The report, ‘UK Wills, Probate & Trusts Market Report 2024’, published this week, is now in its 11th edition. It found the core will writing sector is increasingly price-led and value growth is being driven by accompanying estate planning services such as probate, powers of attorney services and funeral planning.
However, the majority of the UK adult population is still not writing their wills.
Probate volumes, which generally follow trends in the number of deaths, increased 2.9% from 269,815 in 2022 to 277,745 in 2023.
However, there was a 28% increase in the first half of 2024, compared to 2023, reflecting improvements in dealing with processing backlogs as well as the rise in deaths.
The backlog left bereaved families waiting many months or even up to a year to obtain a grant of probate. However, work to tackle the backlog has now reduced the average wait, which dropped from 14 weeks last July to 9.3 weeks this July, according to HM Courts & Tribunals Service figures published in September.
Applications to register a power of attorney have jumped more dramatically—by 37.1% from 851,736 in 2022 to almost 1.2 million in 2023, and by 38.8% in the first half of 2024 from the same period in 2023.
For more details about the findings of the report, see www.irnlegalreports.com/store.
