Listen to the latest Today’s Wills and Probate podcast: “Shared experience; insight and best practice in estate administration”, featuring Charlotte Toogood.
We’re delighted that our Legal Services Director, Charlotte Toogood, recently joined the latest episode of the Today’s Wills and Probate podcast, “Shared experience; insight and best practice in estate administration”, as a special guest. Charlotte has over 16 years of experience working within estate administration and is a qualified solicitor and STEP qualified practitioner. Her role at Kings Court Trust involves using her specialised knowledge on both simple and complex cases, to provide technical support and skills training to our Case Managers and their teams. Throughout the episode, Charlotte imparts her experience on a wide variety of subjects, and reflects on how both client’s and practitioner’s needs have changed over the years.
With contentious probate on the rise, Charlotte shares her thoughts on what we can do as practitioners, and how we can better advise families to either avoid disputes, or deal with them constructively and to the benefit of all. She addresses the misinformation on estate planning that can be found in the national press and the many differing opinions within the public domain.
Charlotte comments that Kings Court Trust, and other estate administration providers, have a responsibility to educate clients on the complexities and realities of estate administration. That’s why, we ensure that the information we provide is accurate and fair. She goes onto suggest that encouraging families to have open and honest conversations in their lifetime, rather than waiting until it’s too late, could be a solution for pre-empting possible conflict before it has even occurred. We understand that it is the role of the professionals to ask the right questions and encourage open communication from the outset of the relationship.
The podcast examines disputes; when they do arise, it is often practitioners who bear the brunt of client frustrations and explains how here at Kings Court Trust, we have ‘fine-tuned’ how we support our staff, whether this be through line management, regular file review meetings or the introduction of mental health first aiders, to ensure that not only are we delivering the best possible service to our clients, but that our staff members are also supported along every step of the way. Charlotte has a big part to play in this by delivering training on managing client expectations and challenges, but also ensuring that our staff have unrivalled technical knowledge, meaning they are fully equipped to deal with even the most complex of cases.
The episode concludes with Charlotte referencing a case study of a particularly challenging matter, involving a client who was dealing with the sudden death of her husband, that sadly occurred just two weeks after she had delivered their baby. Her late husband had adult children from a previous relationship, but as the couple had gotten married roughly a year before his death, the Will he had previously written was revoked. Charlotte explains the scenario, and how, through working collaboratively and as transparently as possible with all parties, Kings Court Trust were able to bring the matter to fruition, by successfully mediating any conflict.
This resulted in the estate being finalised with all parties feeling happy and content with how the deceased’s estate was administered, allowing them to move on and find closure.
Winners of the Probate Provider of the Year – South 2024, TWP award; if you’d like expert help with probate or estate administration then get in touch with us. Our tax and legal teams have the expertise to advise on any situation. We know how to handle intestacy, locate missing beneficiaries, deal with foreign shares and reseal a Grant of Probate.
Our customers are at the heart of everything we do. We understand that dealing with the estate of a loved one can be a stressful and emotional process which is why we pride ourselves on doing all the hard work for our customers when they need it most. We are committed to offering families a great service for a fair price which is why we work on a fixed fee basis so they know exactly what our service will cost from the outset.
We work closely with a growing network of business partners across the UK including Will Writers, Independent Financial Advisers, Funeral Directors and other professionals. Our aim is to develop thriving professional relationships in order to help our partners grow their business and provide their clients with the highest quality estate administration service.
This article was submitted to be published by Kings Court Trust as part of their advertising agreement with Today’s Wills and Probate. The views expressed in this article are those of the submitter and not those of Today’s Wills and Probate.
