News2 Sept 2026
Prospect PS joins the Institute of Legacy Management as a Corporate Partner
Prospect PS is now a Corporate Partner of the Institute of Legacy Management. What it means for legacy officers, and our first ILM webinar, on 10 September.
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Expert guidance on probate property, Court of Protection, deputyship, and estate management.
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Industry Thinking11 Aug 2026
Two valuations, a quarter of a million apart: Why the audit trail matters more than the sale price
When a probate file holds two opinions on the same property a quarter of a million pounds apart, the executor's problem is not arithmetic. It is evidence, and the standard HMRC applies is about process rather than the number.
Industry Thinking13 Jul 2026
The grant is no longer the bottleneck: What faster probate turnaround means for the property on the file
Average grant times have fallen from nearly sixteen weeks to under five. The long wait quietly covered for unprepared properties. That cover has gone.
Industry Thinking7 Jul 2026
The OPG supervision overhaul: General, Minimal, and the property duty that does not move
The OPG has recalibrated how closely it supervises deputies. General or Minimal scales the reporting and the fee. It leaves the duty to keep the protected party's property secure exactly where it was.
Industry Thinking7 Jul 2026
Vesting is ownership: The property risk a trustee in bankruptcy carries personally
A bankruptcy order does not hand the trustee a property to manage. It hands them the property. What section 306 vesting actually transfers, and the liabilities that arrive with the title.
Industry Thinking25 Jun 2026
Managing property for a protected party: What a deputyship order actually authorises on the home
The order lands and the first real decision is the protected party's home. It is also the asset where the deputy's authority is narrowest and the protected party's own wishes weigh heaviest.
Industry Thinking19 Jun 2026
Housing association stock: Where standard processes stop working
Every association carries a small amount of stock that does not fit the normal model: complicated histories, legal questions, sensitive endings. It is where the cost and the exposure concentrate, and where standard management is the wrong tool.
Industry Thinking15 Jun 2026
In-house versus franchise on sensitive instructions: Where the operational risk actually sits
The brand that wins a probate or Court of Protection instruction is not always the business that turns up at the door. Where the liability and insurance sit when delivery runs through a franchise or subcontract chain, and what to ask before you instruct.
Industry Thinking12 Jun 2026
Vacant and unsecured: The risk professional appointees are still carrying
An empty property with an unknown number of keys in circulation is not secured, whatever the insurance schedule says. What a defensible security position looks like on a professionally held vacant property, and why the key count is the place to start.
Industry Thinking10 Jun 2026
What the vacancy clock actually costs an insolvency practitioner
An empty property in an insolvency estate is not a paused asset. The running costs, the council tax asymmetry between bankruptcy and liquidation, and the value that leaks out of the file while the process runs.
Industry Thinking9 Jun 2026
When a borrower defaults: Who is actually looking after the property
When a borrower stops paying and the file moves to recovery, the house sits in a gap nobody clearly owns. The recovery process is built to manage the debt, not the building.
Industry Thinking26 May 2026
What AI changes on a property case: Where the standard has moved, and where it hasn't
AI is changing what counts as reasonable evidence on a property file. It is not changing who carries the judgement, or the liability. The difference matters for executors, deputies and the firms instructing them.
Industry Thinking25 May 2026
The deputyship application window: Where the property risk actually sits
Four to twelve months sit between a deputyship application going in and the order coming back. The property does not wait.
Industry Thinking21 May 2026
Best interests on the ground: What DoLS actually means when there's a propane bottle in the shed
A Court of Protection clearance turns up propane bottles and petrol cans at a property no storage provider will touch. 'Don't dispose of anything' is not a best interests decision when the law of hazardous waste says otherwise.
Industry Thinking20 May 2026
Empty by process: The long-term empties the enforcement toolkit was not built for
Some of the homes on a council's long-term empties list are empty because the owner will not act. Others are empty because nobody can act yet, and the enforcement toolkit has very little to say about the second kind.
Industry Thinking18 May 2026
Probate genealogy and the reputation it can't quite shake
Heir hunters, commissions, and a BBC fraud investigation. The unmanaged property side of the estate is where the image problem gets worse.
Industry Thinking14 May 2026
Pest control and probate property: The liability under the 1949 Act most executors aren't thinking about
Under the Prevention of Damage by Pests Act 1949, the person controlling a vacant property must report substantial rodent activity. For probate estates, that person is the executor.
Industry Thinking12 May 2026
Insurance, council tax, security: The three clocks running on every empty probate property
Empty probate property is the most exposed asset most executors will ever manage. The insurance, council tax and security positions, and what reasonable steps look like in 2026.
Industry Thinking11 May 2026
Reasonable steps, unreasonable risks: Contractor liability on probate property in 2026
What happens when a contractor instructed on a probate property causes damage and walks away? The legal, regulatory and insurance position for executors, deputies, and the firms instructing them.