Lancashire law firm launches new probate team

The new team, which has more than 50 years’ experience in probate matters between them, will work exclusively on probate cases enabling them to help more clients than ever before, following an increase in probate work.

Donna will head the team and work alongside Garstang-based probate executive Amy Whiteside and Karen Cooper, who has been a probate clerk for more than 35 years.

The team will service clients across all six of Vincents’ Lancashire offices in Lytham, Garstang, Chorley, Penwortham and Preston.

Chris Mathews, head of the Lytham branch and the firm’s private client department, will continue to deal with complex estates and contentious cases.

Most estates go into probate following a death, with a Grant of Probate required by the beneficiaries to take ownership of assets and deal with issues such as closing bank accounts and selling property.

Disruption caused by lockdown and the advent of a new online portal by the Probate Registry has led to delays in finalisation of cases, particularly for members of the public trying to deal with Probate themselves, who are unfamiliar with the process.

Donna, who has worked in probate for over a decade, said: “The aim of our dedicated team is to help ensure a faster resolution for our clients. We are often executors for our clients’ Wills which means the wheels can be set in motion immediately.”

“The aim of our dedicated team is to help ensure a faster resolution for our clients. We are often executors for our clients’ Wills which means the wheels can be set in motion immediately.

“However, sometimes friends and family members of the deceased are appointed as the executor and we are finding them coming to us for support after having found the whole process rather complex and time consuming, or too emotionally difficult following the death of a loved one. Because this is our area of expertise, we are able to progress matters smoothly and swiftly on their behalf.

“There have also been growing delays within the system which have been frustrating, but by having a better understanding of how things work, we can take that burden from clients and handle the situation for them.”

Chris Mathews added: “Probate is an increasingly complex system for which experienced professional support is more often required.

We are committed to providing the very best service that we can for our clients and hope the advent of this new dedicated team will prove beneficial in securing a resolution more easily than by themselves.”