The number of law firms in the wills market in England and Wales has decreased 12% in four years.
Almost 600 law firms left the wills market between 2022 and 2026, according to the IRN UK Wills, Probate & Trusts Market Report 2026.
During the same period, there was a fall of 11.7% in law firms offering probate advice, and the number of firms offering wills have also decreased by 6-7% in both Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The number of firms in England and Wales offering advice on the specific practice areas of disputed wills, probate, and trusts “continues to grow”, however. The report suggests this is driven by more probate claims ending up in the High Court, with a total of 1,216 probate disputes being heard in 2025, a 12.6% increase on 1,080 heard in 2024.
The report suggests the number of complex estates is expected to grow leading to more estates disputes. It expects that tax issues related to more estates will grow particularly with changes to inheritance tax threshold and private pensions, and amid the predicted “Great Wealth Transfer” expected to be worth £7trn in the next 30 years.
As a whole, the wills, trusts and probate market is expected to grow 6% year-on-year to reach an estimated value of £3.19bn in 2026, the 13th edition of an annual research report suggests.
The predicted increase in value of the market is expected despite a volume wills market showing limited growth. This is driven by an ageing UK population with older adults providing the primary demand for probate and powers of attorney (POA).
The industry is always influenced by the number of annual deaths. Deaths decreased in 2024, leading to a fall in the number of grants of representation issued in the following year. In 2025, grants of representation issued in England and Wales reduced 10% compared with a year earlier, to 295,416.
At the end of August 2026, HM Courts & Tribunals Service had 46,594 open probate cases in the system, a significant increase from 38,713 in August 2025.
After a record year for applications to register a POA in 2024, registration numbers fell 10.6% in 2025 to 1.3m (from 1.5m a year earlier). In the first half of 2026, however, applications grew by 19.4% compared with the same period in 2025.
