In recent years the legal services industry has seen some major changes, chiefly prompted by the emergence of new types of law firms and new pricing models. In a new report, SixthSense, the business intelligence unit of YouGov, looks into how the new legal landscape impacts consumers and how many Britons now use non-traditional sources of legal advice. The report chiefly focuses on consumer-related legal services, including Wills and Probate, personal injury and accidents, and conveyancing.

The Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) and the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEx) have confirmed their bids to become regulators of will writers, amid criticism of the recommendation by the Legal Services Board (LSB) to leave estate administration out of regulation.

Will writing activities should become subject to regulation, the Legal Services Board (LSB) said today.

Will writing is on course to becoming a reserved legal activity along with estate administration, with the planned regulation intended to enhance the quality of service and potentially limit contentious probate.

The Law Society, in principle, supported the Legal Services Board's (LSB) decision to regulate Will writing and estate administration as it would bring greater protection to customers, it said recently in response to the LSB consultation.

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

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.