Why we never hold your money

Why we designed it this way

Lawyers' regulators in every country treat the handling of client money as the single most serious area of professional discipline — the rules on it are strict everywhere, and rightly so. The strongest protection a client can have is structural: if a firm never holds your money, an entire category of risk simply does not exist. No pooled accounts, no waiting for a lawyer to release funds, no wondering. Four generations of Carroll lawyers have seen what money sitting in the middle does to trust — so when this practice was designed for cross-border work, we made the old instinct an absolute rule, and we explain it in writing before you instruct us.

What it looks like in your matter

Our fee is fixed and paid in stages, and every payment you make to us is invoiced and receipted at that moment — you always hold a document for every euro. When a third party must be paid — a notary, a land registry, a tax office, a sworn translator — we prepare the payment for you: who, how much, by when, with the exact reference, and we confirm and file the proof once it’s made. Small administrative items — a certificate, a courier — we simply pay ourselves and re-charge at cost on your next invoice, so you’re never troubled with the little things. You keep control of your money; we do the legal work and the paperwork around it.

A fact worth knowing. In Portugal, Spain and Italy there is no collective fund that repays a client whose money is misused by a lawyer — the bar’s compulsory insurance covers professional mistakes, not dishonesty. In France, protection exists only for funds inside the official CARPA system. Our conclusion is the same everywhere: the safest client account is the one that doesn’t exist.

And the inheritance itself?

When an estate’s funds are released — a bank account, sale proceeds — they are paid by the institution holding them directly to the heirs entitled to them. Our job is to get the legal position established and documented so that the institution can safely pay you; it is never to be a stop along your money’s route.

And when your matter ends

The finish is designed the same way. When the succession completes — the property registered to you, or sold, or the accounts released — the money moves in one step: from the bank, the buyer or the notary directly to each heir’s own account. You receive our completion pack showing everything that was done and every payment made, and the file closes. There is no “waiting for the lawyer to release the funds”, because the funds were never with the lawyer. If you sell an inherited house, the sale price reaches you straight from the completion — our work is the reason it could happen safely, not a stop on the money’s journey.

The four countries, concretely

• Portugal — inheritance stamp duty and registry fees are paid by the heirs directly through the official system; banks release funds to proven heirs once the heirs are proven and the stamp-duty return filed.
• Spain — inheritance tax is each heir’s own declaration, paid directly to the tax authority (there is even a route paying it from the deceased’s own frozen account); notary and registry are paid at the act.
• Italy — succession taxes are settled from the heir’s own account through the official filing; the notary’s regulated account handles any transaction funds.
• France — the notaire is the legally appointed handler of estate funds in a French succession; money moves between the estate, the tax authority and the heirs through the notaire’s official channel.

In other words: in each country the law already provides the safe route for the money. We keep you on it.