Merseyside law firm Maxwell Hodge is calling for more regulation of Will writers following a continued spate of problems with poorly drafted Wills.
The firm warns that there are a many unscrupulous salesmen who offer to write their Wills but aren’t adequately qualified, trained or insured.
A report on The One Show recently addressed this issue and the risks people in the UK are facing when hiring unregulated Will Writers to handle their personal affairs. They were shown to be untrained and uninsured; therefore if something went wrong, there would be no safety net for victims to fall back on.
The BBC programme presented the story of the Hodges, Jim and Patricia, who hired a Will Writer after they had received numerous cold calls from a salesman who claimed to specialise in writing Wills. The couple were impressed by the cold caller and agreed to have him prepare Wills for both of them and exchanged a sum of £183 on the spot.
However the couple soon realised that the Wills were extremely flawed and not worth the price they had paid. They had multiple careless mistakes such as naming the wrong son as Executor, not dealing with the joint tenancy of their home and furthermore the Wills themselves weren’t even properly executed, rendering them invalid.
Jennifer Howell, a specialist in lifetime planning at Maxwell Hodge said: “We’ve seen numerous examples of malpractice by Will writers in particular, with people facing huge inheritance tax bills, or actually losing their entire inheritance because a Will hasn’t taken account of issues such as people going into care.”
She added: “With a Will writing firm you are paying for a Will service but only getting a fraction of the legal advice you should. Not only this, as they are unregulated and often have no insurance, if something goes wrong there is no mechanism for complaint and often no means of redress. Given the protection you get by making a Will with a regulated professional, the small difference in price is well worth it.”
Will writers often claim they are significantly cheaper than solicitors but recent research carried out by Which Magazine found on average the price of a Will from a Solicitor is £130 and from a Will writer is £107.
Ms Howell went on to say: “We need new regulations to help protect the consumer, particularly older and vulnerable people but until this regulation comes in, seek advice from a reputable law firm, preferably a member of Solicitors for the Elderly.”
