Your Family Deserves Much More than a Cheap Will
Your Family Deserves More Than a Just Cheap Will
**By Stephen Pett, CmpnSWW, AffSTEP, DMS — The Professional Will Writer**
Making a Will should be one of the simplest ways of protecting your family. Unfortunately, it is also one of the easiest things to get wrong. As an example, my first Will was made by a senior local lawyer, and his idea of exploring the crucial topic of Estate Planning was to ask me who I wanted to leave everything to. Plus their names and addresses. Nothing else, just a basic Will with no advice. Perfectly acceptable, you say? What would have happened if my wife or I had had a heart attack and lapsed into a coma? Simple, joint bank accounts would have been frozen; moving could require Court of Protection approval (and if my wife had no income of her own, she and the kids would have had to throw themselves on the tender mercies of charity, friends and social services).
Elsewhere I mention a poor lady this actually happened to. And imagine if it happened after exchange of contracts – no permission to move your partner or pay the cost if it is in a joint account or your partner’s (married or not.)
So Estate Planning needs to loom large in your thinking, and maybe a cheap Will may do at some point in your life, but there will be regular changes in what you ideal Estate Planning should be as your life develops, but in an ideal world it should NEVER consist of just a cheap Will.
Most people don’t know what they don’t know about Wills, inheritance, trusts or Lasting Powers of Attorney. And why should they? These aren’t subjects most of us deal with every day.
Yet a seemingly innocent mistake can have consequences worth thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands, of pounds. Worse still, the people who suffer are usually your loved ones, long after the opportunity to put things right has passed.
That is why I believe choosing a properly trained, experienced and accountable professional matters enormously.
It is also why I have been associated with the **Society of Will Writers** for more than 25 years.
Anyone Can Call Themselves a Will Writer
You may be surprised to learn that in England and Wales, Will-writing itself is not a reserved legal activity.
You do not need to be a solicitor, hold a particular qualification or belong to a professional body to prepare Wills for the public. Indeed, few solicitors specialise in Will Writing – but if they do, they are probably very good (and expensive!)
In principle, someone could take a short course, purchase Will-writing software (or just copy a Will Kit and start advertising their services).
That doesn’t automatically make them incompetent, of course. There are excellent independent Will writers, and some newcomers will go on to become very capable professionals.
Equally, being a solicitor doesn’t automatically make someone a specialist in Wills, trusts, and estate planning.
But this raises an important question.
How does the public distinguish a knowledgeable, experienced professional from somebody who simply knows how to fill in the blanks on a Will form?
And what happens if that person gets something wrong?
These are important reasons to look for membership of a recognised professional organisation.
What Is the Society of Will Writers?
The Society of Will Writers was established in 1994 as an independent, non-profit professional membership organisation.
Its purpose is to improve standards within the Will-writing profession and protect the interests of consumers.
Membership is voluntary, but members must meet professional requirements and accept responsibilities that go well beyond simply paying an annual subscription.
These include ongoing training, professional indemnity insurance, compliance with a Code of Practice and accountability through complaints and disciplinary procedures.
Let’s look at why these matter.
## 1. Proper Training and Keeping Up to Date
A Will writer’s education should never end when they complete their initial training.
Inheritance tax rules change. Court decisions can affect how Wills and trusts operate. Family arrangements become more complicated, and changes in legislation can have unexpected consequences.
Members of the Society must undertake at least **24 hours of continuing professional development each year**.
This encourages members to keep their knowledge up to date rather than relying entirely on what they learned years ago.
The Society also assesses applicants before admitting them to membership and provides access to technical support and specialist education.
In my own case, I spend considerably more than the minimum required time keeping up with developments.
I consider that essential. Clients are entitled to expect that the advice they receive reflects current law and professional practice.
## 2. Professional Indemnity Insurance
Society members are required to maintain professional indemnity insurance with cover of at least **£2 million**.
Why is that important?
Because mistakes in estate planning can be extremely expensive.
Consider a Will that accidentally excludes a beneficiary, contains an incorrectly drafted trust or fails to deal properly with an important asset.
The mistake may not become apparent until the person who made the Will has died, perhaps many years later.
By then, putting matters right may involve expensive legal proceedings.
Professional indemnity insurance provides a potential source of compensation where a valid claim arises, subject to the policy terms.
It is an important safeguard, although no insurance policy can guarantee that every problem will be resolved or every loss recovered.
## 3. A Professional Code of Practice
Members of the Society must comply with its published Code of Practice.
This covers matters such as professional competence, fair treatment of clients, appropriate advice, written terms of business, confidentiality, conflicts of interest and complaint handling.
Members must work within their competence and take appropriate action when specialist advice is required.
The Society can investigate complaints and take disciplinary action where members fail to meet its standards.
I should emphasise that Society membership is a form of voluntary professional self-regulation. It is not the same as statutory regulation by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
Nevertheless, I believe it gives the public valuable additional reassurance.
## 4. Protection if Your Will Writer Cannot Complete the Work
The Society operates a consumer guarantee intended to help clients who have paid for certain services that a member subsequently becomes unable to complete because of circumstances such as serious illness, death or insolvency.
The guarantee is subject to conditions and applies to Wills, associated services and Lasting Powers of Attorney, rather than every service a member might offer.
It is another useful reason to deal with a properly established professional organisation.
The Society also provides complaints arrangements and a route for clients to raise concerns about the conduct of members.
Of course, no professional organisation can guarantee that mistakes will never happen.
But there is considerable reassurance in knowing that standards exist, members are accountable and procedures are available when something goes wrong.
## 5. Good Advice Is About More Than Writing a Will
One of the greatest advantages of employing an experienced Will writer is not simply that somebody prepares the document.
It is that somebody asks questions you might never have thought to ask.
For example:
– Is your home owned jointly, and does the way you own it affect what your Will can achieve?
– Are your chosen executors suitable, willing and capable of carrying out the role?
– What happens if a beneficiary dies before you?
– Could remarriage result in children from an earlier relationship losing an expected inheritance?
– Does a beneficiary have disabilities or circumstances that make an outright inheritance unsuitable?
– Are there business interests, inheritance tax concerns or family disagreements that need consideration?
– Would a trust serve a genuine purpose, or simply add unnecessary expense and complication?
These questions matter.
A well-prepared Will should reflect your circumstances, your wishes and the risks your family might face.
It should not simply be a standard document with the names changed.
## What About Cheap Wills and DIY Will Kits?
There is nothing inherently wrong with making your own Will.
A properly prepared and correctly signed DIY Will can be perfectly valid.
For someone with extremely straightforward circumstances, it might even be sufficient, if only a part of what is required for prudent Estate Planning.
The difficulty is recognising when circumstances are not as straightforward as they appear.
A Will kit cannot necessarily identify a problem you haven’t told it about.
It cannot always explain the possible consequences of leaving everything to your spouse, appointing an unsuitable executor or relying on assumptions about how jointly owned property passes on death.
Nor does a completed form necessarily mean the Will has been signed and witnessed correctly.
One of the saddest features of poor estate planning is that mistakes often remain hidden until the person has died.
By then, the opportunity to ask what they intended may have disappeared forever.
**A cheap Will that does everything you need is good value. A cheap Will that creates an expensive dispute is not.**
My advice is not to choose a professional simply because they are the cheapest, or because they offer the most elaborate and expensive package.
Choose somebody who listens, understands your circumstances, explains your options and recommends what you actually need.
## A Will Protects Your Family When You Die. What Protects You While You’re Alive?
This brings me to a subject about which I feel particularly strongly.
**Lasting Powers of Attorney — LPAs.**
People sometimes devote considerable thought to what happens to their possessions when they die, while overlooking what could happen to them personally if they become seriously ill or lose the ability to make important decisions.
A Will does nothing to address that situation. It only takes effect after death.
For many people, Lasting Powers of Attorney may prove even more important than their Wills.
And I believe the way the LPA system was originally designed has contributed to an avoidable problem.
## I Raised Concerns About Lasting Powers of Attorney Before They Were Introduced
In 2006, during the consultations preceding the introduction of Lasting Powers of Attorney, I was among those consulted and raised concerns with the Office of the Public Guardian about the proposed system.
My objections concerned both the extraordinary length and complexity of the documentation and guidance, and the decision to require two separate LPAs.
I argued for **one LPA covering both financial matters and health and welfare**, with the flexibility to appoint different attorneys for each responsibility.
That final point was important.
There is no reason why the person best suited to handling your financial affairs must necessarily be the person best suited to making decisions about your care.
You might, for example, trust one of your children to manage money and investments while another has a better understanding of your personal wishes and healthcare needs.
My proposal was for one document that could accommodate both arrangements. And it didn’t need to be 20+ pages long – did you know that the pack to make Lasting Powers of Attorney is 126 pages long and includes two 20+ page LPA forms?
Lasting Powers of Attorney were introduced on 1 October 2007, but the two-document structure remained.
Interestingly, a subsequent Ministry of Justice consultation in 2012 considered introducing a combined or ‘hybrid’ LPA.
That consultation acknowledged concerns about the length of the forms and guidance. It also recognised that most people who created both types of LPA tended to appoint the same attorneys.
My concern has never been about reducing the safeguards protecting vulnerable people. Quite the opposite.
It is that unnecessary complexity discourages people from making proper arrangements and increases the risk of overlooking their welfare needs. That said, my experience enables the process to be relatively painless.
Without a Health and Welfare LPA, family members do not automatically have authority to make important decisions, however devoted or knowledgeable they may be.
Healthcare and care professionals will often make the necessary decisions under the Mental Capacity Act, consulting families where appropriate. But where disagreements cannot be resolved, the Court of Protection can become involved and remains the ultimate judicial authority on matters within its jurisdiction.
I would much rather see people make their own choices, appointing trusted individuals while they still have the capacity to do so, instead of leaving their families to navigate avoidable uncertainty.
These are my personal views, not those of the Society of Will Writers.