When an accountant should refer a client for probate help

Probate is the legal process of administering someone's estate after they die — proving the will, valuing the assets, settling debts and taxes, and distributing what remains. For the people left behind it is unfamiliar, emotionally heavy and procedurally demanding, often arriving at the worst possible time. And a good deal of it intersects with work you already do.

You may be the accountant for the deceased's business, or for the executor, or for a family member who now finds an estate on their hands. Final accounts need drawing up, a date-of-death valuation is required, income tax to the date of death must be settled, and questions about inheritance tax loom. You are frequently the first professional the family contacts, simply because you were already trusted with the numbers.

Not every estate needs heavy support, but many do, and you are well placed to gauge which. Watch for:

• An estate large enough to face an inheritance tax charge
• Business assets, shareholdings, or agricultural property in the estate
• Property, especially where it must be sold or transferred
• A missing, unclear, or contested will
• Executors who are elderly, overwhelmed, or living abroad
• Assets in more than one country
• Beneficiaries who are minors, or who are in dispute

Any of these turns probate from a form-filling exercise into a process where competent, regulated help materially reduces risk, delay and family friction.

You can, and often will, do the accountancy and tax elements: valuations, final returns, and the tax computations that feed into the estate. What you should not do is take on the legal administration of the estate itself — obtaining the grant, interpreting the will, handling the conveyancing, and managing the distribution — unless that is a service your firm is separately equipped and authorised to provide.

For most accountancy practices, the clean approach is to keep the tax and accounts work you are qualified for, and to introduce a vetted specialist for the estate administration. That protects the family, who get properly qualified help, and it protects you, because you are not straying into work outside your competence or authorisation.

Timing and tone matter more here than anywhere. A grieving executor does not want a sales pitch; they want relief from a burden they did not ask for. The introduction should be gentle and practical: that administering an estate involves legal steps beyond the accounts, that getting these right avoids costly errors and delay, and that you can connect them with vetted specialists who handle this compassionately and competently.

Because you already hold the relationship and the trust, your introduction carries weight the family would not extend to a cold contact. That is precisely why the vetting behind the referral matters — you are lending your reputation to whoever you point them toward, and it needs to be someone who will treat the family as you would.

Handled this way, the probate referral is one of the clearest examples of the model working as intended. The family receives capable, regulated support at a moment of need. You keep the tax and accounts work you are best placed to do. And through a documented referral arrangement, with the client's consent recorded, you receive a share of the fee for the introduction — commonly a 60-70% member share — without ever having stepped outside your role.

None of this depends on chasing the moment. Bereavement will reach your practice whether you plan for it or not. The only question is whether you have a trusted, vetted route to hand the family onward when it does. Building that route in advance means that when the call comes, your response is not improvisation but a calm, competent introduction — the thing a grieving client most needs and least expects.