The Legal Services Board (LSB), has rejected the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA)’s application for termination of its status as a regulator of non-contentious probate services on the grounds that some ACCA members are still offering services without having transferred to an alternative regulator.
The LSB said that it was rejecting ACCA’s application to exit probate regulation, because a “significant number” of its probate practitioners and firms had not ceased providing probate services even though they had apparently not transferred to an alternative regulator after their ACCA authorisation expired on 31 December 2021.
The LSB commented, “the websites of a number of individuals and firms appear to indicate that they are still providing probate services” and that granting ACCA’s request would cause:
“unacceptable risk that probate services will be provided by those ACCA probate practitioners and firms who have not been authorised by CRL or another regulator, and continue to practise probate activities unauthorised…The LSB is satisfied that granting ACCA’s application to alter its regulatory arrangements at this time would be prejudicial to the regulatory objectives and contrary to the public interest.”
ACCA had applied to the LSB to exercise powers as an approved regulator for non-contentious probate activities in 2018, which were consequently granted by the regulator. But in 2021 ACCA announced that it would end its probate oversight regime over concerns that new obligations imposed by the LSB would detract from it “focusing on its core activities”.
In October 2021, ACCA applied to the LSB to revoke its designation as an approved regulator, at which point it also stopped accepting new applications from individuals and firms to continue probate activities.
ACCA began arranging transfers of its existing 99 individual practitioners and 78 firms authorised to undertake probate activities in addition to accounting practices, and planned to end all its probate regulation activities by 31 December subject to the LSB approval.
ACCA commented to Today’s Wills and Probate:
“ACCA is working through the necessary steps to provide further assurances to the LSB, given their decision, affected persons have either ceased or transferred to another approved regulator.
This is because we still intend to withdraw all regulatory arrangements for probate activities. In October 2021, we gave notice to the LSB to cancel our designation as an approved regulator in relation to the reserved legal activity of probate, and to provide a pathway for eligible ACCA members to achieve probate (and other reserved legal activities) authorisation from CILEx Regulation (CRL), which was approved by the LSB.
ACCA ceased to authorise members for non-contentious probate activities on 31 December 2021 and we made it clear to our members they cannot undertake such activities without the appropriate authorisation.”
