HMCTS commits to enhancing probate reporting & introducing charitable estate indicator
Melanie May | 21 November 2023 | News
His Majesty’s Courts & Tribunal Service (HMCTS) is to enhance the service it provides for the charity sector, including more indepth reporting on estates at probate and the development of a new charitable estate indicator.
In more detail, the actions it has committed to include:
- Providing more regular updates and forecasts, including greater clarity on the level of stopped estates held up in the system (often due to missing or incomplete documentation or errors in the application);
- Delivering a programme of webinars for charities to provide further information and an update on the Probate Registry’s approach; and
- Adding a form field on digital applications (80% of cases) identifying whether the estate includes a charitable gift, enabling better future tracking, forecasting and normalising the inclusion of charitable gifts in Wills.
This comes as a result of requests from Remember A Charity and the Institute of Legacy Management (ILM), which have been working with the Probate Registry to keep the impact on charities of any probate delays front of mind and ensure that charities are kept informed of changes and service issues.
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The Probate Registry has also confirmed that it is working towards the target of reducing unprocessed applications in the system to a head of work of around 30,000 estates at any one time.
While 2023 has seen probate applications reach record levels, increasing the volume of estates awaiting processing, HMCTS has reported that September and October were particularly productive months, reducing the backlog with provisional data showing significantly higher output of grants issued than applications received. This follows the recruitment of 100 new staff members, training and upskilling of the probate team, and improvements to the digital application platform made earlier this year.
The ILM and Remember A Charity have welcomed the new commitments, with Matthew Lagden, CEO at the Institute of Legacy Management, saying:
“There is no doubt that, once in place, these measures will help charities to forecast future legacy income more accurately, access regular updates and information and, above all, realise gifts in a more timely fashion as waiting times come down. We thank HMCTS for their understanding and their positive commitment towards supporting the charity sector.”
Lucinda Frostick, Director of Remember A Charity, added:
“Legacy giving is a lifeline for thousands of charities and community-based organisations and, particularly during such tough times for the sector, any delays can have a hefty impact on charities and their ability to deliver services.
“We know that there is a way to go yet before much charitable income will be released from the probate system, but the recent progress and these new measures are great news for charities. In particular, the ability to identify the proportion of charitable estates in the system at any one time really could be transformative. Not only will it help charities budget for likely legacy income, but it effectively hardwires the charitable ask into the application process, helping to normalise legacy giving to executors, solicitors and others.”
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.