The client questions solicitors hear most — and where to send each one

Conclude a matter that ends in money and the next question is always the same: what should I do with it? The personal injury client with a £250,000 settlement. The executor distributing an estate to beneficiaries who have never held more than a month's salary. The divorcing spouse with a pension sharing order she does not understand. These clients are often at their most vulnerable and their most trusting — of you, specifically, because you just fought their corner. Which is precisely why the answer cannot come from you. Investment advice is a regulated activity, and the SRA Standards and Regulations expect solicitors to act within their competence and put clients' interests first. Both duties point the same way. None of this is your question to answer. All of it is yours to route.

Legal and procedural facts remain your ground. You can explain that a pension sharing order creates a pension credit the recipient must implement, usually within a set window, and that implementing it badly is expensive. You can explain that personal injury trusts exist partly so a settlement does not wipe out means-tested benefits. You can tell an executor that estates over the £325,000 nil-rate band may face inheritance tax at 40%, and that the residence nil-rate band can add up to £175,000 more when a home passes to direct descendants. What you cannot do is recommend investments, providers or products. The distinction matters more in a law firm than anywhere, because your client will treat your passing remark as considered advice. They always do.

The Code requires referrals to serve the client's interest, not the firm's bottom line — so build the routing deliberately.

• Settlements, inheritances, pension credits — a regulated financial adviser, independence verified on the FCA Register before the first introduction, not after.
• Complex estate structuring beyond the retainer — a specialist estate planner or STEP-qualified practitioner.
• Clients not ready for advice — MoneyHelper for orientation; large sums can sit in NS&I while decisions mature.

Document who you referred, to whom, and why. Firms using SmartPeer get that trail automatically — tracked referrals with generated disclosure letters — which turns a compliance chore into a filing non-event. A solicitor who hands clients to the right adviser at the right moment finishes the matter properly. That is the standard. Meet it.