Conveyancing Direct was one of four conveyancing businesses awarded an Alternative Business Structure (ABS) licence by the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) in October. Red Legal, Advantage Property Lawyers (APL) and Runnett & Co were the other three licensed by the CLC last month. The latest entry, Vickery Conveyancing, which received ABS status on 7 November, brings the total ABS licences issued by the CLC to fourteen.

The Legal Services Board (LSB) has started a final consultation, proposing that Will writing and estate administration, along with extraction of the Grant of Probate, should be added to the list of reserved activities in the legal sector in England and Wales.

The Sun Life Direct ninth annual Total Cost of Dying Report 2012 was released last week. As well as looking at general trends in the cost of dying, this year's survey entitled “Death shouldn’t mean debt; responsibility, choice and selflessness” looked at what motivates people to plan and make decisions for their funeral.

The Legal Services Board (LSB) this month published a discussion paper outlining how it would evaluate the impact of key changes in the legal services market, such as the new business model (issuing of ABS licences), on access to justice. The organisation proposed a set of eight measures to monitor access to justice for individual consumers, making wide use of previous research and approaching areas where it has scarce information, such as the impact of technology on the legal market.

Christine Houghton, Sales and Marketing Director at Kings Court Trust, provides a summary of the ABS licences issued throughout August and shares her thoughts on the situation so far…

The Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) is an Approved Regulator for conveyancing and a Licensing Authority for probate and estate administration services.

Kings Court Trust has today become an Alternative Business Structure (ABS) licensed by the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC), who will be regulating probate and estate administration activities.

The British Bankers' Association (BBA), who recently took part in the Legal Services Board (LSB) consultation on the possibility of Will writing and estate administration becoming reserved legal activities, said that it is hard to identify which of the regulators would take charge of banks.

The Law Society has supported the introduction of mandatory regulation of Will writing, probate and estate administration activities.