grants of probate being issued with only one paper fastener in them, and now we have to do the copying for the registries. I note also that the grants issued since January are not being produced with any back covers. This is cost-cutting which I think is unnecessary and inappropriate. I remain concerned about wills being taken apart for copying where there are already issues about their plight and condition. We will have to see how this new practice develops, but if any of our members encounter difficulties with the new procedure, please do let me know.
Another of our priorities will be to see what assistance we can provide to those members who are finding business difficult in these “challenging” economic times. As a practitioner myself, I have already had to think about what best advice we give to trustees with investment portfolios which have seen such dramatic and unexpected losses over recent months. I never thought, when I started in practice, that I would be dealing with clients asking me about whether the probate monies we were looking after in the course of administration were “safely” deposited. I am sure you are all facing similar questions and having to give advice to many worried executors and trustees. The committee is currently looking at producing a practical guide for trustees (mainly aimed at lay trustees) to set out their role and their responsibilities.
Trusted advisers
In the current competitive financial environment, we must all play to our strengths. Remember the mnemonic “R.I.P” – we are regulated, we are insured and we are professional. We need to become that trusted adviser to our clients, someone to whom they can turn in both the good times and the bad, and someone who will be able to give good solid advice to families who are facing uncertainty in many aspects of their lives.Representatives from the Section executive committee regularly liaise with various stakeholder groups to ensure that the views of the Section’s members are taken into account. We are presently involved with an HMRC working party and a Probate Registry working party.
Recently, we have also been involved in discussions with the OPG. It is encouraging to know that the OPG is intending to commission long-term research on how effective the Mental Capacity Act is. It is our understanding that this will be dealt with by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) Research Unit following a tender process.
Other news to be aware of from the OPG is that much of its work will be moving out of London, initially to work alongside the Tribunal Service from April and then, later in 2009, to Nottingham to take over property formally used by the MoJ and to work alongside MoJ staff. A small London presence will remain, but the “core business” will leave. It is hoped that, as soon as possible, the Birmingham address will deal with the incoming post processing and lasting power of attorney applications and will become the postal address for all OPG business.
We also understand that the administration of the Court of Protection will be moving to HMCS, although the staff and court will still be based at Archway Tower for now. So watch this space and watch your own correspondence coming in from the OPG, which will, no doubt, confirm these changes.
Working in partnership
Another important matter that our members should be aware of is the creation of the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA). This has been created to prevent unsuitable people from working with children and vulnerable adults. They will be working in partnership with the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB), which will gather relevant information on every person who wants to work or volunteer with vulnerable people. ISA was established in January 2008, after being created by the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006.My understanding is that, from October 2009, those of us who are working and dealing with vulnerable clients, including the elderly and infirm, will have to register. The cost for registering with the ISA scheme will be £64 per person. May I suggest that if this is something that you are presently unaware of as a practitioner, then you should have a look at the ISA details on their website at www.isa-gov.org.uk. The site provides information about the registration process. We will cover what this means for practitioners in more detail in upcoming editions of PS magazine.
One of my tasks in my capacity as chair is to meet with the chairs of the other Sections at the Law Society. There are other new chairs in post, so as I am writing this I am waiting to attend a meeting to get to know my contemporaries in the other Sections. The Law Society is working hard to ensure streamlining of all their processes and the staff that help us at the Law Society have a lot on their plates to make sure that the various requirements of each section are attended to.
Conference plans
On a positive note, we are finalising plans for the Probate Section Annual Conference, which will take place in London on the 3 July. We are putting together an interesting group of speakers, dealing with topics relevant to our members, so we hope many of you will be able to set the day aside, as we believe we will be providing very good value for money.I was encouraged to see that the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales has decided to withdraw its application to allow members to carry out probate work, despite having received informal approval from the Ministry of Justice in June 2008. I think that we should leave the “number crunching” issues to the accountancy profession and, in turn, they should leave the legal aspects of the administration of estates to the lawyers.
Although I am writing this comment in the darkest days of January, I trust that the weather will be warmer and spring will be just around the corner when you come to read this.
Thank you to all those members who have e-mailed either me or the Section about matters you would like us to take up on your behalf. Please continue with your emails and phone calls – as a committee, we wish to be representing the membership in any way we can.