“Be careful, lest ye face the final R.I.P. off”

Working at a law firm specialising in estate planning, I know how important it is to people that their solicitor ensures their instructions are correctly documented and carried through.

I also know that things can go terribly wrong if instructions are not carried through correctly, which is why I was horrified, but not surprised, by Monday night’s Panorama (iPlayer).

The financial sector is regulated by the Financial Services Authority. Solicitors are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Will writers are regulated by … no-one.

That’s right, if you go to an independent will writer, be careful to read the small print very carefully, especially if they are offering to act as executors once you have passed on.

Now, I don’t for a second believe that full-on regulation of the will writing industry should be adopted, as the majority of independent will writers are reputable and trustworthy, but I do believe that those offering services beyond drafting wills and Lasting Powers of Attorney (e.g. probate, tax advice, etc.) should be, because it is not the will itself that attracts the majority of hidden charges and problems.

For example, if I were to set out to be an independent will writer, I would never promise to do something that I couldn’t achieve. I would charge a fixed fee of say ?30 for a single will and ?50 for a pair of joint mirror wills, or ?75 per LPA (not including the fee charged by the Office of the Public Guardian).

I would make clear that I had no facilities to store their signed wills, but advise them to keep them in a safe place (and to inform their executor(s) where the said safe place was). I would offer no advice as to ways of avoiding inheritance tax, and would suggest that, upon death, they visit a qualified solicitor to deal with the probate (or, as I helped my father and grandmother do with my grandfather and if they felt comfortable, to deal with it themselves).

I wouldn’t offer anything else, and, if asked, would decline, and instead suggest that they visit their solicitor for professional advice. Solicitors are, after all, regulated and insured.

If an unregulated person or organisation approached me for anything more, then I wouldn’t trust them. Nor would I expect anyone else to.