Octopus Group’s estate planning arm acquires NewLaw private client team

Octopus Group’s estate planning arm, Octopus Legacy, has acquired NewLaw Solicitors’ private client team for an undisclosed sum.

The deal will add more than 50 lawyers and legal specialists to Octopus Legacy, moving the firm closer to handling the full range of legal tasks following a death.

Octopus Legacy’s SRA-regulated arm, Octopus Legal Services, has taken on the private client team from NewLaw.

The transaction will increase Octopus Legal Services’ live probate and estate administration caseload by 348 per cent and its headcount by around a third.

Its expansion also includes the greater use of artificial intelligence (AI) to reduce friction, using AI to handle repetitive administrative work at scale, streamline processes, and improve communication.

Octopus Legacy said this would allow it to unlock human-to-human support, shorten timelines, and provide a more joined-up experience for families.

It expected to grow its probate caseload tenfold within 12 months of completion, using its propriety platform to automate administrative tasks and free up staff.

The firm is aiming to replace a ‘disjointed system’ with one provider that is accountable from start to finish.

“When someone dies, families should not have to learn how a system works,” said Octopus Legacy founder and chief executive, Sam Grice.

“Yet at the moment they are dealing with loss, they are left calling one place, then another, trying to make sense of it. One provider should take responsibility for the whole experience, not pass people between services but own it from start to finish.

“That is where AI comes in, but not in the way people often talk about it. It takes on the admin that slows everything down, so our team can spend more time with families and every family can deal directly with a person at the point of a death.

“At Octopus Energy, we saw what happens when a service is rebuilt around the customer rather than the system. The bereavement sector is at that same moment now, where a more joined-up model can replace one that no longer works.”

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