Adviser FAQs

You will need the first name, last name, email address and phone number of the client.

Our Partner Portal is the quickest and most efficient way to send us a referral. If this is your first time sending us a referral for Estate Planning, then please contact our Sales Team first, so we can make sure you're setup properly.
Go to Partner Portal

You can check your referral's progress in real time via the Partner Portal. If there's some further information you need, then your account manager will be able to help.
Go to Partner Portal

Yes – within the Partner Portal simply select the appropriate person under the Referral Details section. If someone isn’t listed, please contact sales@kinherit.co.uk.

We aim to contact the client within 24 hours for standard referrals. For urgent medical emergencies, call 0117 302 1888 and notify the legal assistant that the referral requires escalation. We will then reach out to the client immediately to schedule an appointment.

If a case is flagged as escalated in our system, additional daily checks are performed by a senior management team member. This ensures no accidental delays, and pushes the planning through as quickly as possible. Please note, if a case is escalated, it may be assigned to an Estate Planner who has sufficient short term capacity, as it may be your usual assigned Estate Planner is on annual leave, or has no free appointment slots.

Consumer Duty applies to the regulated adviser, not to Will writing itself. But it nevertheless expects you to avoid foreseeable harm, support understanding, and evidence outcomes across the whole customer journey which includes referrals to third parties.

In practice, that means you are expected to ask on a regular basis (we suggest every year when you carry out client reviews) whether the client has a Will, if the Will has been checked during the last five years, refer to a qualified specialist when you identify a need or a gap in protection, and keep appropriate records in case you need to evidence an outcome.

Keep it simple and lawful. Note that you asked about Will status/life events, acted (e.g. referred to a qualified specialist), and retain any status confirmations from us. By law, we don’t share conversations we have with clients, even referred advised clients, or Will contents with you, but asset information can be shared via Kinvault if the client consents.

The Law Society recommends that Wills are reviewed every five years and after major life events. We’ll also prompt clients at the five-year point and confirm completion back to you.

This generally means one of six things, some personal and some practical: updates to the law or tax rules; life changes like marriage, divorce or new family members; changes to finances or income; changes to assets or property; adjustments to named trusted people like executors or guardians; and personal circumstance changes that can affect family harmony and lead to disputes later down the line.

The FCA considers you responsible for outcomes across the distribution chain. This means your obligations under the Duty do not disappear, even if you refer to a third party. Will writing isn’t a reserved legal activity in the UK, so quality varies. Referring to STEP-qualified specialists helps reduce foreseeable harm and supports the outcomes you’re expected to demonstrate.

Appropriate, privacy-safe artefacts: referral date, client consent where relevant, review completion certificate (we send advisers these any time we carry out a Will review), next review due date, Kinvault status, and a high-level note of outcomes (e.g. executors updated).

A key principle of Consumer Duty is to identify material risk and avoid foreseeable harm. LPAs (along with similar, if slightly differently termed, instruments in Scotland and Northern Ireland) are a key safeguard for clients who might lose capacity. Raising LPAs alongside investments/retirement planning helps avoid foreseeable harm and supports the client’s objectives.

Under Consumer Duty you remain responsible for outcomes across the distribution chain. The FCA’s own guidance says firms cannot delegate any part of their Duty to third parties. (In other words, you can refer to a third party but doing so doesn’t alter your ultimate responsibility for the client’s good outcomes.) You must have proportionate oversight and be able to evidence outcomes delivered via those partners.

The FCA also has clear investigation and enforcement powers. It has recently refreshed how it runs investigations, underscoring that firms should expect scrutiny and be ready to show their files.

What this means in practice:

- Ask about Will status and life events, Act with a qualified referral, and Evidence lawful confirmations (review completed, next review due, Kinvault activated). You don’t need Will contents to meet your obligations, and by law we can’t share them with you anyway.

- Vet your partner: use STEP-qualified specialists like Kinherit, keep a short due-diligence note, and retain the status updates you receive.

That way, if questions ever arise, you can show what you asked, what you did, and what happened next. This is the standard the FCA expects under the Duty.
FCA Enforcement Guide