Report comment

Whilst not wishing to be drawn into any long and protracting debate I am not entirely sure why the Society of Will Writers (SWW) has been dragged into this matter.

For the past 21 years the Society of Will Writers (the Society of Will Writers & Estate Planning Practitioners) has been the largest and leading trade body representing the Will Writing profession.

From the early days successive Lord Chancellors have looked at the profession with a view to introducing statutory regulation, without exception their response has been better self-regulation.

The SWW has in the past three years invested heavily in better self-regulation of its members, revising the Code of Practice, especially when it comes to complaints handling, which for the record are extremely few, to establishing our own training center, our courses are recognised by the MOD through their rehabilitation schemes as genuine career opportunities and other professional bodies as part of the entry requirements or credits for further training and education qualification for which we are justly proud.

Self-regulation is through voluntary membership, and membership is taken extremely seriously, any member who is found to be short of the standards required by the SWW can and will be suspended, subject to recommendations or ultimately expelled.

We are the first to recognize that such a system is not ideal in all circumstances, but all professions including those subject to statutory regulation have their problems, as we know only too well through the pages of the Law Gazette.

One area the SWW does not enter into and has never done is spend valuable time and effort publicly trying to discredit our rivals (if we had any). What we do, however is provide as much help and security for the general public when dealing with a professional Will Writer who is or has been a member of the SWW. We guarantee that any client of a member who has paid for a service and for whatever reason the member fails to supply, the contract will be fulfilled at no additional cost to the client, subject to our terms and conditions.

As a footnote, if solicitors in particular would open their eyes and look beyond regulation, there are great opportunities to work with professional Will Writers, and there are many that do today and very successfully, expanding their services and their reputation as well as their income.

Brian W McMillan
Director General
The Society of Will Writers & Estate Planning Practitioners
A company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales in 1994 under Ref 02918900