Mitigating Probate Risk with Financial Profile Reports: Norrie Waite & Slater

Why Probate Asset Searches Are Essential for Solicitors

Norrie Waite & Slater Solicitors has been using Estatesearch’s Financial Profile Search for over four years.  Karl Taylor continues:  “When I joined as head of department in 2022, I introduced Estatesearch to the whole private client department for asset and liability searches in probate cases.  Our team of four fee earners and three administrators now use Estatesearch’s Financial Profile Search for every matter where the firm is an executor, and we also offer the option to lay executors.

“We inform lay executors about their responsibilities so they understand the challenges and how an Estatesearch Financial Profile search can help mitigate risk.  We also explain that as our world has moved online, paper trails don’t exist like they once did and as a result asset and liability searches are becoming even more important. 

Uncovering Hidden Assets Through Financial Profile Searches

“A recent probate case highlights this trend.  Our firm was a co-executor with a good friend of the deceased.  The individual who had died was a client who we had worked with when his wife had passed away about six years previously.  Always a neat and well-presented gentleman, by contrast his paperwork was more than a little chaotic.  We visited the house and struggled to find all the information we needed.  We were not dealing with the immediate family or anyone who really knew his financial circumstances, so the asset search proved to be invaluable. 

How Digital Asset Searches Can Reveal Unknown Bank Accounts

“A match enabled us to make further enquires, and out of the blue, we discovered a Santander account containing well over £80,000.  In other matters, matches have led to unknown assets, including £15,000 in an account one widow was completely unaware of, but nothing as substantial as this.  

“I’ve been working in this field for 25 years now and it continues to show how those with or without family can be surprised by the financial affairs of those closest to them.  

“There is a lovely ending to this story though.  The beneficiaries for the gentleman’s estate included the Church and its bereavement support group he had joined following the loss of his wife.  It was there he’d also met his friend who was the co-executor of the estate.  Now, some of the funds from the estate will be used help and support others suffering from the loss of a loved one. 

“A decade ago it was unlikely that an asset search would identify any account that we were not already aware of.  However, we have seen the number of matches grow over the years alongside our reliance on digital communication.  This is only set to increase in years to come.  

The Growing Importance of Digital Asset Searches in Probate

“Another example was a match for unknown gambling accounts which were discovered following a digital asset search.  Moving forward we plan to implement more digital asset searches in addition to the Financial Profile searches where appropriate, to widen coverage of the institutions contacted. 

“Often, it is not about the pounds that are found, but the peace of mind and certainty for our firm as executors, and also for lay executors that all bases have been covered. 

Mitigating Executor Risk Through Comprehensive Probate Searches

“We also use Estatesearch where necessary for car valuations, share services including valuations and transfer or sale, and placement of Section 27 Notices.  The Financial Profile Search particularly adds value for our clients and sometimes literally for estates too, while supporting due diligence for our firm.” 

For further information about Norrie Waite & Slater please see: https://www.norriewaite.co.uk/

Originally published in Today’s Wills and Probate, November 2026