A Richmond Consultant and the Probate Assumption Nobody Challenged.
The scenario
You have just lost your mother. The estate needs to go through probate before any assets can be transferred or distributed.
A colleague at work suggests you find a solicitor who specialises in this kind of work. Everyone you speak to assumes a solicitor is the only option.
You are also thinking about the cost, and about the prospect of explaining years of private family financial detail to someone who has never met you before.
It does not occur to you to call your accountant first.
At a glance
Client | Senior hospital consultant based in Richmond |
Situation | Bereavement requiring full probate administration following her mother’s death |
Complication | Assumed probate required a solicitor; concerned about cost and starting afresh with an unknown adviser during a difficult time |
Resolution | Existing accountant, already holding a probate licence and deeply familiar with the family’s financial affairs, managed the process directly |
Outcome | Estate administered accurately and efficiently; the client was spared the experience of explaining years of family financial history to a stranger during bereavement |
When bereavement meets administration
Bereavement and administration arrive together, and the combination is harder than either would be alone. In the weeks following a parent’s death, there are decisions to make about the funeral, about family, about the person’s belongings and their home, and somewhere in the middle of all of that, there is probate. Most people approach it with a single assumption already in place: that probate is a legal matter, and therefore requires a solicitor.
That assumption is understandable. The word itself sounds legal. The process involves the Probate Registry, and correspondence with HMRC. For decades, probate work was indeed largely confined to the legal profession. But the regulatory landscape changed under the Legal Services Act 2007, and with it the range of professionals authorised to carry out probate work. Chartered accountancy firms regulated by ICAEW can now apply for and hold a probate licence, giving them the same authority to manage the process as a solicitor’s firm. Most clients, even those with longstanding advisers, have never been told this.
The result is that a significant number of families instruct a solicitor for probate work and work through the process with someone who has never met them before, when an adviser they already trust could have managed it with far greater efficiency and considerably less stress. Not because solicitors do not do good work, they do. But because the starting point matters, and an adviser who already knows the estate has a structural advantage that is difficult to overstate.
Why the assumption goes unchallenged
The assumption holds because nobody challenges it. When someone close to you dies and probate is mentioned, the natural instinct is to look for a specialist. Solicitors are visible, well-established, and routinely handle this work. Unless someone in your immediate circle happens to know that their accountant holds a probate licence, there is no obvious reason to look further.
There is also a timing problem. In our experience, the call to a solicitor often happens in the first week or two following a death, before the family has had time to think clearly about the options available to them. Grief compresses decision-making. You ask someone you trust for a recommendation, and they give you the name of a professional they have used. That is not a failure of judgement. It is a normal human response under pressure, and it happens almost every time.
What is less common, but considerably more useful, is the instinct to contact an existing adviser first and simply ask whether they can help directly. That single question, asked early enough, can change the experience of the entire process.
What probate actually involves
It is worth understanding the scope of probate work, because the breadth of it is one of the reasons an existing adviser is well-placed to manage it.
Probate begins with establishing the full asset picture: property, savings, investments, pension arrangements, any gifts made in the seven years prior to death, and any outstanding liabilities. That information is then used to value the estate, calculate whether inheritance tax is due, and complete the relevant HMRC paperwork. For taxable estates, this means the IHT400 return and its associated supplementary pages. For smaller or simpler estates, a shorter excepted estate process may apply. HMRC must confirm the inheritance tax position before the Probate Registry will issue the grant of probate, which is the legal authority to deal with the estate’s assets.
An accountant who has prepared a client’s tax returns for several years already holds most of that information. The bank accounts, the investment portfolio, the property interests, the pattern of income, any transfers between family members, all of this has typically been discussed, recorded, and reflected in previous returns. A solicitor instructed for the first time starts without any of that context and must gather it from scratch, often requiring the family to locate documents and provide information at a moment when they are least equipped to do so.
It is also worth noting that accountants deal with HMRC correspondence routinely, including on inheritance tax matters, trust income, and estate administration. The administrative path through probate is not unfamiliar territory for a practice that handles complex personal tax work, and the technical competence required to complete it accurately is not materially different from what is applied in preparing detailed self-assessment returns for high-earning individuals.
How the scenario unfolded
The client in this case study is a composite drawn from experience that is more common than most people realise. She is a hospital consultant based in Richmond, with a demanding clinical workload and limited time to manage complex administration. Her mother’s financial affairs had been handled through our practice for a number of years, including annual self-assessment returns, investment income, and matters relating to a residential property.
When her mother died, she contacted us to ask whether we could recommend a solicitor for the probate work. She had concerns beyond the purely practical. She was wary of costs that might prove significant. She was also genuinely uneasy about the prospect of sitting down with someone who had never met her family, and explaining years of private financial detail in circumstances that were already difficult. She had been advised by colleagues and friends that instructing a solicitor was the standard approach, and she had no reason to question that.
The recommendation she received was not a solicitor’s name. She learned, in that initial call, that we held a probate licence and could manage the process ourselves. The relief in that conversation was something we encounter regularly, though it never becomes unremarkable. The combination of trust, familiarity, and technical capability in a single adviser is not something people expect to find in a bereavement situation, and the fact that it is available more often than they realise is, in our view, a gap that the profession has not done enough to close.
What we did
Because we had prepared her mother’s tax returns over many years, we already held a comprehensive picture of the estate before any formal instruction was given. The asset schedule was largely complete from existing records. We knew the property position, the investment accounts, the savings, and the pattern of income. We also understood the family’s circumstances in a way that allowed us to handle the process with appropriate care.
We completed the inheritance tax calculation and prepared the relevant HMRC paperwork, liaising directly with HMRC to confirm the tax position before making the probate application to the Probate Registry. We managed the correspondence on the client’s behalf throughout, updating her at each stage without creating additional administrative burden for her during an already difficult period.
The process was handled by people who already understood the estate. There was no need for the client to reconstruct her mother’s financial history from documents she might not have had readily accessible, and no need to bring a new adviser up to speed on a family’s financial life that spanned decades.
“What we hear most often, after situations like this, is that the client wishes they had called us first. Not because the solicitor route would have been wrong, but because the idea of explaining your family’s financial life to someone new, during bereavement, is genuinely draining. When we already know the picture, that burden simply does not exist.”
The outcome
The probate process was completed successfully. The estate was administered accurately and in good order, with HMRC correspondence resolved and the grant of probate obtained in the normal course of time.
For the client, the more significant outcome was not administrative. It was that she did not have to start a new professional relationship at one of the more difficult moments in her life. The financial picture her mother had built up over decades was already understood. The context did not need to be explained, the documents did not need to be traced and summarised, and the process did not require her to navigate an unfamiliar relationship at a moment of personal loss.
That continuity, across what was otherwise a period of significant disruption, is something that is genuinely difficult to put a value on. What we can say is that it is available more often than people realise, and that the question worth asking in the earliest stages of bereavement administration is not which solicitor to instruct, but whether the adviser who already knows the family is in a position to help.
If you have inherited a property and are also navigating the personal tax implications of a letting arrangement, our case study on Section 24 and inherited properties may be relevant to your circumstances.
Common questions about probate and accountants
Can a qualified accountant apply for probate in the UK?
Yes. Under the Legal Services Act 2007, probate is a reserved legal activity, but it is not exclusive to solicitors. Chartered accountancy firms authorised by ICAEW can hold a probate licence and manage the full process, including inheritance tax calculations, correspondence with HMRC, and the application to the Probate Registry for the grant of probate.
What does the probate process typically involve?
The process begins with establishing the full asset picture, valuing the estate, calculating any inheritance tax liability, and completing the relevant HMRC paperwork. Once HMRC has confirmed the tax position, the application is made to the Probate Registry for the grant of probate, which authorises the estate to be dealt with. The timescale depends on the complexity of the estate and the pace of HMRC processing.
Is there an advantage to using an existing accountant for probate rather than a solicitor?
Where the accountant already knows the family’s financial affairs, the practical advantage can be substantial. The estate’s asset picture is largely already understood, which reduces the time and effort required to gather information, and removes the need for the family to explain complex financial history from scratch during a difficult period. This is particularly relevant where the deceased was a longstanding client of the practice.
Does probate always require an inheritance tax return?
Not always. Smaller or simpler estates may qualify as excepted estates, for which a shorter process applies. Whether the full IHT400 return is required depends on the value and composition of the estate, and whether any of the available thresholds or reliefs are applicable. An adviser already familiar with the estate’s financial position can assess this quickly.
What is the difference between probate and estate administration?
Probate refers specifically to obtaining the grant of probate, which is the court-issued authority to deal with the deceased’s estate. Estate administration is the broader process of managing and distributing the estate once that grant has been issued. A qualified accountant holding a probate licence can assist with both, and in many cases the same firm can also handle the final tax affairs of the deceased and any estate income tax that arises during administration.
Key takeaways
- Qualified accountants holding a probate licence can manage the full probate process, including inheritance tax paperwork, HMRC correspondence, and the Probate Registry application.
- The assumption that probate always requires a solicitor is widespread, but it is not accurate. The Legal Services Act 2007 opened probate work to other authorised professionals, including ICAEW-regulated accountancy firms.
- An existing adviser who already knows the family’s financial affairs can manage the process with considerably less disruption and without requiring the family to reconstruct financial history from scratch.
- The practical advantage of an existing adviser relationship is most apparent during bereavement, when the capacity and willingness to gather and explain financial information is understandably limited.
- The same firm that manages probate can often also handle the deceased’s final tax return, any estate income tax arising during administration, and ongoing personal tax matters for the beneficiaries.
If this feels relevant to your situation
If you have recently been bereaved and are uncertain how to approach the probate process, or if you are at an earlier stage and want to understand how it works before it becomes necessary, the right starting point is often a short conversation with an adviser who already knows your family’s financial position.
Our probate team works with private individuals and families across Richmond, Kingston, Twickenham, and the wider South West London area. We also handle the broader personal tax planning that often follows an estate administration, including any review of the beneficiaries’ own tax planning position. If you would like to understand what the process would involve in your circumstances, we are happy to talk it through.
About the author
Donovan Crutchfield, Area Managing Partner, Xeinadin Richmond
LinkedIn: Donovan Crutchfield | LinkedIn
Donovan works with high-earning professionals, property-owning individuals, and owner-managed businesses across Richmond-upon-Thames and South West London. His practice includes personal tax planning, estate and inheritance tax matters, and probate administration for private clients.
This case study is based on composite client experience and does not represent any single individual or family. All identifying details have been changed or generalised. The information provided is for general guidance only and should not be treated as a substitute for professional advice specific to your circumstances.
