Chartered Accountants Moore East Midlands, which has offices in Peterborough, Corby and Northampton, has launched a new Probate Service to complement its existing Trusts and Estates and Inheritance Tax planning services.
While the law changed in 2014 to allow specially accredited accountants to undertake non-contentious probate work, it is thought that many people don’t realise that is the case, and still believe probate matters have to go through a solicitor.
Matthew Grief who is heading up the new service, is a Chartered Tax Adviser and a member of STEP (Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners).
He explained: “I think it is still not widely known that accountants can now handle probate, yet we find that for many of our clients, it makes perfect sense to use a financial professional who is already familiar with your affairs, rather than a lawyer who will need to do far more background work and fact-finding before matters can progress.
“We’ve often done the ground work already, advising on things like Inheritance Tax reliefs and estate and trust planning, so that when probate is granted, we already hold a significant amount of information, which can make the whole process far less time consuming.”
It can also a prove reassuring to a family dealing with probate on the death of a loved one, that the estate is in the hands of someone who has been a trusted adviser. The accountant will often have been involved from an earlier stage, and have a clear understand of the processes behind the decisions made, allowing them to reach an outcome relatively quickly.
“The last thing a family needs at such a time is to worry about the financial situation, they want to deal with someone they know and trust,” said Matthew. “And, of course, the less work we have to do, the lower the cost of the service. An accountant’s hourly rate is usually lower than that of a legal adviser, and we’ve had a number of clients who have saved a considerable amount on what they would have paid for legal services.
“Our service is completely flexible. We are happy to work with clients to keep costs down if they can do some of the more straightforward, administrative tasks themselves, or, if they prefer, we can handle everything on their behalf.”
Moore East Midlands is offering its new service to both existing clients and new clients. Prices start from around £1,500.
For more information or to get a bespoke quote, call 01536 461900, email east.midlands@moore.co.uk or visit www.moore.co.uk
