Despite the ever-expanding tax and regulatory changes from governments, professionals working in the trust and estate planning industry remain confident about the outlook for their sector, new figures show.

The STEP Near Term Confidence Index, produced quarterly by the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners, remains at 11, which means this measure is unchanged for four consecutive quarters. (The index measures the outlook over the next three months).

This index was -13 at the start of 2009. Meanwhile, the STEP Longer Term Confidence Index, (a 12-month outlook), is steady at 32. A year ago, the index reading was 28, and it was 39 in the first quarter of 2010.

The indices are constructed by taking the balance of survey respondents replying that they expect business to “improve” or “significantly improve” relative to those expecting business to “decline” or “decline significantly”.