You arrived at this page by selecting:Will Scams - Choosing the wrong will writer could be costly (19/11/09)
Will writing is a strange business. You need to get it right first time, because you might not get a second chance!
Solicitors usually draw up wills. They need to be properly qualified and regulated by the Law Society. But the worrying thing is that you don't need to be a solicitor to be a will writer. You don't need any qualifications at all, and you don't need to be regulated. As a result, will-writing has unfortunately become something of an occupation of choice for incompetent, dishonest and fly-by-night operators.
Will Scams
A popular scam is an unqualified will writer will offer a will for a low fee. This looks attractive to people initially but it is only the hook to draw people in. Once you agree to it an unscrupulous will writer will keep adding extra services and charges. One example I saw recently was an elderly couple who responded to an advert offering will-writing for £20, and ended up with a bill of over £1,000. Unfortunately, this is by no means unusual.
In other cases, problems arise through incompetence. Some non-solicitor will writers just have a few hours' training, and even that is not compulsory. So they get wills wrong by making silly mistakes, and of course, nobody notices until the person concerned is already dead.
One old lady, for example, wanted to exclude her son from her will. She hadn't seen him for 20 years, and when she did he stole from her. She used an unqualified will writer from an advert in the paper. But he got it wrong, the will was invalid, and the son got the money anyway. Getting the wording exactly right in your will is so important otherwise it can be left open to interpretation and the proceeds of your estate may not necessarily go to the people you would have expected. Or even worse, like the lady here, it could become invalid.
An additional problem is that while solicitors have to have professional indemnity insurance, will writers don't. In both of the above cases, without insurance, there was no protection for the client or route for recompense for that matter. There was nothing the clients could do.
Solicitors are always grappling with these issues, because we always get the mess to sort out afterwards when someone dies. The moral of the story is do not be tempted to use a cheap will company advertising in the paper. Its a false economy. Use a proper solicitor, for peace of mind and guaranteed compensation if any mistakes are made. Good solicitors do not charge the earth for a will. And remember, look out for the word solicitor. If the advert does not say 'solicitor', then it is not a solicitor. Simple.
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