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A groundbreaking online probate service has gone live, allowing people to handle straightforward cases themselves for £349. In the coming months it will also be sold to law firms as a white-label product. Meanwhile, the Law Society has begun investigating online legal services.

Probate and estate administration services should become reserved legal activities, the Legal Services Consumer Panel has recommended. It follows the panel’s call last year for will-writing to be regulated as well, which sparked a formal LSB investigation into the issue.

The number of solicitor applications for a grant of probate has fallen for the fourth year running, down 30% since 2006, although the drop slowed last year, indicating perhaps that greater competition in the probate market is making itself felt.

The Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) has hit back at opposition from the Lord Chief Justice and the Law Society to its application to grant rights to conduct advocacy and litigation. The Legal Services Board is currently considering the CLC’s application, and as one of its statutory consultees, the Lord Chief Justice Lord Judge has expressed his total opposition.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) is investigating how it can license accountancy firms to become alternative business structures and provide legal advice to clients, Legal Futures can reveal. The ICAEW is set first to apply for the right to regulate its members to provide reserved probate activities.