Law Society warning on unregulated will writers
Unregulated will writers are causing havoc among members of the public and in some cases are failing to provide people with valid wills, the Law Society claimed today.
According to the Society, many solicitors specialising in will writing, trusts and probate have been handed invalid and badly drafted wills from unregulated will writers. The Society claimed that in some cases, will writers were appointing themselves as executors and charging for legal services that they were not trained or regulated to provide.
In some instances, will documents disappeared after will writing companies were wound up, and family members were being left out of wills against the wishes of the client. Solicitors also reported that will writers are hiding charges and giving poor tax advice.
Law Society president Robert Heslett said: ‘This is a widespread trend. We hear many stories of unregulated, uninsured will writers misleading too many people as to their supposed but absent expertise. What is most worrying is that their victims are often unaware that their will writers are not regulated, nor is there any mechanism for complaint. As the will writer is not insured, there is no means of redress if things go wrong.
‘Sadly, the feedback the Law Society has received from solicitors who are sorting out the mistakes left by will writers is just the tip of the iceberg. We also urge anyone who has used a will writer to check the accuracy and suitability of their will with a solicitor before it is too late and they leave their loved ones with unnecessary problems.’
In his recently published Law Society-commissioned review of regulation, Lord Hunt of Wirral said that a ‘fringe legal market’ in will writing, probate and claims handling was a risk to the public.
Comments
Will writing - the real issues?
As someone associated with a will writing company may I present this issue from my perspective? If I were to pay someone to cut my tall hedge with a power trimmer I would expect them to do so competently, use a proper working platform and have due regard for health and safety issues. If my car were to be professionally valeted I would expect the valeter to have a thorough knowledge of caring for the surfaces to be cleaned and correct use of the chemical cleaners. I would not however expect the hedge cutter to have a degree in horticulture or the valeter to be a time-served mechanic.
There are indeed many ’cowboys’ producing cheap wills with poor levels of competence. This needs to be dealt with and we would all accept that I am sure.
But there are also others who make a modest living producing properly executed wills with diligence and care. The latter may be STEP qualified, have substantial public liability insurance and ready access to professional legal advice for those tricky or contentious issues that will always crop up from time to time. They are offering a service that is not as cheap as the ’cowboys’ but cheaper than a solicitor. As specialists they have acquired the ability to do the job well as it is a daily practice for them, not something they are called upon to do a few times a month as is the case with some small solicitor practices. We offer a free will checking service for new clients and often find glaring errors and ambiguous clauses in existing wills drawn up by solicitors. It sometimes makes us wonder whether the practices concerned had delegated the will drafting to the office junior!
By all means ensure that the public is properly served, but not at the expense of reducing their choice and putting perfectly capable practitioners out of work. The priority should be to require that will writers should have adequate qualifications and competence levels to provide a good cost-effective product for their customers NOT to enforce a closed shop.