Legal Services Compensation Scheme Regulations

In order to become accredited for probate, firms need to pay an annual levy to ICAEW to assist in funding this scheme.

The scheme is intended to compensate individuals and SMEs for loss suffered as a consequence of:

• fraud or other dishonesty by the accredited probate firm in conducting authorised work (ie, probate and estate administration); or
• a failure by the accredited probate firm to account for monies received in the course of authorised work.

In accordance with the Legal Services Compensation Scheme Regulations, grants from the scheme will be wholly at the discretion of the Legal Services Committee and will be subject to a limit of £500,000 per estate. Applicants will usually need to apply to ICAEW for a grant within 12 months of the loss first coming to their attention, and will need to show that they have exhausted all other available remedies.

For further information about the scheme, or how to make an application, please email Sarah-Jane Owen, the PII and Regulatory Manager, at Sarah-Jane.Owen@icaew.com or call +44 (0)1908 546 238.

• Access current and past versions of the Legal Services Compensation Scheme Regulations

• ICAEW policy statement on probate and ABS regulation