The role of a Probate Technician is to support the fee earning activities of a probate practitioner by working on a brief defined by the supervisor to action legal and tax procedures related to the administration of an estate.

The role is varied as no two estates are the same and given that this is helping clients often at an emotional time you must be able to demonstrate empathy and understanding. The law of probate and estate administration does overlap with many other areas of law and tax and will suit those who have a willingness to learn and develop a wider working knowledge beyond probate.

This is an entry level role into Probate, suitable for candidates of all levels of ability and experience including those new to the industry with no legal qualifications. As a Probate Technician you will deal with the affairs of a deceased person (their estate) and liaise with their representatives (executors or administrators) to administer the estate in accordance with their Will or under the Intestacy provisions (should they have not left a Will), and to support the department generally at an administrative level.

General day to day duties will include assisting with:

• estate administration work, including the collection of assets and identification of liabilities, dealing with third parties such as banks, accountants, valuers, and financial institutions to obtain date of death valuations via correspondence/telephone calls as required, applications for grants of probate and letters of administration, and the associated tax reporting and compliance; and

• the general administrative work of the department, to include onboarding new clients and the associated file opening and compliance work, scanning, notetaking, and preparing preliminary drafts of letters, emails, and other documents, dealing with enquiries and taking and relaying messages, maintaining orderly files and papers, electronic filing, as well as closing and archiving files.
You will be required to record your time while working on administrative tasks for client matters and therefore you will contribute to the fee earning activities for the firm.

Probate Technicians work in a variety of legal teams and settings recognised in the private client industry and deal with a broad range of other professional persons including accountancy, banking, tax, trust and charitable professionals in the course of administering an estate.

Training

Help and support will be provided by the Company with a training program. Successful candidates can therefore build a professional career in probate law and associated taxation work on a range of standard matters.

We will support the right candidate with training courses and qualifications from leading professional bodies such as those provided by:

• Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEX) https://www.cilex.org.uk/study/legal_practice_areas/probate/

• Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) https://www.step.org/qualifications-courses/qualifications

• Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales (ICAEW) https://careers.icaew.com

• Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT) https://www.tax.org.uk/why-work-in-tax

The training can be tailored to suit the candidate’s preferences and aspirations as the practice undertakes a wide variety of work requiring a varied skill set.

Skills and Attributes

The following is an indicative list of skills that are considered useful for the role:

• good academic record including 3 A-levels (CCC minimum) and GCSE Maths and English grades A* – C / 9 – 4 or a background in administrative/financial roles.
• good administrative skills, an eye for detail and the ability to prioritise a workload.
• good working knowledge of Microsoft Office packages e.g. Excel and Word.
• excellent command of both spoken and written English and numeracy skills.
• experienced IT user.
• ability to work as part of a team or on their own.
• well organised and able to act with discretion when dealing with confidential information.
• a good telephone manner and customer service skills.
• a positive outlook, flexibility and appetite for taking on challenges.

Benefits:

• Excellent rates of pay with annual salary reviews based on performance
• Company pension scheme
• Generous holiday package

Competitive salary and package available

Please Note: The Surrey Probate Practice will not pay agency fees where speculative and/or unsolicited CVs are submitted by any means. For any CVs which are submitted without agreement from the HR or recruitment team, then we reserve the right to contact and work directly with these candidates without payment any agency fees at all.