Legal Services Director at Kings Court Trust Charlotte Toogood joins the latest Today's Wills and Probate podcast to impart her experience of working in estate administration over the last 16 years.

With contentious probate on the rise Charlotte shares her thoughts on what we can do as practitioners, and how we can better advise families to either avoid disputes, or deal with them constructively and to the benefit of all.

"There is a lot of information in the national press about estate planning; I don't agree with it all but people believe what they read and as professionals we have a responsibility to educate clients on the complexities, and realities of estate administration."

Take caveats as an example; they are so easy to place electronically and are incredibly impulsive; people simply don't realise the impact and the ensuing delays.

Asked how practitioners can pre-empt disputes Charlotte suggests we need to encourage families to have conversations in their lifetime; rather than wait when it's too late and the decision can't be explained. Clients need to be encouraged to be open about family dynamics; it is the role of the professionals to ask the right questions and encourage open communication from the outset of the relationship, says Charlotte.

She adds where disputes arise, staff can end up bearing the brunt of client frustrations and explains how as a business they have fine tuned their support for staff through line management, regular file review meeting, and the introduction of mental health first aiders at Kings Court Trust.

The podcast finishes with a case study of a complex matter in which Charlotte explains the scenario, and how, through working collaboratively as a business and with their clients and peers, they succeeded in bringing the matter to fruition .

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