UK Wills, Probate & Trusts Market Report 2024

Market Growth Improves Driven by Estate Planning Services

The UK Wills, Probate & Trusts Market Report 2024 is the 11th edition of an annual research report that provides a review of the market, looking at the market structure, key issues and new developments, market size and trends with historical data, the key players, future market developments, and forecasts.

Here are some selected findings:

• In 2024, the wills, trusts and probate market has an estimated value of £2.81bn, an increase of 7% on the 2023 value. The core will writing sector is increasingly price-led and market value growth is being driven by other estate planning services, e.g. probate, powers of attorney (POA) services, funeral planning etc.
• Will ownership is skewed towards older age groups and these older adults are accounting for a greater proportion of the total population. For example, in 2024, 19.7% of the population is 65 and over but this is projected to grow to 20.7% by 2030.
• Across the UK adult population as a whole only a minority have a will but the majority of adults in these older age groups have a will. Plus demand from older individuals is also the key factor behind the stronger growth in powers of attorney (POA) advice, probate services, care plan and funeral plans.
• Probate volumes (grants of representation issued) usually follow trends in the number of deaths and deaths across the UK increased in 2023. In 2023, grants of representation issued in England and Wales increased by 2.9% to 277,745 from 269,815 in 2022. In the first half of 2024 there has been a much bigger increase in grants issues, a 28% increase on the same period in 2023, catching up with the increased deaths in 2023 plus reflecting some improvement in dealing with processing backlogs.
• Applications to register a POA have been increasing year-on-year but, in 2023, the increase in applications overshadowed growth in previous years: there was a 37.1% increase in applications with numbers jumping from 851,736 in 2022 to almost 1.2 million in 2023. In the first half of 2024 there was another significant increase in applications to register a POA, a 38.8% jump from the same period in 2023.
• The market value is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 6.2% up to 2028.