Professional support / Practitioner questions
Questions for Probate Practitioners
Practical answers for solicitors, partners and accountancy teams managing difficult estate files.
An estate may be progressing administratively while one disagreement consumes increasing time. These answers help you identify the immediate decision, what needs checking and when separate support may help.
For estates in England and Wales. Your role matters: advising personal representatives, acting as executor and providing tax or accounts services involve different responsibilities.
1. Our co-executor clients are giving conflicting instructions. What can we still do?
Start with the retainer: who are your clients, in which capacities, and what decision do they disagree about? Distinguish a disagreement over administration from competing personal interests.
Assess conflicts and confidentiality before deciding what work can continue or whether separate representation is needed. An external adviser does not itself resolve your firm’s conflict.
Next step: Record the conflicting instructions, relevant deadline and work awaiting a decision.
Related guide: Client identity, conflicts and continued acting →
2. A beneficiary keeps challenging the accounts. How do we bring the correspondence to a conclusion?
Separate each objection into the account entry, supporting record, explanation already supplied and question still unanswered. A repeated complaint may contain a new point; equally, another general response may achieve little.
Consider a consolidated schedule of objections and replies, identifying what remains outstanding and who will address it. If allegations concern your firm’s own work or charges, assess that issue separately.
Next step: Identify the unresolved questions before commissioning another broad letter.
3. When does a difficult administration become contentious—and can our practice continue?
Assess the substance of the issue, rather than the tone of correspondence. Identify whether the disagreement concerns information, authority, entitlement, a claim or a formal procedure.
Solicitors should assess competence, conflicts and the retainer. ICAEW-authorised probate practices must also consider the limits of non-contentious probate authorisation. Accountants providing tax or accounts services should distinguish those services from regulated probate work.
Next step: Define the disputed work and assess which tasks your practice can properly retain.
4. Can we distribute if a beneficiary refuses to approve the accounts or sign a release?
Accounts approval, acknowledging payment and releasing claims are different things. Refusal to sign does not, by itself, establish that every payment must remain withheld.
Identify any material objection, unresolved entitlement, liability or threatened claim. Assess whether an appropriate reserve or partial distribution is possible. A proposed release needs consideration of its wording and purpose.
Next step: Establish the actual reason payment is unsafe, rather than treating the missing signature as the whole problem.
5. A caveat blocks the grant. Should we issue a warning or investigate further first?
Establish the caveat’s status, the objection, the parties’ interests and the evidence available. A warning can bring matters into a defined procedure, but an Appearance changes the options for removing the caveat.
Consider what further information would materially affect the decision. If a warning has already been served, check service, the response period and the Registry position promptly.
Next step: Identify what issuing a warning is intended to achieve and the likely response.
6. One executor will not agree to a property sale. How can we move the estate forward?
Identify the precise refusal: valuation, agent, price, offer, contract, transfer or destination of the proceeds. These require different responses.
Check the Grant, title, trust provisions and conveyancer’s requirements. A joint valuation or defined sale protocol may help address the objection. Record continuing property costs without assuming they are recoverable from the executor.
Next step: Put one supported proposal to the relevant decision-makers and request a specific response.
Related guide: A co-executor refusing to sell estate property →
7. An Inheritance Act claim is threatened. What should we do before distributing?
Establish the first Grant date, the nature of the claim, whether proceedings have been issued and any proposed undertaking or standstill. Review proposed distributions and the estate’s liabilities before making commitments.
Distinguish the personal representative’s administration role from beneficiaries’ competing interests. A threatened claim need not prevent every administration task, but deadlines and distribution risks require prompt assessment.
Next step: Gather the threat, Grant, current estate figures and proposed payment timetable.
8. Someone alleges money was taken before death. How much investigation is reasonable?
Identify the transaction: amount, date, recipient, authority and explanation. Distinguish tax enquiries from assessing whether the estate has a recoverable claim.
Begin with focused records and questions. Before extending the investigation, assess the evidence, amount involved, potential recovery, costs and any conflict affecting the executor or your practice.
Next step: Prepare a transaction schedule showing what is known, disputed and missing.
9. This estate is consuming disproportionate senior time. When should we bring in outside help?
Look at what recent work has achieved. Repeated calls, internal reviews and holding correspondence may indicate that the underlying decision remains undefined.
Identify the obstacle, the work needed to address it and a sensible stopping point. Consider whether focused specialist input could help, or whether urgency, conflicts or proceedings require wider referral.
Next step: Summarise the blockage, previous attempts, continuing estate costs and the outcome sought.
Related guide: Recognising when specialist input is needed →
10. Can we refer the dispute while retaining the administration and client relationship?
Often a defined issue can be separately instructed, provided your practice can properly continue its retained work. That depends on authorisation, competence, conflicts and the engagement.
Agree who instructs, pays, receives advice, communicates with the client and manages deadlines. Distinguish advice commissioned by your practice from outsourced client work and a separate direct-client referral.
Next step: Send a brief outline and any deadline before substantive documents.
Related guide: Professional instruction and referral arrangements →
Discuss a difficult estate file
Justin Patten can assess a defined blockage and recommend the next step, including work your practice can progress and any separate assistance needed.
The Professional File Review costs £1,020 including VAT. It covers one principal issue, up to 60 selected core pages, a 30-minute consultation with the responsible fee-earner and written recommendations. Further work is separately scoped and priced.
Enquire about a Professional File Review →
Alternatively, contact advice@human-law.co.uk with a brief outline and any deadline. Please await conflict and information-sharing clearance before sending substantive papers.
General guidance for England and Wales. Urgent deadlines or immediate asset risks need prompt appropriate advice; do not wait for a routine review.
By Justin Patten, Solicitor, principal of Human Law and author of The Out-of-Court Executor. Reviewed 5 November 2026.