The number of probate cases taking more than a year to be granted has risen by 65 per cent over the past three years.
A Freedom of Information request from the Ministry of Justice, submitted by Quilter, found the number of cases taking just under two years had also risen by 65 per cent.
This comes as the Ministry of Justice confirmed this month (April 1) that despite poor service levels, the standard probate fee will increase by 10 per cent to £300 from May 2024.
According to the government, someone should usually get the grant of probate within 16 weeks of submitting an application.
However, Quilter’s analysis showed the number of probate cases even taking more than six months to be granted has risen by 112 per cent over the last three years.
Shaun Moore, tax and financial planning expert at Quilter said it was clear HMRC were struggling to keep up with the workload causing these longer wait times.
“This can have huge ramifications for a family. It is natural that more complex estates will take longer for probate to be granted but the increases in wait times across the board is cause for concern,” he added.
Moore suggested the best course of action was for a person to have their estate as organised as possible.
He said: “This can include simple things such as utilising trusts during someone’s lifetime, moving assets out of the estate so that they’re not part of the probate process.
"For example, you can place life insurance policies in trust. Upon death, the life insurance benefits are paid to the trustees and can be distributed, prior to probate, as per the terms of the trust.”
Probate delays can have effects on property and asset management, investment risks, tax liabilities, distribution delays, utility bills and debt as well as cause emotional stress and financial strain.
Last week (April 17), the Justice Committee heard evidence from Jo Summers, private tax and wealth partner at Jurit and spokesperson for Step and Stuart Simpson, head of Equiniti Benefactor at Equiniti, about their experiences with the current probate system.
Summers said the lack of consistency with probate applications meant it was difficult to tell a client just how long their case could take.
She said: “I don't know what to tell people when they ask how long their application will take. It could be four weeks or it could be 18 weeks. There is no way of knowing.”
Simpson said with the new system the longest processing time he had seen was 30 weeks with the average being 24 weeks.
He believed while the current system may work for straightforward cases, it did not work for the more complex ones which require more communication with the registry.
“We’re not asking for the system to go back to processing applications in four weeks, what we need is consistent delivery and we want to see progress,” Simpson added.
alina.khan@ft.com
