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Thornton Springer Probate Services Ltd - Terms of Business

Thornton Springer Probate Services Ltd – Terms of Business

Services

Issued October 2025

These Terms of Business set out the terms on which we are to act for you and should be read in conjunction with our current letter of engagement. All work is carried out under these terms except where changes are expressly agreed in writing. Our company is regulated by the ICAEW for probate purposes.

PROFESSIONAL OBLIGATIONS

We will observe and act in accordance with the bye-laws, regulations and ethical guidelines of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales together with their code of ethics. We accept instructions to act for you on this basis. In particular you give us authority to correct errors made by HM Revenue & Customs where we become aware of them. We will not be liable for any loss, damage or cost arising from our compliance with statutory or regulatory obligations. Copies of these requirements are available for you to inspect at our offices. The requirements are also available online at www.icaew.com/membershandbook.

PROFESSIONAL INDEMNITY INSURANCE

In accordance with the disclosure requirements of the Provision of Services Regulations 2009, our professional indemnity insurer is Aqueous Management Limited, 10th Floor, 5 Churchill Place, London E14 5HU. The territorial coverage is worldwide excluding professional business carried out from an office in the USA or Canada and excluding any action for a claim brought in any court in the USA or Canada.

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY – HIGH VALUE ESTATES

Where the gross value of the estate exceeds the level of our PI cover (currently £2,000,000), our total aggregate liability to you, and to any third party to whom we may owe a duty of care in connection with this matter, whether arising in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, or otherwise, shall be limited to the amount of our professional indemnity insurance cover in place at the time a claim is made in respect of the matter giving rise to that liability.

Nothing in this clause shall exclude or limit our liability for:

death or personal injury caused by our negligence;
fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation; or
any other liability which cannot lawfully be excluded or limited.

Details of our current professional indemnity insurance, including the minimum level of cover, are available on request.

INVESTMENT SERVICES

We are not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to conduct Investment Business. If you require investment business services, we will refer you to a firm authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST, INDEPENDENCE AND CONFIDENTIALITY

We reserve the right during our engagement with you to deliver services to other clients whose interests might compete with yours or are or may be adverse to yours, subject to the last paragraph in this section. We confirm that we will notify you immediately should we become aware of any conflict of interest involving us and affecting you unless we are unable to do so because of our confidentiality obligations. We have safeguards that can be implemented to protect the interests of different clients if a conflict arises. Where conflicts are identified which cannot be managed in a way that protects your interests then we regret that we will be unable to provide further services.

We confirm that where you give us confidential information, we shall at all times keep it confidential, except as required by law or as provided for in regulatory, ethical or other professional statements relevant to our engagement.

You agree that, if we act for other clients who are or who become your competitors, to comply with our duty of confidentiality, it will be sufficient for us to take such steps as we think appropriate to preserve the confidentiality of information given to us by you, both during and after this engagement. These may include taking the same or similar steps as we take in respect of the confidentiality of our own information.

In addition, if we act for other clients whose interests are or may be adverse to yours, we will manage the conflict by implementing additional safeguards to preserve confidentiality. Safeguards may include measures such as separate teams, physical separation of teams, and separate arrangements for storage of, and access to, information.

You agree that the effective implementation of such steps or safeguards as described above will provide adequate measures to avoid any real risk of confidentiality being impaired.

If we use external or cloud-based systems, we will ensure confidentiality of your information is maintained.

We reserve the right, for the purpose of promotional activity, training or other business purposes, to mention that you are a client. As stated above, we will not disclose any confidential information.

You agree that it will be sufficient compliance with our duty of confidence for us to take such steps as we in good faith think fit to preserve confidential information both during and after the termination of this engagement.

OTHER SERVICES

We will only assist with implementation of our advice if specifically instructed and agreed in writing.

The terms under which we provide our services are dealt with in a separate letter of engagement. We will also agree in a separate letter of engagement the provision of any services relating to investment business advice as defined by the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.

If during the provision of professional services to you, you need advice on investments, including insurances, we may have to refer you to someone who is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority or licensed by a Designated Professional Body, as we are not.

QUALITY CONTROL

As part of our ongoing commitment to providing a quality service, our files are periodically subject to an independent quality control review. Our reviewers are highly experienced professionals and, of course, are bound by the same requirements for confidentiality as our principals and staff.

Dealing with HM Revenue & Customs

When dealing with HMRC on your behalf we are required to be honest and to take reasonable care to ensure that your returns are correct. To enable us to do this, you are required to be honest with us and to provide us with all necessary information in a timely manner. For more information about ‘Your Charter’ for your dealings with HMRC, see www.hmrc.gov.uk/charter/index.htm. To the best of our abilities, we will ensure that HMRC meet their side of the Charter in their dealings with you.

We will take account of the steps and checks suggested by HMRC in their ‘Agent Toolkits’. While use of the Toolkits is voluntary, we will ensure that our quality control procedures match or enhance the suggestions in the Toolkits so that, in the unlikely event that HMRC consider any of your tax returns with which we assist to be inaccurate, we will be able to help you demonstrate to HMRC that reasonable care has been taken in the preparation of the return, thereby significantly reducing the possibility of an inaccuracy penalty being imposed. To further reduce the possibility of an inaccuracy penalty, you will remain responsible for maintaining good quality supporting records for each return, for providing us with all relevant information and explanations and for acting on any advice that we give you.

DATA PROTECTION

To enable us to discharge the services agreed under our engagement, and for other related purposes including updating and enhancing client records, analysis for management purposes and statutory returns, crime prevention and legal and regulatory compliance, we may obtain, use, process and disclose personal data about you/your business/company/partnership/its officers and employees and shareholders. We confirm when processing data on your behalf that we will comply with the relevant provisions of applicable data protection legislation. You will also ensure that any disclosure of personal data to us complies with such legislation. If you supply us with any personal data or confidential information you shall ensure you have full informed consent to pass it to us and will fully indemnify and hold us harmless if you do not have such consent and that causes us loss. If you are supplying us with personal data on the basis of a power of attorney for anyone, you must produce to us an original or certified power of attorney on demand.

Applicable data protection legislation places express obligations on you as a data controller where we as a data processor undertake the processing of personal data on your behalf. An example would be where we operate a payroll service for you. We therefore confirm that we will at all times use our reasonable endeavours to comply with the requirements of applicable data protection legislation when processing data on your behalf. In particular we confirm that we have adequate security measures in place and that we will aim to comply with any obligations equivalent to those placed on you as a data controller.

We will notify you within 10 working days if an individual asks for copies of their personal data, makes a complaint about the processing of personal data or serves a notice from a relevant data protection authority. You and we will consult and cooperate with each other when responding to any such request, complaint or notice. If an individual whose data you have supplied to us or which we are processing on your behalf asks us to remove or cease processing that data, we shall be entitled to do so where required by law.

We may export personal data you supply to us outside the EU/EEA/UK for the purposes of storage and data processing as we do not have control over the location where certain cloud based accounting and other systems store data. We will ensure all such data export is compliant with relevant data protection legislation. Where cloud-based services are to be used you may be subject to cloud services terms and conditions.

We will answer your reasonable enquiries to enable you to monitor compliance with this clause.

YOUR DATA PROTECTION RIGHTS

Under the applicable data protection legislation, you have explicit rights regarding your data that we hold. These rights are as follows:

The right to be informed: You have a right to be informed about the collection and use of your personal data.
The object of certain sections in this document along with all other information we provide you with, is to clearly inform you about how the personal information you provide to us will be used.

The right of access: At any point in time, you may access your data and supplementary information that is in our possession. We will endeavour to supply this data as soon as possible and within one month of the request being made. Where a request is complex or numerous we will be able to extend the period of compliance by a further two months. In such a case we will inform you of this within one month of the request being made. The data will be supplied free of charge unless a request is manifestly unfounded or excessive, particularly if it is repetitive in which case we can charge a reasonable fee.

The right to rectification: You have the right to rectify inaccurate and complete incomplete personal data held by us. A request for rectification can be made verbally or in writing.

The right to erasure: You have the right to have personal data erased. This right is not absolute and only applies in certain circumstances. These circumstances include where personal date is no longer necessary for the purpose which we originally collected it for; when we relied on consent from you for use of particular personal data which you subsequently withdraw; when we relied on legitimate interests as our basis for processing, you subsequently object to the processing and there is no overriding legitimate interest to continue that processing; where your personal data is used for direct marketing purposes and you object; we have a legal obligation to erase your personal data; or we processed your personal data to offer information society services to a child.

The right to restrict processing: You have the right to restrict processing of your data should you contest the accuracy of the data; if the data has been unlawfully processed and you oppose erasure in favour of restriction of data processing; we no longer need the data but you need us to keep it in order to establish, exercise or defend a legal claim; or where you object to your data being processed and we are considering whether our legitimate grounds override those of the individual.

The right to object: You have the right to object to your data being processed based on legitimate interests or the performance of a task in the public interest/exercising of official authority (including profiling); a right to object to direct marketing (including profiling); and processing for the purposes of scientific/historical research and statistics.

The right to data portability: You have the right to data portability only regarding data supplied by you to us; where the processing is based on your consent or for the performance of our contract with you; or where processing is carried out by automated means.

Rights relating to automotive decision making and profiling: You have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling, which produces legal effects concerning yourself or similarly significantly affects you.

LIMITATION OF THIRD PARTY RIGHTS

Persons who are not party to this agreement shall have no rights under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 to enforce any term of this agreement. This clause does not affect any right or remedy of any person which exists or is available otherwise than pursuant to that Act.

The advice we give you is for your sole use and is confidential to you and will not constitute advice for any third party to whom you may communicate it, unless we have expressly agreed in writing that a specified third party may rely on our work. We will accept no responsibility to third parties, including any group company to whom the engagement letter is not addressed, your spouse nor any family member of yours or your employer, for any aspect of our professional services or work that is made available to them.

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

We will provide our services with reasonable care and skill. Our liability to you is limited to losses, damages, costs and expenses caused by our negligence or wilful default.

However, to the fullest extent permitted by law, we will not be responsible for any losses, penalties, surcharges, interest or additional tax liabilities where you or others supply incorrect or incomplete information or fail to supply any appropriate information or where you fail to act on our advice or respond promptly to communications from us or the tax authorities. Further, we will not be liable to you for any delay or failure to perform our obligations if the delay or failure is caused by circumstances outside our reasonable control. Subject to the last paragraph in this section, our liability to you shall be limited as set out in our engagement or other client letter.

You will not hold us, our principal(s)/director(s), shareholders and staff, responsible, to the fullest extent permitted by law, for any loss suffered by you arising from any misrepresentation (intentional or unintentional) supplied to us orally or in writing in connection with this agreement. This applies equally to fraudulent acts, misrepresentation or wilful default on the part of any party to the transaction and their directors, officers, employees, agents or advisers. However, this exclusion shall not apply where such misrepresentation, withholding or concealment is or should (in carrying out the procedures which we have agreed to perform with reasonable care and skill) have been evident to us without further enquiry.

You agree that you will not bring any claim in connection with services we provide to you against any of our partners, shareholders, directors or employees personally.

We will endeavour to record all advice on important matters in writing. Advice given orally is not intended to be relied upon unless confirmed in writing. Therefore, if we provide oral advice (for example, during the course of a meeting or telephone conversation) and you wish to be able to rely on that advice, you must ask for the advice to be confirmed by us in writing.

Our work is not, unless there is a legal or regulatory requirement, to be made available to third parties without our written permission and we will accept no responsibility to third parties for any aspect of our professional services or work that is made available to them. You agree to indemnify us and our agents in respect of any claim (including any claim for negligence) arising out of any unauthorised disclosure by you or by any person for whom you are responsible of our advice and opinions, whether in writing or otherwise. This indemnity will extend to the cost of defending any such claim, including payment at our usual rates for the time that we spend in defending it and our legal fees on an indemnity basis.

Nothing in this agreement shall exclude or limit our liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence nor for fraudulent misrepresentation or other fraud which may not as a matter of applicable law be excluded or limited.

DRAFT/INTERIM WORK OR ORAL ADVICE

If any provision of our engagement letter or terms of business is held to be void for whatever reason, then that provision will be deemed not to form part of this contract, and no other provisions will be affected or impaired in any way. In the event of any conflict between these terms of business and the engagement letter or appendices, the relevant provision in the engagement letter or schedules will take precedence.

APPLICABLE LAW

These Terms of Business, in conjunction with any additional letters of engagement is governed by, and construed in accordance with English law. The Courts will have exclusive jurisdiction in relation to any claim, dispute or difference concerning these Terms of Business in conjunction with any letter of engagement and any matter arising from it. Each party irrevocably waives any right it may have to object to any action being brought in those Courts, to claim that the action has been brought in an inappropriate forum, or to claim that those Courts do not have jurisdiction.

CHANGES IN THE LAW, IN PRACTICE OR IN PUBLIC POLICY

We will not accept responsibility if you act on advice previously given by us without first confirming with us that the advice is still valid in light of any change in the law, public policy or your circumstances.

We will accept no liability for losses arising from changes in the law or the interpretation thereof, practice, or public policy that are first published after the date on which the advice is given to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law.

CHARGES AND EXPENSES

Our charges are based on the time spent dealing with your affairs. Time spent will include work on the obtaining of information to ascertain the assets and liabilities of the estate, preparation and completion of the probate application and associated returns for HM Revenue and Customs, meetings with you and others; considering, preparing and working on papers; correspondence; and making and receiving telephone calls and other communications. Please see the following section on our responsibilities which provides a more detailed list of the services covered by the fee.

Our current hourly charge-out rate is £200.00 per hour. We do not base our fees on a percentage of the value of the estate.

Where the estate is simple or deemed an excepted estate and there is no requirement to file an IHT account with HMRC, then our fees will be in the region £1500 – £1600 plus disbursements.

On a higher valued estate of more than £1,000,000 that consists of up to 10 assets, where the IHT account is required, the cost for the IHT account and probate application will be in the region of £5000-£5500 plus disbursements.

Where the estate is of a high value, consists of more than 10 assets and is more involved, the fees will be from £6500 upwards plus disbursements.

The above stated fees are a guideline, but an estimate will be provided before work commences. This will be reviewed on an ongoing basis, and you will be kept informed in any change to the original estimate.

It is our usual practice to raise a bill once probate has been granted. However, where matters are taking longer than usual to resolve, an interim bill may be raised.

The hourly charge-out rates are reviewed from time to time, normally each calendar year.

We set out below some of the other things you are likely to have to pay for and these will be paid by us in the first instance and then billed as disbarments when our invoice is raised.:

Property searches to determine ownership of property
Probate fees to obtain the grant/letter of administration
Fees for placing a notice in the Gazette
Travel – fares incurred in travelling in the course of carrying out your instructions, this would normally be, but not restricted to, travel to and from the client’s premises.
Motor expenses – mileage rate of 60p per mile for travelling in the course of carrying out your instructions. This would normally be, but not restricted to, travel to/from your premises.
Photocopying and other use of stationery in the course of carrying out your instructions.

Fees are due for payment within 30 days of the date on the fee note. We reserve the right to charge interest on overdue accounts at the current rate under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998. We also reserve the right to terminate our engagement and cease acting for you on any given written notice if payment of any fees billed is unduly delayed. We intend to exercise these rights only where it is fair and reasonable to do so.

If fees remain unpaid beyond the agreed credit period, we retain the right to stop working under your instructions and/or postpone further work until the fee has been paid and acceptable assurances are received that future bills will be paid within the agreed terms of business.

All queries on fee accounts rendered by us must be raised in writing within 21 days of the accounts being issued. Any account received by you and not queried in writing within 21 days will be deemed to be accepted as a reasonable charge for the work done.

If a personal representative or other entity is unable or unwilling to settle our fees, we reserve the right to seek payment from the executors/trustees of the estate.

Insofar as we are permitted to so by law or by professional guidelines, we reserve the right to exercise a lien over all funds, documents and records in our possession, relating to all engagements for you until all outstanding fees and disbursements are paid in full.

In some circumstances commissions or other benefits may become payable to us in respect of transactions which we arrange for you. If this happens, you will be notified in writing of the amount, the terms of payment and receipt of any such commissions or benefits. Your consent to commission or other benefits being retained by us means we are not liable to account to you for these benefits. If you do not agree to this arrangement, we will only be able to retain any benefits if you give your full and informed consent on each occasion, having received full disclosure of the amounts involved.

If it becomes necessary for us to make a report to a regulator or public sector body, as a result of any statutory duty imposed upon us by legislation or other regulation, including after our engagement has ended, we reserve the right to charge for work undertaken in accordance with these reporting duties.

If, for any reason it becomes necessary for us to withdraw from the engagement, our fees for work performed up to that date will be payable by the company.

OUR RESPONSIBILITIES

We have agreed to carry out the following services on your behalf:-

Complete an initial due diligence report to include taking identification of ALL executors named in the will unless they are predeceased or intend to renounce
send notifications of death to financial institutions, Government organisations, utilities and household contacts if instructed to do so
ascertain whether there is any entitlement to bereavement allowances or benefits
finalise the income tax and capital gains tax position of the deceased at the date of death. This work will be undertaken by Thornton Springer LLP for which a separate letter of engagement and terms of business will be issued
review the will, codicils and legacies to ensure that they are valid
ascertain who the beneficiaries are
identify the composition of the estate and ascertain whether a grant is needed
value the estate
prepare the inheritance tax return
pay the tax liabilities of the estate using form IHT423 where funds permit
prepare the application for a grant of probate/grant of administration and legal statement
obtain the grant
place statutory notices of death in the London Gazette
advise you on the gathering in the assets of the estate
finalise the estate tax and advise you on the payment of legacies
advise you on the payment of the balance to the residuary beneficiaries
prepare estate accounts if so instructed

Should the estate need to be registered, this will be dealt with by Thornton Springer LLP under a separate engagement.

HELP US TO GIVE YOU THE RIGHT SERVICE

We wish to provide a high quality service that is both efficient and effective at all times. If at any time you would like to discuss with us how our service to you could be improved, or if you are concerned with the service you are receiving, please let us know by telephoning Debbie Sutton (nee Ankrah).

RECEIPT OF THE IHT ACCOUNT & GENERAL TIMINGS

There are deadlines for the filing of the IHT paperwork and the payment of tax. The deadline for this is the end of the sixth month after the date of death. Exceptions do apply to certain types of estates. Any inheritance tax due at this point needs to be paid before the application for the grant can be made. Once HMRC have confirmed that all tax due at that stage has been paid, they release a code to allow us to make the application on line

At the time of writing, HMRC are currently taking up to 30 days to issue the code and the probate registry is taking up to 16 weeks to issue the grant/letters of administration.

RETENTION OF AND ACCESS TO RECORDS

You have a legal responsibility to retain documents and records relevant to your financial affairs. We would suggest that these are held indefinitely as they may be required on second deaths.

Although certain documents may legally belong to you, we may destroy correspondence and other papers that we store electronically or otherwise that are more than seven years old, except documents we think may be of continuing significance. Please refer to your rights under the Your Data Protection Rights section of this document.

ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION

Electronic communications are capable of non-receipt, delayed receipt, inadvertent misdirection or interception by third parties and therefore, we do not accept any responsibility of changes made to such communications after their despatch. It may therefore be inappropriate to rely on advice contained in an e-mail without obtaining written confirmation of it. As electronic communication is not totally secure, we do not accept responsibility for any errors or problems that may arise through the use of internet communication and all risks connected with sending commercially sensitive information relating to your company are borne by you. If you do not agree to accept this risk, you should notify us in writing that e-mail is not an acceptable means of communication, and we will communicate by paper mail, other than where electronic submission is mandatory.

It is the responsibility of the recipient to carry out a virus check on any attachments received. However, we do use virus-scanning software to reduce the risk of viruses and similar damaging items being transmitted through e-mails or electronic storage devices.

Any communication by us with you, sent through the United Kingdom postal system, is deemed to arrive at your postal address two working days after the day that the document was sent.

CLIENT IDENTIFICATION

In common with other professional services firms, we are required by the Proceeds to Crime Act 2002 and the Money Laundering Regulations 2017 to:

Maintain identification procedures for clients, beneficial owners of clients, and persons purporting to act on behalf of clients;
Maintain records of identification evidence and the work undertaken for the client; and
Report, in accordance with the relevant legislation and regulations.

We have a statutory obligation under the above legislation to report to the National Crime Agency (NCA) any reasonable knowledge or suspicion of money laundering. Any such report must be made in the strictest confidence. In fulfilment of our legal obligations, neither the firm’s principals nor staff may enter into any correspondence or discussions with you regarding such matters.

If we are not able to obtain satisfactory evidence of your identity and where applicable that of the beneficial owners, we will not be able to proceed with the engagement.

CLIENT’S MONEY REGULATIONS

We will not at any time hold money on your behalf.

STAFF

Our staff are assigned to you on the mutual understanding that neither party will offer employment to, nor employ, the staff of the other who have been involved during the assignment, or dealing with you, within 12 months unless written consent has been obtained from either party. If such consent is given either party reserves the right to bill an appropriate fee of 25% of annual salary on appointment plus VAT.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS AND USE OF OUR NAME

We will retain all intellectual property rights in any document prepared by us during the course of carrying out the engagement except where the law specifically states otherwise. You may only use such rights to the extent we agreed when engaged to provide services to you and may not resell or sublicense such rights without our further prior consent.

You are not permitted to use our name in any statement or document that you may issue unless our prior written consent has been obtained. The only exception to this restriction would be statements or documents that in accordance with applicable law are to be made public.

TERMINATION OF AGREEMENT

Each of us may terminate this agreement by giving not less than 21 days’ notice in writing to the other party except where you fail to cooperate with us or we have reason to believe that you have provided us or HMRC with misleading information, in which case we may terminate this agreement immediately. Termination will be without prejudice to any rights that may have accrued to either of us prior to termination.

In the event of termination of this contract, we will endeavour to agree with you the arrangements for the completion of work in progress at that time, unless we are required for legal or regulatory reasons to cease work immediately. In that event, we shall not be required to carry out further work and shall not be responsible or liable for any consequences arising from termination.

DISENGAGEMENT

Should we resign or be requested to resign we will normally issue a disengagement letter to ensure that our respective responsibilities are clear. This will also assist in ensuring an efficient handover between professional advisers. Should we have no contact with you for a period of one year or more we may issue to your last known address a disengagement letter and hence cease to act.

INTERPRETATION

COMPLAINTS RESOLUTION

If you are unhappy with the service you are receiving, please let us as soon as any matter arises.

We will consider carefully any complaint you may make about our probate or estate administration work as soon as we receive it and do all we can to resolve it. We will acknowledge your letter within 5 business days of its receipt and endeavour to deal with it within eight weeks. No charge will be made for this investigation. If we do not deal with your complaint in this time, or if you are unhappy with our response, you may of course take up the matter with the Legal Ombudsman (LO).

The Legal Ombudsman’s ability to deal with your complaint is dependent on the following factors;

A) you must refer the complaint to the Legal Ombudsman no later than:
* six years from the act/omission; or
* three years from when you should reasonably have known there was cause for complaint; and

B) you must refer the complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of the date of our written response.

Contact details for the Legal Ombudsman
T: 0300 555 0333
E: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ

PROBATE COMPENSATION SCHEME

In the unlikely event that we cannot meet our liabilities to you, you may be able to seek a grant from ICAEW’s Probate Compensation Scheme. Generally, applications for a grant must be made to ICAEW within 12 months of the time you became aware, or reasonably ought to have become aware, of the loss. Further information about the scheme and the circumstances in which grants may be made is available on ICAEW’s website :- www.icaew.com/probate.

CLOSURE OF THE PRACTICE

If the firm has only one authorised individual and, for whatever reason, is unable to run the practice, we have made arrangements with Amphlett Lissimore for the continuation of probate work for our clients.