Aileen Keegan, Chair

During 2025, the committee continued to engage on behalf of practitioners and their clients, focusing in particular on the following areas:

• Electronic probate and changes in the Probate Office,
• Tax clearance in estate cases,
• Mandatory disclosure of discretionary trusts in wills, and
• Dealing with wills to include requests for searches.

The committee continued to engage with the Courts Service and the Probate Office in relation to e-probate and other changes to probate practice, in particular the adoption by the Probate Office of the Unified Case Management System, the further amendments to precedent oaths and bonds, and the pilot programme for e-probate.

Committee members, along with their colleagues on the Taxation Committee, are continuing to engage with Revenue to resolve the ongoing difficulties faced by solicitors dealing with estate cases and gift and inheritance taxes, and highlighting these to the profession. The committee successfully opposed the proposed changes to agricultural relief under the Finance Bill 2025 and offered to provide its expertise to the Commission on Generational Renewal in Farming.

The committee continues to deal with the recent Revenue change of policy in relation to removing the exemption for discretionary trusts in wills from mandatory reporting requirements. Representatives from the committee have engaged with Revenue at TALC seeking clarification on the precise nature of this change. The committee has applied to the Director of Policy for the provision of funding for a legal opinion from senior counsel on the change of policy.

Missing wills and best practice in solicitors’ offices in relation to will searches continued to be a concern for the committee, which published a practice note in this regard in 2025. The committee is concerned in relation to the Law Society’s own practices in relation to the wills it holds and is engaging with it on this matter.