Will writing and estate management: why is it important to use the services of a fully qualified and regulated solicitor?
Will writing and estate management: why is it important to use the services of a fully qualified and regulated solicitor?
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Home Page > Law > National, State, Local > Will writing and estate management: why is it important to use the services of a fully qualified and regulated solicitor?
Will writing and estate management: why is it important to use the services of a fully qualified and regulated solicitor?
Posted: Feb 05, 2012 |Comments: 0
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It’s long been known within the legal profession that Will writing and estate management can be open to abuse by unqualified practitioners. What is perhaps not as well known are the extent to which consumers struggle to distinguish between these unregulated practitioners and qualified solicitors and the degree to which they have infiltrated the practice? However, The Law Society, which represents 145,000 qualified solicitors in England and Wales, commissioned research in 2010 which shows conclusively that consumers are clearly unable to distinguish between qualified and unqualified providers. Yet in spite of this confusion, there is a general consensus that most consumers (82%) would be willing to pay an additional fee to guarantee that their Wills were drafted by regulated providers who were subject to a formal complaints procedure and covered by a transparent compensation scheme.
As the law currently stands, a consumer can risk losing everything if they allow an unqualified and unregulated Will writer to have unrestricted control of their estate’s assets. Moreover, at the moment anyone in England and Wales can operate as a Will writer and sell products that are not fit for purpose. The Law Society has actively highlighted this potential risk during the estate administration process in its submission to the Legal Services Board which has called for evidence into Will writing, estate administration and probate activities. The Law Society has also been running a concurrent campaign to warn consumers of the dangers of using Will writers who are not properly qualified. It is also calling for Will writers to be regulated at the earliest opportunity to stop the exploitation of consumers.
Law Society President, John Wotton, argued that the task of identifying reputable service providers has become increasingly difficult with the advent of online Will writing services:
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“Anyone, particularly people looking to commit fraud, can create a website that looks professional and has many testimonial recommendations. There is currently no regulation or monitoring in place to ensure that administrators do not misappropriate a client’s estate assets. There are significant risks involved in allowing unqualified and unregulated Will writers to have full control of an estate’s assets. The estate administrator is responsible for important tasks which can be easily open to abuse and safeguards need to be put in place to protect the testator’s estate from unscrupulous behaviour.”
“The Law Society has been running a campaign to warn consumers of the dangers of using will writers who are not properly qualified. The Society is calling for Will writers to be regulated at the earliest opportunity to stop the exploitation of consumers. We believe that regulation of Will writing is the only appropriate means of protecting the consumer and we support the recommendation that Will writing should become a reserved activity. However, we also believe that the preparation and lodging of a power of attorney and estate administration services should also become a reserved activity to ensure consumers are adequately protected. It is vital to ensure that consumers are protected from unscrupulous Will writers whose only intention is to defraud the consumer by pressuring the consumer to name them as their attorney or executor.”
“Problems in the drafting of a will have the potential to cause the most profound repercussions for the bereaved. Regulation is the only true form of consumer protection in this area of law. Without regulation, providers have the freedom to market and deliver services without meeting any professional standards to the detriment of consumers or, very frequently, their families.”
“Our members are experiencing a large number of cases where consumers have been previously mis-sold a type of trust by a variety of service providers. The trust offered is often called an ‘Asset Protection Trust’, or ‘Life Interest Trust’, or ‘Protective Property Trust‘, but it is also referred to under various other guises. This is an increasingly difficult area. Consumers are paying thousands of pounds, which in many cases represents a significant portion of their savings, for a product that promises to protect a person’s home against possible future care home fees, but the consumer may not have received adequate advice as to its applicability, its appropriateness for their circumstances and its possible ineffectiveness for the purpose for which it was sold. There are frequently errors and mistakes which render the use of the product unfit for its purpose and potentially void.
“We are also very concerned about the lack of succession planning for unregulated Will providers who may become insolvent or close their business. At present, there is no safety net in place to protect a client’s Will and file, if an unregulated business ceases trading. By contrast, if a law firm closes down the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) can intervene and ensure the safety of all Wills and files for clients of a solicitor.
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Jason Walker
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