STEP Diploma in Trusts and Estates (Scotland)

As the benchmark professional qualification within the trusts and estates industry, this Diploma expands your technical knowledge of the issues arising in the trusts and estates industry, equipping you with the skills you need to develop your own professional competence.

By developing your understanding of the administration of trusts and estates, this course enhances your ability to give clients practical advice on the law and procedures involved.

This programme comprises four Advanced Certificates:

• Wills and Executries: Law and Practice
• Trusts: Law and Practice 
• Taxation of Trusts and Estates
• Trust and Executry Accounting

 Completing this this course will:

• Improve your ability to give holistic advice to clients as a trusted advisor
• Enable you to demonstrate knowledge of the most up-to-date issues affecting trusts and estates
• Provide your practice with a competitive edge by employing TEP-qualified practitioners

Each Advanced Certificate takes five months to complete and is delivered through our online learning platform and face-to-face workshops (two per Advanced Certificate). The assessment for each Advanced Certificate is a three-hour, closed-book examination and we recommend that you spend four to six hours per week on private study for the four months prior to the examination.

You also have the opportunity to attend an optional Computations Day for the Taxation of Trusts and Estates course. This day focuses on computations for all taxes and features lots of practical work covering the mechanics of computation preparation along with the thought processes that are required before attempting the computation.

Once you successfully complete this course you will gain the full 120 credits at Diploma Level. 

To register for the STEP Diploma in Trusts and Estates (Scotland), applicants must first obtain 60 Entry Level credits. Guidance on how to gain these credits can be found on the STEP Qualifications and Membership Framework page.  

It is also recommended that candidates undertaking the STEP Diploma in Trusts and Estates (Scotland) have an understanding of trusts and estates and be working in the field, or be looking to move in to a position within it.

STEP strongly recommends that you attend both of the workshops in order to benefit from the face-to-face teaching of the subject matter and to discuss any technical queries or uncertainties that you may have with the course tutor. However, if you are unable to attend either of these, you are advised to email the CLT International Team to request a copy of the workshop notes made available to all delegates on the day. Please note that these are not a substitute for attendance but they do comprehensively set out the topics discussed and may assist with examination preparation.

You can register for the Computations Day for the Taxation of Trusts and Estates paper when enrolling for the course, or if you would rather enrol separately at a later date, simply complete the Computations Day Enrolment Form and return this to CLT International.

Taxation of Trusts and Estates:

We are moving to an annual rather than bi-annual cycle for the Taxation course, with the first Workshop taking place at the end of March, the second Workshop taking place at the end of April and the Computation Day at the end of May. The examination will take place early-July. The benefit of this is that the course material will be updated on an annual basis only, at a logical time (the process of updating beginning after the publication of the Finance Act) and as of 2019 the aim is that material will be finalised further in advance of the teaching days and examinations.  

The course material for the July 2018 examination sitting is currently being updated and will be available at the end of February.

An examination without the preceding teaching days will also take place in November for those who need to resit the exam or who have deferred their exam from a previous sitting. Please note that as this is a resit examination it will not be open to enrolment for new delegates. The November resit examination will be based on the same material as published earlier that year for the July sitting and we will deliver the Computation Day before the exam (subject to sufficient interest).  

Course Dates - Scotland - May 2019

Course Dates - Scotland - November 2019

The course fee is £745* (plus UK VAT) per paper. This includes:

• bespoke hard copy course manual
• access to the online learning platform containing: 
  • self-assessment material
  • distance-learning support
• attendance at two days of face-to-face tuition
• examination fees

The fee for the optional Computations Day is £150 (plus UK VAT). 

*Forthcoming Fee Alteration:

An inflationary rise of £55.00 will take effect from the May 2020 sitting (opening for enrolment 26th July 2019) increasing the fee per paper to £800.00 + UK VAT. For November ’19, all fees will remain at the above fee of £745.00 + UK VAT. 

Please note that it is mandatory to maintain your STEP subscription whilst you are studying a STEP Certificate or Diploma and you will be invoiced by STEP for your annual fees. For further details regarding membership categories, please visit www.step.org/categories

Funding for 50% of the course fee of the STEP Scotland Diploma for up to 10 employees may be available to employers under the Flexible Training Opportunities Fund.

Douglas Florence

After qualifying as a chartered accountant with (what is now) Ernst & Young, Douglas specialised in taxation from 1975. Read More

Sandy McDonald

Sandy qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Thomson McLintock (now part of KPMG) in the 1970s prior to starting his legal career with Thorntons in 1980 where he specialised in private client work. Read More

Laura McDowall

Laura McDowall, Private Client Partner, Blackadders LLP Laura is a partner in private client division of Blackadders LLP. She started at Blackadders as a trainee solicitor in 2006 and was assumed as a partner in 2013. Laura has a 1st Class Honours Degree in Scot’s Law, a Diploma in Professional Legal Practice and The STEP Diploma for Scotland (Trusts & Estates) with distinction. Laura was the winner of a STEP Excellence Award in 2010. Read More

Euan Fleming

Euan qualified as a solicitor in 2006 and is a Partner at Gilson Gray; he is also a Notary Public and a TEP. Read More

Applications for exemption from an Advanced Certificate will be considered in cases where there is a very close correlation between a previously obtained qualification and the Advanced Certificate from which exemption is sought, both in content and in level. STEP may take into consideration a significant amount of post-qualification experience when coupled with a relevant professional qualification

There will be a maximum of two possible exemptions from the four Advanced Certificates.

Each application will be considered on a case-by-case basis. There will be a greater onus on applicants to demonstrate similarity and relevance where the qualification was obtained more than three years ago.

In order to make an application, you should complete the Exemption Application Form and return it together with verification that the relevant qualification has been obtained and the syllabus for each prior qualification forming part of your application.  

If you would like further information about this qualification, why not come along to one of our Professional Development Open Evenings?

All are welcome to attend and you will have the opportunity to speak with the Course Director.

Our Professional Development Open Evenings will allow you to explore the programmes and development pathways available, whilst providing you with a platform to network with other industry practitioners, and meet members of the CLTI/STEP team.