The Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP), has released details of its recent survey of 1,700 probate lawyers and related practitioners situated across the globe. The survey sought to find out how advisers who specialise in inheritance, probate and succession planning have been affected by the COVID-19 health pandemic.

Unsurprisingly, the recent coronavirus lockdowns and restrictions have not resulted in any lessening of the workload for these professionals, with some practitioners reporting a 21% increase in work, with Wills and probate related work increasing by 24% in some areas.

The United Kingdom was similar to Australia, New Zealand, the Caribbean and continental Europe in that practitioners did not report any fall in business levels. However, some Asian countries reported significant increases in business levels.

STEP indicated that although the survey showed that probate lawyers were still busy, there were understandable levels of concern and uncertainty about how their work would continue to be affected by the pandemic.

A stressful time for all

While the experience of probate lawyers varied depending on the level of coronavirus interruption caused to the country they are located in, one thing is certain: it has been a very stressful time for practitioners and their clients alike.

For example, here in the UK, many bereaved families have experienced significant delays waiting for grants of probate to be issued as a result of the pandemic, and the social distancing measures have meant that numerous processes including Will writing and probate applications, have been affected.

Impact on the legal profession

Unfortunately, the survey found redundancies due to COVID-19 to be a consistent feature of the past few months, with 181 of the surveyed firms reporting redundancies, planned redundancies or restructuring. It is interesting to note, however, that these were generally not from Wills and probate staff but from other areas of practice. And, training was one area that has inevitably been impacted, with 40% of firms cutting back on training as a result of COVID-related restrictions.

Lastly, it is worth bearing in mind the mental health impact of the global pandemic on probate lawyers. STEP pointed out that isolation and loneliness are inevitable by-products of the move to reduce office time in favour of remote working practices.

As such, STEP says that it will be conducting a similar survey again in January 2021 in order to gain an idea of the ongoing and developing effect of COVID-19 on the work of probate practitioners. It will certainly be interesting to see if the profession is able to maintain its current level of positivity if the pandemic continues or indeed worsens.